2003-04 Natural Building Team
Wall Construction
Morning Yoga
Brick Manufacturing
Build a COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTRE
for the Buddha Smiles' MODEL VILLAGE PROGRAMME at Nelvoy Thoppu village in
Vellore District in Tamil Nadu, INDIA
2004-05
Natural Building & Permaculture Team
30th
December 2005 to 28th January 2006
Location:
Nelvoy Thoppu Village, Vellore
District, Tamil Nadu (3 hours distance from Chennai)
Hosted by BUDDHA
SMILES
The
International Camp
BUDDHA
SMILES will be hosting the third natural building workshop for four weeks
beginning on 30th December 2005 until 28th January 2006. This four week
international camp will be hosted at the Nelvoy Thoppu Village near
Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Southern India.
This natural building camp will be led
by Jon Jandai & Peggy Reents (Pun
Pun, Thailand) and Suku Das (India). They will be joined by natural
builders, architects, peace and social activists, teachers, university
students, and the local community members. During this period we will work
with the local builders from India committed to alternatives, natural
builders from Thailand, volunteers and skilled exponents from the West. We
have learnt from our experience that there is a tremendous potential for
natural building in India given the socio-cultual and climatic reasons. In
a way the experience of being engaged in natural building itself is a
revival of this great tradition of building in this part of the world.
BUDDHA SMILES provides an appropriate
environment for sharing the spirit of togetherness. The building theme
(Community Resource Centre) is also of great interest to appreciate and
reflect the genuine conditions and needs of Community Resource Centre in a
village earmarked as poor educational and human resource base as revealed
by the survey conducted by Buddha Smiles. It is a challenge to undertake
this project in a village which does not have a school yet and also faced
with a huge migration of young and able people in search of livelihood in
urban areas. This social project is supported by the WHITE LOTUS
Charitable Trust. The building of this Community Resource Centre will
facilitate the functioning and continuation of the project aimed at rural
education and holistic development.
Meeting
Introduction
to Permaculture course
Complementing the natural building
course will be an "Introduction to Permaculture" course
consisting of daily lectures, hands-on activities and a field trip. This
course will be led by Rico Zook and Josho Somine from the Lama
Foundation in the USA.
Permaculture is a design system to
create regenerative, sustainable systems. Permaculture was created through
the synthesis of many design systems, with the emphasis on nature as the
penultimate one. Similarly, the insights and value of traditional and
indigenous practices and knowledge are acknowledged along with the
necessity of molding these with our current understandings and the
appropriate technologies of today's world. What Permaculture seeks to do
is to create three-dimensional designs that are site specific and
sustainable.
Through this course participants will
learn how systems can be designed holistically using Permaculture
principles. It will complement the natural building activities and further
help to promote the holisitc development of the community.
settingup
mini garden during the permaculture course – a training to the
participants
Hands-on Techniques
Learn, share and celebrate the joy of
working through hands-on building practice, demonstrations and classes in
the following:
Adobe, Cob, natural
finishes(earthen and manual plasters), sculptural relief, bamboo work,
thatch roof, straw roof, foundation work, arch, window and door frame
installation, mixing techniques, model making, appropriate tropical design
etc.
Other
Activities
