Natural building is a method of construction based in using minimally processed, natural materials that are available locally. Most people associate clay, sand, straw, bamboo, stone and wood with natural materials. The techniques for most natural building methods reflect the materials themselves, in that they are essentially simple, low-tech and ecologically sustainable, depending on design. Natural building employs a sense of the human scale and isn’t dependent on expensive, energy intensive and high tech equipment to build with. Natural building materials are low toxic, low tech and local, which make them a great tool for teaching communities the synthesis of building principles in sustainability and social empowerment.

Communities have been using local materials to create shelter with since human communities began forming. Here in the Cascadia bioregion the indigenous peoples built their shelters from the local timbers. 200 years of negligent timber harvesting has rendered this resource better valued as a healing forest ecosystem. Now we must examine other materials to construct our ever growing human habitat. The urban and natural landscapes are full of useable materials. There are many untapped local resources right in Portland that can be used to exemplify the principles of ecological sustainability. The Rebuilding Center is a great resource for urban natural building as it is redistributing local and reclaimed materials that are construction ready and highly compatible with previously constructed buildings. The essence of natural building lay in its inherent emphasis on environmental preservation and social sustainability.

Natural building is something we have been doing since the need for shelter arose. Many cultures have a grand history of using the local materials to construct their shelters and temples. Good examples of buildings that have been made of natural materials and have withstood that tests of time are: the Great Wall of China, the 14 story earthen buildings of Yemen, the 100 year old straw bale houses of Nebraska, the cob buildings of England, Taos pueblo in New Mexico and the list goes on. When looking at what the majority of people live in, over 1/3 of the inhabitants of the earth live in earthen buildings. It is only relatively recently that we have industrialized our building process.

There is no perfect material for all building needs. Each building relates to its inhabitants and its place and the materials chosen for the construction ought to reflect those needs. The industrialized methods of construction do not reflect the needs of the end-user. They are reflections of the economic engines that drive the industry. Materials are measured in profit and economic short term efficiency not health of assembler, installer or end-user (until there is a law suite), or environmental impact of the product, of long term costs of its manufacture. These are all factors we are becoming increasingly aware of as individuals, as contractors, as homebuilders, homeowners, as families and as communities.