Mud Talks

In our twenty-eighth Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Anthony Dente, Lisa Morey and Rachel Tove-White deliver their podium presentation "The Challenges of Keeping Earthen Construction Low Carbon" at the Earth USA 2024 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download the accompanying PDF research paper here.Anthony Dente is a licensed engineer across the US and CEO at Verdant Structural Engineers and Verdant Building Products, which produces straw SIPs developed with EPA support. He’s the vice president of the Cob Research Institute and was the lead engineer for the Cob and Hemp-Lime IRC appendices. He leads the earthen masonry structural committee in TMS and authored Essential Cob Construction with New Society Publishers. Please visit www.verdantstructural.com for more information.Lisa Morey, is owner and founder of Nova Terra Inc (formerly Colorado Earth LLC), a company that designs, manufactures, and builds with earthen masonry. Committed to the advancement of earth building, Nova Terra is exploring new additives to reduce the embodied carbon of compressed earth blocks while creating energy-efficient and durable walls. Please visit www.novaterrausa.com for more information.Earth USA 2024 was the 12th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our twenty-sixth Mud Talks podcast, we speak to Paul Mallory about his owner builder adobe experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Paul has gone through all phases of owner builder support at Adobe in Action - he has taken all 8 of our online courses, participated in our remote owner builder support program and also served as a repeat volunteer for our biennial earthbuilding conference Earth USA. Listen as Paul walks you through his personal owner builder adobe journey.

In our twenty-fourth Mud Talks podcast, we speak to future adobe owner builders Jaimus & Kim about the steps they have taken to get their property ready for an upcoming off-grid adobe home build in Eastern Arizona.

In our twenty-second Mud Talks podcast, we speak to Dan Krause about his owner builder adobe experience in the Taos, New Mexico area. Dan has participated in all 8 of our online courses at Adobe in Action and also gave a podium presentation about his project at Earth USA 2022. You can download his full paper about the project here. Dan recently became a board member at Adobe in Action. Listen as he walks you through his personal owner builder adobe journey.

In our twentieth Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Lola Ben-Alon deliver her podium presentation "Pedagogical and Research Frameworks for Earth Architecture" at the Earth USA 2022 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download her accompanying PDF research paper here.Lola Ben-Alon is an Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP, where she directs the Natural Materials Lab and the Building Tech curriculum. She specializes in socially and environmentally sustainable building materials, construction practices, and engineering-architecture collaborations. Her current work focuses on natural earth- and bio-based building materials, their manual and digital fabrication, life cycle, supply chains, and policy. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate the embodied and operational impacts of low-carbon assemblies such as cob, rammed earth, and light straw clay. Earth USA 2022 was the 11th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our eighteenth Mud Talks podcast, we listen to architect Ben Loescher and professional engineer Anthony Dente deliver their podium presentation "Legal Adobe in California - A Pathway for Building Permits" at the Earth USA 2022 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download their accompanying PDF research paper here.Earth USA 2022 was the 11th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our sixteenth Mud Talks podcast, we speak to Jim Hallock of Earth Block International / Native Earth Block. Jim left traditional construction methods nearly 30 years ago for a life devoted to building with a healthy, sustainable, and superior product - Earth - and has since become the Western Hemisphere’s preeminent expert in Earth Block creation and construction. Due to the chemical sensitivity of his wife, Nora, Jim left California for rural Colorado in search of a non-toxic building material. After attending multiple seminars and presentations on various “green” systems, he found the answer right beneath his feet, leased a machine from New Mexico, and built what he now refers to as Earth Block One: his first of hundreds. The rest is a long and dirty history, spanning eight states and nine countries. Join us for this episode as Jim gives us an in-depth overview of his personal preferences when designing and building homes with CEBs.

With Mud Talks 15-7 we continue a special eight-part miniseries dedicated to the topic of preserving earthen architecture. In this seventh episode of the series we speak to Angela Francis, Cornerstones Community Partnerships Project Manager. We speak about traditional plasters & plaster/surface conservation.Resources & Further Reading:Adobe Conservation - A Preservation Handbook pp. 127 to 148, 155 to 158by Cornerstones Community Partnerships (Author), Francisco Uviña Contreras (Illustrator)Publisher: Sunstone Press (August 15, 2006)ISBN-13: 978-0865345270https://www.cstones.org/booksClay Culture: Plasters, Paints & Preservationby Carole CrewsPublisher: Gourmet Adobe Press (8 Sept. 2010)ISBN-13: 978-0984222902https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8421842-clay-cultureThe Mud Talks Preserving Earthen Architecture series is brought to you in collaboration with Cornerstones Community Partnerships and is made possible by the support of the US Department of the Interior, National Park Service and a National Center for Preservation Technology & Training grant.