Ongoing Training Programs
Community workshop learning days, hosted by the Holistic Veterans group, are held up at the NEST. The NEST is 30-acres of sacred, hilly wonderland, filled with redwood forests and meadows; NEST stands for Nature Education Sustainability and Technology. The NEST awaits us to fully explore its wisdom while continuing to steward its beauty.
Regular Volunteers, casual help, new interns and donations are welcome.
Children are welcome, and women are encouraged, as this is a safe, fun, easygoing and peaceful natural environment to learn about building, sustainability, and building community.
Regular Volunteers, casual help, new interns and donations are welcome.
Children are welcome, and women are encouraged, as this is a safe, fun, easygoing and peaceful natural environment to learn about building, sustainability, and building community.
These Hybrid Adobe stairs were built for this Rudolf Steiner Kindergarten in Waiheke, New Zealand as a donation project
Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook:
@Hybrid_Adobe_International
Call or email:
415-577-4958
PhilipMirkin@hotmail.com
Find our Partner at:
www.HolisticVeterans.org
@Hybrid_Adobe_International
Call or email:
415-577-4958
PhilipMirkin@hotmail.com
Find our Partner at:
www.HolisticVeterans.org
Ongoing Volunteer and Internship Opportunities
Volunteer to learn, or join our current Team of Interns. We have put together a small team of fun, kind, hardworking Veterans and civilians to help guide volunteers and train our new interns as we create artistic projects and prototype buildings for Veterans and Homeless Mothers.
Our Hybrid Adobe team offers a chance to learn low-cost sustainable landscaping and building. Learn to build your own simple structures including outdoor stairs and Tiny Houses.
Locally we will teach building and landscaping skills, sculptural and mosaic skills, how to build pizza ovens, outdoor stairs and much more.
Volunteer to learn, or join our current Team of Interns. We have put together a small team of fun, kind, hardworking Veterans and civilians to help guide volunteers and train our new interns as we create artistic projects and prototype buildings for Veterans and Homeless Mothers.
Our Hybrid Adobe team offers a chance to learn low-cost sustainable landscaping and building. Learn to build your own simple structures including outdoor stairs and Tiny Houses.
Locally we will teach building and landscaping skills, sculptural and mosaic skills, how to build pizza ovens, outdoor stairs and much more.
What's Been Said About Hybrid Adobe:
Best Bets (Mary De Danan, Marin County Weekly, Feb. 10, 2002)
"It's more fun than making mud pies. It can create charming houses and garden structures. It can be sculpted into wild art. It recycles. It's quick and low-labor, easy enough for clutzy, a mature builders (that's me). It's Hybrid Adobe. Simple, elegant, and dirt cheap. Hybrid Adobe and its brother, papercrete, are on the cutting edge of green building techniques. If you've ever dreamed of your own cob or strawbale palace, you must check this out first."
Best Bets (Mary De Danan, Marin County Weekly, Feb. 10, 2002)
"It's more fun than making mud pies. It can create charming houses and garden structures. It can be sculpted into wild art. It recycles. It's quick and low-labor, easy enough for clutzy, a mature builders (that's me). It's Hybrid Adobe. Simple, elegant, and dirt cheap. Hybrid Adobe and its brother, papercrete, are on the cutting edge of green building techniques. If you've ever dreamed of your own cob or strawbale palace, you must check this out first."
Ongoing internship program
January - March
Santa Cruz, CA
Led by Philip Mirkin, Instructor of Sustainable Sculptural Building, Founder of Hybrid Adobe International and UC Founder of Navajo Project in Sustainability.
For more information: email philipmirkin@hotmail.com, and see www.easyadobe.org or call 415-577-4958.
January - March
Santa Cruz, CA
Led by Philip Mirkin, Instructor of Sustainable Sculptural Building, Founder of Hybrid Adobe International and UC Founder of Navajo Project in Sustainability.
For more information: email philipmirkin@hotmail.com, and see www.easyadobe.org or call 415-577-4958.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS
Learn the many applications of Hybrid Adobe and similar materials for home building, remodeling, landscaping, and sculpture. The focus of the first few workshops is on learning how to create stairs and erosion control as well as build Tiny Houses, granny cottages etc. Hybrid Adobe also insulates, beautifies, and makes existing structures fire-resistant, while reducing energy costs.
Easy and fun to make and learn, Hybrid Adobe is for everyone interested in natural building, earthen, cob, straw-bale or adobe buildings. Or for people who want to use an alternative to expensive concrete and wooden buildings.
This strong, creative, low-cost, natural material can be made at home with local materials. (A 14 X 20 ft. bathhouse cost less than $800 to construct and it withstood two hurricanes. Locally, a round community bathhouse was built similarly by volunteers).
Learn the many applications of Hybrid Adobe and similar materials for home building, remodeling, landscaping, and sculpture. The focus of the first few workshops is on learning how to create stairs and erosion control as well as build Tiny Houses, granny cottages etc. Hybrid Adobe also insulates, beautifies, and makes existing structures fire-resistant, while reducing energy costs.
Easy and fun to make and learn, Hybrid Adobe is for everyone interested in natural building, earthen, cob, straw-bale or adobe buildings. Or for people who want to use an alternative to expensive concrete and wooden buildings.
This strong, creative, low-cost, natural material can be made at home with local materials. (A 14 X 20 ft. bathhouse cost less than $800 to construct and it withstood two hurricanes. Locally, a round community bathhouse was built similarly by volunteers).
This Hybrid Adobe Pumice Bathhouse is hurricane-resistant. Fiji Organic Village, Fiji
These workshops can be taken singly or together. Seminar attendee, and former Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly, sees "great promise" in this alternative to concrete, wood, and other construction methods. Hybrid Adobe has been engineer approved in New Zealand for general building purposes.
Hybrid Adobe can be used for dozens of applications that include: outdoor stairs, soundproofing, footpaths, erosion control and much more. Participants will learn to build their own insulated structures, as well as unique landscaping elements like sculptural raised beds, and curving stairs.
Proceeds from the workshop support free programs for the homeless, as well as rebuilding efforts in Fiji following Hurricane Winston. Past project volunteers helped complete a Native medicine clinic and remodel buildings for traditional Navajo elders. The program is led by Philip Mirkin, Hybrid Adobe designer, and author of "The Hybrid Adobe Handbook" (6th printing) and co-Founder of Fiji Organic Village.
Two Scholarships are offered as well as several work exchanges (apply early to qualify) and internships. Workshops support homeless mothers and Veterans, empowering them to create affordable natural shelters. Homeless mothers, children and Veterans are also welcome to join at no cost (apply early).
Workshops fill up. Early registration highly suggested. The Hybrid Adobe Handbook can be ordered for $20 by contacting Philip Mirkin directly, or save the shipping costs by purchasing a signed copy at the workshop.
Hybrid Adobe can be used for dozens of applications that include: outdoor stairs, soundproofing, footpaths, erosion control and much more. Participants will learn to build their own insulated structures, as well as unique landscaping elements like sculptural raised beds, and curving stairs.
Proceeds from the workshop support free programs for the homeless, as well as rebuilding efforts in Fiji following Hurricane Winston. Past project volunteers helped complete a Native medicine clinic and remodel buildings for traditional Navajo elders. The program is led by Philip Mirkin, Hybrid Adobe designer, and author of "The Hybrid Adobe Handbook" (6th printing) and co-Founder of Fiji Organic Village.
Two Scholarships are offered as well as several work exchanges (apply early to qualify) and internships. Workshops support homeless mothers and Veterans, empowering them to create affordable natural shelters. Homeless mothers, children and Veterans are also welcome to join at no cost (apply early).
Workshops fill up. Early registration highly suggested. The Hybrid Adobe Handbook can be ordered for $20 by contacting Philip Mirkin directly, or save the shipping costs by purchasing a signed copy at the workshop.
Join us for future workshops
1 and 2-day Hands-on Workshops
New 2017 Program for Veterans:
Holistic Veterans' 14-day intensive: "Woodland NEST Immersion - A Lifestyle Resurrection" is becoming available to selected Veterans to spread the reach of Holistic Veterans around the country. This will include a 9-day Natural Building Intensive program. Veterans, please contact us to apply.
1 and 2-day Hands-on Workshops
New 2017 Program for Veterans:
Holistic Veterans' 14-day intensive: "Woodland NEST Immersion - A Lifestyle Resurrection" is becoming available to selected Veterans to spread the reach of Holistic Veterans around the country. This will include a 9-day Natural Building Intensive program. Veterans, please contact us to apply.
Recent Programs:
August, 2016 NEST Workshop in the Redwoods
22 people came to our last Hybrid Adobe workshop, mostly Veterans, at the NEST. A good time was had by all with fantastic, healthy food by Craig Lane and Lale, plus Paul Damon's music around the campfire after a lovely circle in the Teepee. This wonderful weekend was the first sustainable building/vocational rehab offering for Holistic Veterans. Several more successful Veterans who want to support our work then joined our team, including members of the Tech Shop in San Jose.
Hybrid Adobe built a stunning Community Bathhouse in 2015
As part of our program "Free Housing for Homeless Veterans and Homeless Mothers", we hosted three workshops in Santa Cruz, CA. Over 60 people helped sculpt this beautiful building as a resource for travelers volunteering in Santa Cruz. It re-used thousands of pounds of paper, hundreds of bottles, and over a dozen milk crates, plus on-site Earth. Many homeless mothers and a few Veterans joined us plus international travelers and Santa Cruz locals. That successful program brought us to our partnership with Holistic Veterans and the Mill Road Community.
UC Santa Cruz
In 2014 Philip Mirkin taught Sustainable Sculptural Building at the Program in Contemporary Agroecology (PICA) at UCSC. Students built a sculptural structure, that resembles a huge boulder, as a shady place to rest in the College 8 Garden, as well as several benches in other gardens at PICA. In the Summer of 2014 Philip Mirkin led the Navajo Project in Sustainability, an internship program at UCSC. There we built a bathhouse for the traditional Sundancers of the Navajo and Lakota Nations at the 900-acre sacred Sundance Grounds outside of Pinon, Arizona. We provided free training to Native Americans and Veterans there.
August, 2016 NEST Workshop in the Redwoods
22 people came to our last Hybrid Adobe workshop, mostly Veterans, at the NEST. A good time was had by all with fantastic, healthy food by Craig Lane and Lale, plus Paul Damon's music around the campfire after a lovely circle in the Teepee. This wonderful weekend was the first sustainable building/vocational rehab offering for Holistic Veterans. Several more successful Veterans who want to support our work then joined our team, including members of the Tech Shop in San Jose.
Hybrid Adobe built a stunning Community Bathhouse in 2015
As part of our program "Free Housing for Homeless Veterans and Homeless Mothers", we hosted three workshops in Santa Cruz, CA. Over 60 people helped sculpt this beautiful building as a resource for travelers volunteering in Santa Cruz. It re-used thousands of pounds of paper, hundreds of bottles, and over a dozen milk crates, plus on-site Earth. Many homeless mothers and a few Veterans joined us plus international travelers and Santa Cruz locals. That successful program brought us to our partnership with Holistic Veterans and the Mill Road Community.
UC Santa Cruz
In 2014 Philip Mirkin taught Sustainable Sculptural Building at the Program in Contemporary Agroecology (PICA) at UCSC. Students built a sculptural structure, that resembles a huge boulder, as a shady place to rest in the College 8 Garden, as well as several benches in other gardens at PICA. In the Summer of 2014 Philip Mirkin led the Navajo Project in Sustainability, an internship program at UCSC. There we built a bathhouse for the traditional Sundancers of the Navajo and Lakota Nations at the 900-acre sacred Sundance Grounds outside of Pinon, Arizona. We provided free training to Native Americans and Veterans there.
March 21, 2016: A new workshop series teaching Hybrid Adobe Tiny House building, landscaping and sculpture techniques begins in late April in Santa Cruz at a wonderful community garden in Happy Valley.
March 14, 2016: We will be offering free Sustainable Building Education in Fiji by teaching Hurricane-Resistant housing as they rebuild after Super Cyclone Winston. Communities Magazine will be publishing a feature article about the Ecovillage we built on the Blue Lagoon and our Fiji relief efforts. We welcome your support.
January 28, 2016: More than 60 wonderful people volunteered to help craft this gorgeous Hybrid Adobe bathhouse for a tiny house community. Join us in Santa Cruz, California in late February/early March to finish it off with mosaics and sculptures.
January 26, 2016: Our efforts to help low-income people brought us to San Miguel de Allende. Here we are repairing a roof leak and teaching a local family how to do it sustainably.
November 11, Veteran's Day 2015 In honor of our Veterans we announced on Twitter new free programs for our homeless Veterans. @philipmirkin
October 28, 2015: Santa Cruz community bath house complete - Final plastering in progress.
October 9th, 2015: Philip Mirkin delivers workshop on building an eco village from the ground up at the West Coast Communities Conference.
All Workshops Benefit Homeless Mothers, Children, and Veterans
The Santa Cruz Sentinel published an editorial announcing our upcoming workshops.
Click above to take a look.
Click above to take a look.
KSMS TV UNIVISION did a feature story on Hybrid Adobe and Philip Mirkin appearing on the 6pm evening news, Jan. 10, 2015. Check it out by clicking the photo below.
Philip being interviewed by Bianca Beltran, reporter for KSMS Salinas-Monterey
May workshop fun building the Hybrid Adobe tiny bathhouse with Yvonne, Ayelet, Susanne, and Martina at our workshop site in Santa Cruz.
March 20, 2015
Homelessness ends when everyone has a home. Philip Mirkin and his Hybrid Adobe team offer scholarships to each workshop in this series of two independent Saturday hands-on workshops. These workshops are open to all and support the training of homeless women and Veterans to teach and empower other homeless people to build their own simple, sustainable shelters.
What: Tiny House Building Workshops using Sustainable Materials help Homeless Mothers and Veterans
Where: near Downtown Santa Cruz, (3 mins. from Hwy 17 and Hwy 1)
When: Last Saturday of the month: July 25th and August 15th 10 am -- 4:30 pm.
Why: To empower attendees to be able to build their own small structures and empower others to learn sustainable materials and methods.
Who: Led by Philip Mirkin, Instructor of Sustainable Sculptural Building and UC Founder of Navajo Project in Sustainability.
Low-Cost: Sliding Scale is $45-125 depending on income/assets. Active Students: $25 per day. Scholarships and work trade available--Please inquire directly.
$20 off for early registration. 20% further discount for attending both remaining Saturdays.
Learn the many different applications of Hybrid Adobe and similar materials for home building, remodeling, landscaping, sculpture, etc. The focus is on learning how to build Tiny Houses, garden sheds, granny cottages etc. with Hybrid Adobe. Hybrid Adobe also insulates, beautifies and makes existing structures fire-resistant, and reduces energy costs as it's highly insulating. Easy and fun to make and learn, Hybrid Adobe is for everyone interested in natural building, earthen, cob, straw-bale or adobe buildings. This strong, creative, low-cost, natural material can be made at home from waste paper, natural fibers, earth, etc. One 14 X 20 ft. bathhouse in Fiji cost less than $800 to construct and withstood two hurricanes.
This series of workshops and seminars can be taken singly or together. On Wednesdays, one-hour seminars (by donation) will introduce the ins and outs of this revolutionary building material. Seminar attendee, and former Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly, sees "great promise" in this alternative to concrete, wood, and other expensive construction methods. Hybrid Adobe has been engineer approved in New Zealand for general building purposes.
Hybrid Adobe can be used for dozens of applications besides building structures that include: outdoor stairs, soundproofing, footpaths, fountains erosion control and much more. Saturday participants will learn to build their own insulated structures, as well as unique landscaping elements like sculptural raised beds, outdoor stairs, and more.
Proceeds from the workshop support ongoing free Saturday programs for Homeless Veterans and Mothers. Additional proceeds may go to help complete buildings on the Navajo Indian Reservation begun by UCSC students and volunteers as part of the Navajo Project in Sustainability. Past Projects volunteers helped complete a Native medicine clinic and remodel buildings with Hybrid Adobe for traditional Navajo elders. The program is led by Philip Mirkin, Hybrid Adobe designer, founder and author of "The Hybrid Adobe Handbook" (6th printing) and co-Founder of Fiji Organic Village.
Scholarships are offered for two more Sustainable Building workshops that teach Tiny House Building with Hybrid Adobe. Workshops support homeless mothers and Veterans, empowering them to create natural shelters in the Bay Area while subsidizing their new vocation. Ongoing programs help homeless Mothers teach others how to create a simple, healthy home. Homeless mothers, children and Veterans are also welcome to join at no cost.
Workshops fill up. Early registration highly suggested. ($20 discount for early registration for non-students). Work exchange also available by request. The Hybrid Adobe Handbook can be ordered for $20 by contacting Philip Mirkin directly, or save the shipping costs by purchasing a signed copy at the workshop.
What: Tiny House Building Workshops using Sustainable Materials help Homeless Mothers and Veterans
Where: near Downtown Santa Cruz, (3 mins. from Hwy 17 and Hwy 1)
When: Last Saturday of the month: July 25th and August 15th 10 am -- 4:30 pm.
Why: To empower attendees to be able to build their own small structures and empower others to learn sustainable materials and methods.
Who: Led by Philip Mirkin, Instructor of Sustainable Sculptural Building and UC Founder of Navajo Project in Sustainability.
Low-Cost: Sliding Scale is $45-125 depending on income/assets. Active Students: $25 per day. Scholarships and work trade available--Please inquire directly.
$20 off for early registration. 20% further discount for attending both remaining Saturdays.
Learn the many different applications of Hybrid Adobe and similar materials for home building, remodeling, landscaping, sculpture, etc. The focus is on learning how to build Tiny Houses, garden sheds, granny cottages etc. with Hybrid Adobe. Hybrid Adobe also insulates, beautifies and makes existing structures fire-resistant, and reduces energy costs as it's highly insulating. Easy and fun to make and learn, Hybrid Adobe is for everyone interested in natural building, earthen, cob, straw-bale or adobe buildings. This strong, creative, low-cost, natural material can be made at home from waste paper, natural fibers, earth, etc. One 14 X 20 ft. bathhouse in Fiji cost less than $800 to construct and withstood two hurricanes.
This series of workshops and seminars can be taken singly or together. On Wednesdays, one-hour seminars (by donation) will introduce the ins and outs of this revolutionary building material. Seminar attendee, and former Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly, sees "great promise" in this alternative to concrete, wood, and other expensive construction methods. Hybrid Adobe has been engineer approved in New Zealand for general building purposes.
Hybrid Adobe can be used for dozens of applications besides building structures that include: outdoor stairs, soundproofing, footpaths, fountains erosion control and much more. Saturday participants will learn to build their own insulated structures, as well as unique landscaping elements like sculptural raised beds, outdoor stairs, and more.
Proceeds from the workshop support ongoing free Saturday programs for Homeless Veterans and Mothers. Additional proceeds may go to help complete buildings on the Navajo Indian Reservation begun by UCSC students and volunteers as part of the Navajo Project in Sustainability. Past Projects volunteers helped complete a Native medicine clinic and remodel buildings with Hybrid Adobe for traditional Navajo elders. The program is led by Philip Mirkin, Hybrid Adobe designer, founder and author of "The Hybrid Adobe Handbook" (6th printing) and co-Founder of Fiji Organic Village.
Scholarships are offered for two more Sustainable Building workshops that teach Tiny House Building with Hybrid Adobe. Workshops support homeless mothers and Veterans, empowering them to create natural shelters in the Bay Area while subsidizing their new vocation. Ongoing programs help homeless Mothers teach others how to create a simple, healthy home. Homeless mothers, children and Veterans are also welcome to join at no cost.
Workshops fill up. Early registration highly suggested. ($20 discount for early registration for non-students). Work exchange also available by request. The Hybrid Adobe Handbook can be ordered for $20 by contacting Philip Mirkin directly, or save the shipping costs by purchasing a signed copy at the workshop.
