About Hybrid ADOBE
Shell-shaped sink made from Hybrid Adobe.
Hybrid Adobe is a cutting-edge material with many applications including building, landscaping, sculpture, and insulation. Volunteers and workers in community are building low-cost, energy-efficient homes out of this material you can make on site. The components include recyclable and reusable materials (including newspapers and waste paper), water, plant fibers, clay and a binder. The method is simple. You create a paper pulp in a mixer (similar to a large kitchen blender), blend in earth and perhaps cement (as a strengthening and bonding agent), plant fibers (including herbs such as medicinal sage or eucalyptus) and even natural color tint. Then you pour the adobe into forms to dry. The Hybrid Adobe dries in two days to a week. Hybrid Adobe can also be used to create sculptures, garden walls, and furniture. It cuts easily with a saw once it is dry.
Since Hybrid Adobe is so easy, cheap and insulative (a 12" wall is estimated at R24-R33 depending on the blend), it is perfect as a do-it-yourself material for home builders or communities working together to complete a series of buildings. A person working alone could build a small dome in under a month. Hybrid Adobe panels can also be applied to the interior or exterior of existing structures. This gives the building a new aesthetic and improves structural strength while increasing its insulation value, reducing the energy needlessly wasted on heating and cooling.
To attend a workshop or seminar, please contact us in advance. Partial scholarships based on need are available for kids, school groups, students, and elders. We don't like to turn anyone away from learning about this important material. Many thanks go out to the wonderful volunteers and partners who have participated in our workshop projects.
Another reason the building method is appealing is that the materials are so light-weight and the procedure so simple that elders, children, under-served, and even homeless people can learn to build Hybrid Adobe shelters. Part of my intention in offering these seminars is to spread this simple low-tech method to people who are normally prohibited either financially or physically from building or buying their own house. When possible, we travel to developing areas to educate local people who lack homes or live in sub-standard housing, This will empower elders and women to create their own beautiful housing.
Hybrid Adobe Consulting
Get Expert Advice for Your Project
To fund our community/humanitarian efforts we offer Consultations, Private Trainings and Presentations.
Philip Mirkin is available over the telephone, via email, or on-location.
Consulting projects include advice on strategy, mixes, production of material, building design, and project management. Projects can either be billed hourly, on-retainer, or via a fixed contract clearly defining the project's parameters.
We can partner on workshops organized at your building site and spread Hybrid Adobe knowledge and experience around and within your local community. Workshop hosts receive a lot of enthusiastic labor at our sold-out programs.
Please contact Philip directly to arrange a consultation.
To fund our community/humanitarian efforts we offer Consultations, Private Trainings and Presentations.
Philip Mirkin is available over the telephone, via email, or on-location.
Consulting projects include advice on strategy, mixes, production of material, building design, and project management. Projects can either be billed hourly, on-retainer, or via a fixed contract clearly defining the project's parameters.
We can partner on workshops organized at your building site and spread Hybrid Adobe knowledge and experience around and within your local community. Workshop hosts receive a lot of enthusiastic labor at our sold-out programs.
Please contact Philip directly to arrange a consultation.
News and Press
Sustainable Building workshop, Earth Day, April 19 at UCSC
This Earth Day please join Philip Mirkin for the first HYBRID ADOBE WORKSHOP in two years, to be held Saturday, April 19th on the campus of UCSC. You will learn to build inexpensive sustainable housing at this fun, one-day, hands-on workshop. We will construct a small building and/or sculptural bench, and more. Please join us! Read more in the press release which contains the vital information. Please download this flyer that can also be printed and distributed. Please forward this announcement to friends, colleagues, organizations, the media and/or list-serves.
Posted: April 4, 2014
The Hybrid Adobe Handbook released
The first general release edition of The Hybrid Adobe Handbook is now available. Co-authored by Philip Mirkin and Hazlitt Krog, this 52 page illustrated book explains everything the first-time Hybrid Adobe experimenter needs to know to get started with this revolutionary building material.
Posted: May 6, 2004
Puerto Rico Workshop
The workshop in Puerto Rico was our largest workshop so far. Over 50 people came including three university professors and six architects. Several building projects using Hybrid Adobe are now underway in Puerto Rico. Architects recieved five AIA continuing education credits for participation and completion of the workshop. The cover photo of The Hybrid Adobe Handbook shows one of the completed projects, a Hybrid Adobe stairway that replaced a slippery mud path down a hillside leading to the building site.
Posted: March 1, 2003
This Earth Day please join Philip Mirkin for the first HYBRID ADOBE WORKSHOP in two years, to be held Saturday, April 19th on the campus of UCSC. You will learn to build inexpensive sustainable housing at this fun, one-day, hands-on workshop. We will construct a small building and/or sculptural bench, and more. Please join us! Read more in the press release which contains the vital information. Please download this flyer that can also be printed and distributed. Please forward this announcement to friends, colleagues, organizations, the media and/or list-serves.
Posted: April 4, 2014
The Hybrid Adobe Handbook released
The first general release edition of The Hybrid Adobe Handbook is now available. Co-authored by Philip Mirkin and Hazlitt Krog, this 52 page illustrated book explains everything the first-time Hybrid Adobe experimenter needs to know to get started with this revolutionary building material.
Posted: May 6, 2004
Puerto Rico Workshop
The workshop in Puerto Rico was our largest workshop so far. Over 50 people came including three university professors and six architects. Several building projects using Hybrid Adobe are now underway in Puerto Rico. Architects recieved five AIA continuing education credits for participation and completion of the workshop. The cover photo of The Hybrid Adobe Handbook shows one of the completed projects, a Hybrid Adobe stairway that replaced a slippery mud path down a hillside leading to the building site.
Posted: March 1, 2003