Natural Building School - An educational initiative of Spreeplan Architects
The Natural Building School, as part of the Spreeplan Projekt UG educational initiative, uses “learning through experience” in seminars and workshops to impart specialist knowledge on the subject of healthy, ecological building and renovation. The educational offer is aimed at adult professionals and laypeople as well as explicitly at children and young people. The events are held either in public educational institutions or in our own seminar center in Räbel (Saxony-Anhalt).
National
Germany
Berlin / Brandenburg
Sachsen-Anhalt
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Naturbauschule ( Natural Building School) Type of organisation: Private education initiative of an architecture firm First name of representative: Manuela Last name of representative: Mathäs Gender: Female Nationality: Germany Function: workshop teacher, project leader and senior architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Reichsstraße 108 Town: Berlin Postal code: 14052 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 177 3282085 E-mail:mm@spreeplan.de Website:https://naturbauschule.de/
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URL:https://www.facebook.com/spreeplan.de Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): Facebook, #spreeplan #architecture office, #gesundesbauen #ökologischbauen #natürlichbauen #baukultur #lebensqualität #nachhaltigbauen #nachhaltigleben #wiederverwendbar #ressourcenschonen #energieeffizienz #co2neutral #zukunftsfähig
The Natural Building School is part of the educational initiative of Spreeplan Projekt UG. In seminars and workshops, we have been imparting expert knowledge on the subject of healthy living ecological construction and renovation for over 20 years.
The educational offer of the natural building school addresses itself both to adults - specialized public (architects, engineers, students, craftsmen) and laymen (owners, teachers, educators, municipalities) and to children and young people. The knowledge transfer is adapted to the respective target groups.
The seminars / workshops are offered and carried out either directly in the respective educational institutions or at our own seminar center in Räbel (Saxony-Anhalt). The offer reaches from day seminars, over multi-level project days, up to projects integrated into the kindergarten year / school year. In all offers abstract knowledge about ecological building on all levels is linked by practice with concrete experiences. Independent of existing experiences, we train self-awareness in the areas of comfort, health, aesthetics and promote planning and design. From this follows building and design possibilities for which we provide practical assistance.
The holistic orientation in the sense of building biology is the most important principle of our trainings, because our built environment has a direct influence on our well-being and health, in addition to the consumption of materials and resources.
In the coming years, we are also planning to expand our existing seminar center in Räbel in Saxony-Anhalt. Here, further buildings in ecological construction are to be built, which will be available to future seminar participants as training rooms and accommodation. integrated artists' and craftsmen's studios will also give other trades the opportunity to teach their skills in a practical way.
Healthy living ecological building
Education through practical experience
Holistic awareness raising
ESD (Education for Sustainable Development)
Transformational Education
In our teaching, we address current topics related to sustainable development (e.g., reduction of energy demand, alternative water systems, gray water use, summer heat protection, ecological material choices as alternatives to conventional building materials).
What we actively do for sustainability:
- We cooperate with organic food stores that provide food for our events, we maintain, use, and care for our own structures such as herb gardens, orchards, water and compost toilet systems, use alternative forms of irrigation (wind water pumps, constructed wetlands), and use renewable energy.
- The events are largely paperless, and almost all teaching materials can be reused or returned to the natural cycle.
- In educational programs with children and young people, specially developed environmental games and experiments from everyday life in the field of building biology are used to present sometimes quite complex topics, such as the use of natural building materials, saving energy in the home, avoiding noise and pollutants, or dealing with cell phones and radiation in a child-friendly and exciting way.
- In all workshops, work is done with leftover building materials, demolition materials and / or locally available materials.
- Training and seminars for students, trainees, planners, engineers, craftsmen, users of all kinds with instruction in natural building materials and planning methodology.
- Replacement of conventional building materials with natural building materials.
- In our events we use the energy from photovoltaic systems, solar thermal, biomass and wood gasification stoves. Our sanitary facilities use rainwater harvesting, grey water cycles, constructed wetlands and composting toilets.
We are already training teachers from other educational institutions on the above-mentioned topics in advanced training courses, thus contributing to the transferability of the concept.
Design and aesthetics of our architecture for the seminar rooms:
Our existing seminar center in Räbel was designed according to the very teaching content that we also pass on to the participants. Thus, it is possible to practically experience the advantages of an ecological building.
Here, all rooms have natural surfaces such as clay and lime plasters, clay or lime paints, solid wood flooring or natural stone tiles. Heat is generated via solar thermal with a wood pellet heating system or photovoltaics. The buildings have exclusively radiant heating systems as surface-integrated systems in walls or ceilings. Here, the participants can virtually test live and practically experience the knowledge they have learned.
In the future, we would like to expand our seminar center with additional training buildings and studios as well as accommodations.
Here, too, all materials are to be chosen in an equally ecological and aesthetically pleasing manner. Furthermore, the workshop participants will be able to experience the possibilities for the construction of sustainable buildings as a whole by means of various construction methods.
When participants of the workshops learn such designed buildings, they get a new sense of space and a much more concrete relation to the topic that is being taught. This way the participants of the workshops "experience" the knowledge properly and the theory stays so much better in the memory.
There is already positive feedback from the participants that the feeling of space is completely different from conventionally designed interiors, which gives them a positive feeling during their stay.
Designing teaching rooms in an ecological and healthy way is not a high art and can be done under guidance even with laymen. In this way, rooms in buildings that were otherwise not built sustainably can also be ecologically upgraded without a large budget. Therefore, the transferability of the concept is also given here.
The Natural Building School is open to all genders, religions or cultural backgrounds of the participants of the workshops.
Our educational offer is open to any target groups. Adults - professionals (architects, engineers, students, craftsmen) and laymen (builders, teachers, educators, communities), as well as to children and young people.
The knowledge transfer is adapted to the respective target groups.
In addition, we promote intercultural encounters, e.g. internationally announced work and learning camps in cooperation with the corresponding organizations (SCI, Erasmus, etc.).international exchange at congresses, training courses and seminars.
The pricing of the workshops is adapted to the different target groups. We are working on obtaining public funding for our educational initiative as well, in order to enable people with low incomes to receive extensive training in the field of sustainable education.
We are also working on being recognized as an official education provider by government agencies (employment office).
We have already received funding for the rural development of the Altmark region for our existing seminar center.
The participants of the workshops of the Natural Building School receive a holistic education around the topics of sustainability, healthy living building and renovation as well as building biology. Through further training, they are enabled to practically apply the learning content in their everyday lives or their own projects or, in the case of multiplier training, to pass on their knowledge to third parties. This not only leads to a steadily growing community of people with knowledge on the subject, but also the ability to put it into practice. The School of Natural Building can also benefit from this, as it will train more teachers who will make the School of Natural Building known and grow beyond the region.
Furthermore, our new seminar center should become a new cultural center in the village. The area (Altmark, Saxony-Anhalt) is affected by migration, as there is hardly any infrastructure, let alone cultural offerings. Our initiative will create a place that will bring life back into the village. The construction of a village baking oven in the spring of this year will be the first big event in which all villagers can also participate. The village baking oven creates the possibility of joint baking events, promotes regional life and also brings back a piece of infrastructure through the baked goods that can be offered regionally.
In the planning for the new seminar center are more such elements (farm store, wellness offer, studios).
The idea of founding the Natural Building School came 11 years ago from Dipl.-Ing.Arch. Manuela Mathäs as an employee of Spreeplan Projekt UG, an architectural firm specializing in sustainable building and renovation. Together with the company's managing director, Dipl.-Ing.Arch. Dag Schaffarczyk, they both expanded the initiative's workshop and seminar offerings, primarily locally (Berlin / Brandenburg) and nationally (throughout Germany).
By further local and country wide cross-linking with with schools, universities, associations, interest groups, cooperatives, building groups, Internet portals, out and advanced training institutions as well as international contact with Chambers of Commerce and foreign trade representations e.g. Austria, Finland, Hungary and the Ukraine we could win partners and supporters for our commitment.
At the moment we are in the process of updating and connecting the internet presence of Spreeplan Projekt UG and Naturbauschule to improve the visibility of our initiative beyond national borders and to make further offers accessible to interested parties from other European countries.
In the implementation of the new buildings natural construction school actively work with (m/f/d):
Architects and engineers for the planning and design of the structural facilities
- Interior designers
- experts & surveyors
are involved:
Building authorities
- Community members and district employees
- Mayor
Working on the implementation of the educational initiative and knowledge transfer are (m/f/d):
- Architects and engineers
- Building biologists
- Educators
- Social workers
- Web designers
- IT engineers
- Communication designers
- Social media supervisors
The collaboration is interdisciplinary. By selecting employees with the same commitment and self-image for sustainable development, the design process is productive. Different opinions and ideas are exchanged on an equal footing in regular meetings, and decisions are made through discourse.
Involvement of public authorities, on the other hand, is difficult and often tough, even though there are definitely employees who find our project worth supporting. However, decision-making and approval processes are lengthy and complicated because people in decision-making positions often do not want to take on enough responsibility here.
The Natural Building School initiative pursues a holistic approach, both in the transfer of knowledge and in the practical implementation of building measures. It promotes design competence in the sense of transformative education, i.e. it enables people to acquire and apply competences (knowledge and skills) in order to be able to decide and act in the sense of sustainable development. We also make sure that positions are always presented in a controversial way and that we do not "impose" our knowledge on the participants. These controversial views are often neglected in other educational institutions. A discourse, especially about sustainability and ecology, often ends in the mainstream where lobbying begins. We are free from any lobbying interests and always take a critical and questioning position.
In our construction projects we use only natural materials and pay attention to pollutant-free and environmentally friendly designs and construction methods. A healthy living environment has a great influence on the health of the people who use it. We do not compromise on our sustainability principles, which are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This clearly differentiates us from other initiatives or architectural firms.
In addition, we are always working on innovative and alternative solutions. During the seminars, new combinations of natural building materials are developed, planned, built, commissioned and then evaluated, taking into account a wide range of requirements. Examples of this are different wall constructions such as light clay, hemp lime, straw bales, etc.. We also carry out projects on the recycling of building materials in cooperation with the German Institute for Building Technology (DiBt).
Our methodology of transformative education and thus the empowerment of people to competently pass on acquired knowledge on sustainable development can be transferred to other educational institutes.
The practical application of knowledge, through the construction of buildings with ecological added value, is also easy to implement in principle, provided there is the will to do so.
In our experience, however, this is the critical aspect.
The re-implementation of actually "old technical knowledge" into modern living structures is often met with incomprehension or rejection, especially by people with a construction background. Even institutes and players who would have to act sustainably according to EU directives remain trapped in old thought patterns and reject innovations, often with the sole justification that it is simply too expensive.
This mindset can only be influenced by educating the younger generation, but this requires several decades of time.
We have had better experience working with lay people who have no professional background and come to us more about the need for change in the area of living and healthy living. This more emotional environment is more open to new or rediscovered old knowledge. Here, the need for practical input and personal contribution in ecological building and renovation is in the foreground.
These experiences can also be transferred to other places and groups.
Our approach promotes (design) competence in the sense of transformative education, i.e. it enables people to acquire and apply competences (knowledge and skills) in order to be able to decide and act in the sense of sustainable development. Independent of existing experiences, we train self-awareness in the area of comfort, health, aesthetics and promote planning and design. This leads to building and design possibilities, for which we provide practical assistance.
Important is the process-like, which promotes the self-realization, then a planning and conception up to the implementation. The creation of plaster surfaces, can illustrate this very well. Gypsum plaster must be bought, mixed and leftovers are not recyclable. Clay lies in the best case on the property, is mixed with water, gives a pleasant feeling on the skin, can always be recycled and therefore used by laymen until the desired result is achieved. Both application examples will be implemented in the workshop. The decision as to which surface is preferred is up to each participant. The decision criteria are all the individual steps that have been gone through.
Our approach respects the Beutelsbach Consensus, i.e. our educational approach does not indoctrinate and presents controversial positions.
As uncommented as possible, we contrast existing and known buildings and materials of life, living and working with synthetic building materials, artificial surfaces, unnatural indoor climate and chemical products, with those with natural building materials, surfaces indoor climate and products, schools the perception, self-perception and dealing with these realities and leave the decision of what is favored to the participants.
Through this type of education, which also involves multipliers (teachers, professors, etc.), not only new knowledge is acquired by the participants, but also a different approach to knowledge transfer is given.
3 - Health and well-being
4 - Quality education
5 - Gender equality
6 - Clean water and sanitation
7 - Affordable and clean energy
8 - Decent work and economic growth
9 - Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10 - Reduced inequalities
11 - Sustainable cities and communities
12 - Responsible consumption and production patterns
13 - Climate protection measures
14 - Life under water
15 - Life on land
17 - Partnerships to achieve the goals
We contribute to the achievement of the global sustainability goals with our commitment and refer to the above points as follows:
3 & 13 - Everything that is healthy is sustainable, this is the basis of our work.
4 - Full education is a prerequisite.
5 & 10 - Gender and general equality is a prerequisite, which is why we work predominantly with and for women in a male-dominated field.
6 & 13 - Let's see in an overall context. Our work integrates special water systems to purify and use water and the life it contains.
7 & 11 - We work exclusively with fossil-free and renewable energies and reduce the total energy demand.
8 & 12 & 13 - Good and valued work is a prerequisite for health. We do not strive for economic growth, rather a circular economy, which is a prerequisite for long-term sustainability.
9 & 13 - Are part of our larger development projects with citizen participation and the corresponding seminars.
We address challenges and conflicting goals in the implementation of the global sustainability goals by accurately describing, analyzing and challenging existing structures, experiences, routines, work, rules and norms with a focus on construction and urban development.
For each individual point with its resulting task, the influence on the sustainability goals is defined and concrete, already existing alternatives are described, analyzed and tested for feasibility.
For 20 years, we as Spreeplan architects have been giving seminars on healthy housing construction and renovation in various institutions and for various organizations / companies (see references on our attached concept paper). Primarily stock here the focus in adult education on topics such as:
Introduction to ecological building
Pollutants and allergens in the interior
Selection of sustainable building materials
The healthy sleeping place
Sustainable building methods and types of construction (straw bale construction, earthen construction, timber construction)
Energy efficient building in terms of heat, water, electricity
We founded the Natural Building School 10 years ago to do more educational work with children and young people. We have conducted workshops in schools and also organized international work camps (SCI e.V.)
Topics here were:
Comparison of animal and human dwellings
My ecological footprint
Creative building with natural materials
In the future we would like to do even more in the children and youth education, organize new school year accompanying projects. At the same time, we would also like to focus on multiplier training, in which we train teachers and educators on the topic of ecological architecture, who can pass on this knowledge to their students.
On the one hand, these events are to be offered directly in the educational institutions, on the other hand, we would like to expand our seminar center for this purpose (visualization attached). There we have the possibility to create rooms close to nature, which also make events lasting several days with large groups possible. We already have plans for this building project and are in the process of obtaining the building permit.
Furthermore, the website of the Naturbauschule will be updated and extended and the events of Spreeplan Projekt UG (adult education) will be integrated.
An education portal is to be created, through which our workshops and seminars can be booked directly.
In the context of the european Competence Framework for sustainability, we are committed to general, vocational, school (university, school) and extracurricular education (leisure activities, international work camps, extracurricular projects) on sustainable development. As such, we are also listed with UNESCO as ESD actors (Education for Sustainable Development).
In our seminars and workshops, we educate people about the climate crisis and impart knowledge about sustainability in the context of building and renovation.
Through multiplier trainings we help educators to impart knowledge and skills related to sustainable building to enable them to teach their students in this topic forest and to pass on acquired expertise.
Through our architecture and event spaces, we create a sustainability-friendly learning environment that facilitates hands-on, interdisciplinary teaching and learning that is relevant to the local context.
Furthermore, we network and cooperate to promote and further develop education for sustainable development. We exchange information on the topic with other actors locally, nationally and internationally and promote intercultural encounters:
We network locally and nationwide with schools, universities, associations, interest groups, cooperatives, building groups, internet portals, education and training institutions.
Internationally, we are in contact with chambers of commerce and foreign trade representations (Austria, Finland, Hungary, Ukraine).
We promote intercultural meetings by internationally announced work and learning camps in co-operation with the appropriate organizations (SCI, Erasmus, etc.). In addition, international exchange takes place at external congresses, training courses and seminars.
