Since its founding as a straw bale-centric, affordable housing nonprofit in the early 2000’s, the Community Rebuilds (CR) model has been centered around its volunteer workforce. People from all over the country, and even across the globe, travel to Moab, UT to learn about alternative construction in an alternative environment, creating a rich network of alumni over the years. I spoke with several of my fellow volunteers here at CR to learn more about how they have embarked on their natural building journeys and what they hope to do and learn next.
My interviewees are:
Rachel Zable, 26, Seattle Washington. B.S., M.S. civil engineering, Builder BEE.
Nick Baker, 33, South Coast U.K. B.S., M.S. civil engineering, Design/Build Apprentice
Chandler Horton, 24, Southern California, B.S., civil engineering, Build Apprentice
Jared VanDerzee, 23, New Jersey, B.S. architecture, Design/Build Apprentice
What got you interested in natural building?
Rachel: I was generally interested in sustainable methods for building and embodied carbon. The seed for my interest in natural materials was planted when I audited a class in college during my Master’s at University of Washington on natural and traditional materials. I got intrigued by straw bale and read Design of Straw Bale Buildings by Bruce King. Also, when I was working at a structural engineering firm, I looked up one of the architects we were working with and found that he had built his own straw bale home, which was pretty inspiring. [In 2023], I was doing a work trade in Calaveras County, CA. They were thinking of building a straw bale home. One of my hosts was talking about how he had gone to a workshop on straw bale and I got to look at some details on plans. I was learning about homesteading during the work trade and the idea of getting straw bales right from the Central Valley seemed really wholesome. Afterwards, I was working with New Buildings Institute in the Bay Area and was researching natural materials, learning about straw and bamboo and things, and got introduced to some really awesome people. I was invited by my boss to listen in on a conversation with Massey Burke, and then I reached out afterwards and we got coffee. She invited me to this gathering in Berkeley with Bruce King and some folks from Africa who were working on an earthen floor company. There was just this really wholesome camaraderie there. It was kind of infectious. At one point I walked by David [Arkin] and he was like, “Do you want to come plaster on Saturday?” I showed up and got to help plaster their straw bale house, which was really cool. It was all really serendipitous, all those connections really happened in a week in February (2024). That led to me researching natural building jobs. In general, my interest in natural building has kind of been an extension of just wanting to understand how buildings work. It’s been a goal of mine for a while to design and build my own house. I think it’d be really cool if it was cob or straw bale. Nick: My interest in natural building goes back to when I was 12 or 13, watching this program called Grand Designs. They would follow ambitious self builds in the U.K. The one that really caught my attention was this guy who built his own home in the woods using trees from the woods and straw bale walls. The whole process seemed friendly and approachable. After I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering, I was working in a structural engineering office. I realized quickly that there wasn’t any space for sustainability there, but I was lucky to go on a tour of some natural buildings on a professional development thing. I saw a cob house, a straw bale house, and a place where they were building timber frames with old joinery techniques, and thought, this is the sort of construction I want to be involved with. N O 7 6 37 I studied a Masters in Civil and Architectural Engineering in Stockholm and graduated in 2017. Then I worked at an architecture office for six years doing building performance analysis for things like minimum daylight, pedestrian wind comfort, [and] embodied carbon estimation. Initially I was very happy working there, I was learning a lot and it was a technical challenge. As the years went by, I slowly realized I wanted to get out of there. I wasn’t super interested and I didn’t feel like [I] had a big impact on anything. I liked the idea of building a home I would want to live in, and developing skills that would be valued by my friends and family. I can’t really offer them an energy simulation. I wanted to build. Chandler: I studied engineering and environmental science. I was trying to figure out what to do with those two things: I did some research in stormwater, coastal restoration, environmental analysis, and a little bit of archaeological stuff, too. Ultimately, all of that directed me towards natural building. Green building was the first thing I came upon. That brought me to LEED and Passivehaus and the higher tech solutions. I think I found out about hempcrete at some point in there, and that might have been a bridge to more natural stuff. I had heard loosely about Earthships, and I didn’t know much about straw bale until I looked into CR. I was slowly picking up on little things, adding to my mental inventory of methods of natural building. I liked how it was tailored to different places, their 38 geography and climate. It seemed like a really cool way to combine the social aspects of sustainability with the engineering and environmental science aspects, and to honor the roots of building traditions while also embracing modern technology. Jared: I had inklings about earthbag and rammed earth, but natural building was never really taught to me in terms of having a place in architecture and the history of building. We just jumped into brick and wood, then steel. I grew up in the Northeast and most of the examples I’d seen of earthbag or rammed earth had been in desert climates or elsewhere around the world. I was an intern at a small architectural firm and we were trying to use Passivehaus principles and passive design. That was sort of my gateway into natural building: how you can orient a building in a way that crafts the interior environment, with the light and air and movement and all the flows of energy around the structure. That really interested me and I was like, what if we could take that to the next step?
Why did you decide to come to Community Rebuilds?
Rachel: Community Rebuilds was the first thing that came up when I did a Google search for natural building jobs. The Builder BEES program sounded really cool, so I applied. I thought that it would be really valuable to meet other people and work together—even if I didn’t get anything out of this program except for some decently close friends, that would have been a win. I also felt like if I could get some skills under my belt, to [be] able to be more independent as a home builder and designer at some point down the line, that would be really valuable. I knew after interviewing it wouldn’t really be that much natural building, but I was still interested in the conventional building side of it and was hoping to come away with some solid skills. Nick: I started listening to this podcast, Building Sustainability by Jeffrey Hart, in 2022. I went back to the very first episode, where he talks about his background, how he came to the U.S. for Community Rebuilds, and how that kick started his career. So, I sent them an email. I did a little bit of research for other opportunities. I looked on workshare websites like Workaway, and I found out about Hartwyn, where they would do some teaching. But they had stopped doing that. I didn’t have any other options, really: I had my heart set on coming here. Chandler: I don’t remember exactly, but my research in how to get started in natural building led me to CR because it’s one of the few places that you don’t have to pay to get an initial education in those areas. I also wanted more hands-on experience, which I hadn’t really had. I had no real idea of how a house is built. I thought I should, with the civil engineering education, but I realized that the classes I took just did not prepare me at all for that. Personally, I have had second thoughts about always wanting to be making new stuff. Building something new isn’t always the best. I feel like planning and retrofitting, focusing on quality is important too. But I still have an urge to make stuff and be capable of things. That’s what also drew me to Community Rebuilds: learning how to be able to build and have that tangible result. Jared: Before and after I graduated [from University of Pittsburg with a B.S. in Architecture] I spent a few months going through a conventional job search. I was interested in Design/Build, and I wanted to get some more hands-on construction experience. I started looking at AmeriCorps jobs because it felt kind of like a cheat code into the job market, geared towards young professionals, and because it was a way to give back. I found Community Rebuilds and a few other AmeriCorps jobs that were design related. The natural building that was woven into the Community Rebuilds program was a major plus.
Can you highlight some things you’ve learned so far at Community Rebuilds?
Nick: I’ve learned a lot. But it’s been sort of patchy. We don’t really get to experience every step of the construction process. There’s a lot of subcontracting and we were working on eight homes, all at different stages, so you don’t get the continuous experience. It’s also been interrupted by my two days a week in the office, [e.g.] I missed the erecting of the trusses. For the straw bale walls I was there for the whole process, but it’s just one wall, so you’re not getting the complete “how to build a straw bale house” experience. Chandler: I think the main takeaways have been learning how to operate tools and feel more comfortable with them, how to work in a construction environment, and how to communicate while working. Not necessarily multitasking but being able to explain ideas while doing stuff and have everything moving smoothly. Also, seeing how a house comes together has been really valuable. Obviously, also learning about plasters and straw bale has been cool, but I feel like that’s kind of minor in comparison to the more general stuff. Jared: Right when I started, an accidental mishap ended up being a good learning opportunity. There was a delay with the subcontracted framers on one of the houses. That house was so behind schedule that we decided to frame it ourselves from the foundation. So we spent last August building N O 7 6 that frame. That was the first couple of weeks that I was at CR. I learned a lot—it was a really good introduction. It’s also been a big learning experience about time management, advocating for yourself, and learning to have room to make mistakes while still having responsibility. It’s a little bit hectic to juggle site responsibilities and office responsibilities. I sometimes feel like I’m being pulled to different directions. Communication is a big one, too. How to not stand over someone as they’re doing a task and let them breathe a little bit, asking for clarification, how to not get frustrated, to not take things personally when there are mistakes… Working with the homeowners was an occasionally fraught experience when they were stressed out and feeling like maybe our priorities were not aligned with what their house needed at the time. It was hard because there was a lot of frenzied energy last build and uncertainty about the timeline. Working 39 at CR has taught me a lot about how to mediate between different personalities, how to stand up for my own needs and also be flexible and willing to work with other styles. CR has been good about scheduling workshops on natural building. I think the most valuable thing that CR has now, even though it’s moving away from natural building for this past couple of years, has been the network of people that it’s accumulated from being a natural building organization. You have a lot of people with natural building knowledge who are willing to volunteer their time to come back and teach. The pace that CR is working at right now makes me skeptical that it’ll be a full natural building organization again, but I could see a return to a full straw bale house at some point. It’s been a mix, and I’m glad I learned some conventional construction too. CR is a good gateway to learning to be on a construction site. There is a certain type of person that you imagine in the trades, and that can be hard to break into. Probably the most valuable part of my experience has been the friendships I’ve made. Community Rebuilds attracts a lot of people who are interested in different things, living unconventionally, and sustainability—people who are adaptive, flexible, stubborn but willing to learn. Living on campus, it’s nice to be so close to so many people my age. It feels like college, round two, or summer camp, sometimes. That’s a good aspect, even when the work gets uninspiring.
What are some things you want in your future learning experiences?
Nick: I’m looking to do something similar, like a design/build role, so that I could gain more experience. At the end of the day, I want to be able to build a house from start to finish. There are so many gaps in my knowledge right now, it’s hard to list them all. Electric and plumbing come to mind. I would like to get a couple of full builds under my belt. I think the number one barrier to getting that depth of education is the cost. But hopefully I’m at a stage now where I have enough experience to actually get a job and learn through the job. I would love to stay in the US. But I don’t know if that’s going to be possible. If anyone has any ideas for how I can remain in the US, if anyone would like to sponsor my visa, or marry me… Jared: Working closely with someone from the start to design their perfect home using natural methods, and then working on the foundation to finish build with them would probably be the ideal opportunity for me, for a residential project. [Architecture] grad school is in the cards, still. I’d wanted to go to grad school the year after this apprenticeship, but I decided to probably delay that for another year. Rachel: I’m looking for somewhere I can get some solid skills, whether it’s just by figuring out stuff out on my own or working under someone who has a lot of knowledge to share. Natural building or conventional building. Straw bale and anything wood are my main interests. I’m also looking for something longer term. One thing I’m looking for is where there is a true need for help. [For example,] is there someone out there who really wants a straw bale shed but they don’t know how to do it, or doesn’t want to pay for [the labor]? I would love to get in touch with anyone like that. And if some contractor out there that’s building straw bale would train an apprentice, I would definitely be interested in that, too. Also, it seems like a lot of the institutions teaching natural building are shutting down. I would have loved to go to the Endeavor Center. Having that kind of education seems super, super valuable. I hope that there are practitioners out there that are going to be willing to teach the younger generations about all this stuff. Chandler: I’m interested in doing more design work at CR. Then I think I want to get my master’s degree in something like architectural engineering or structural engineering, or something more ambiguous and exploratory. I get torn between having a hard engineering or science degree and something vaguer where you maybe have more freedom but learning less technical skills. But I think going somewhere where I could do a project that involves natural building and finding a mentor would be hard in a traditional academic setting. I do think there’s options out there, but it’s certainly not abundant. Ultimately, I’m still figuring out where my place is within natural building and what route I want to take in the long term.
