Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
Critics—notably professional contractors—have scoffed that it's impossible to
teach a novice to build a house in two or three weeks. But Heartwood, and the other
schools listed below, have proved them wrong. “America is based on pilgrims com-
ing over here and knocking together log cabins,” says Patrice Hennin, founder of the
Shelter Institute. “Everyone, deep down in his heart, knows he can build a house.
It's not as if we're sending rockets to the moon here; we're just building houses.”
Arcosanti.
This experimental town in the high desert of Arizona offers workshops
in building throughout the year that focus on eliminating urban sprawl and lessening
our impact on Mother Earth. A one-week workshop, including meals and dorm-
or apartment-style accommodations, is $475 and includes seminars explaining the
concept of “arcology” (architecture with an eye toward ecology), tours around the
alternative urban site, and a silt-casting workshop. Collective work projects and in-
depth studies of the departments at Arcosanti begin in the second week and cost an
extra $250. Actual hands-on intensive work takes place in the final two weeks of
the four-week workshop, which runs $1,125.
Arcosanti, HC74, Box 4136, Mayer,
AZ 86333, 928-632-7135, www.arcosanti.org.
Shelter Institute.
Near Bath, Maine, students learn to design, build, plumb, wire,
and finish their own homes. A five-day timber-framing class costs $775 per person
or $1,250 for a couple, and the two-week, all-inclusive design-and-build class runs
$1,225, or $1,800 per couple.
Shelter Institute, 873 Route 1, Woolwich, ME 04579,
207-442-7938, www.shelterinstitute.com.
