Sustainable Building Essentials Collection

Tina Therrien started plastering in 1997 as part of Camel’s Back Construction, the first straw bale building company in Ontario. One of the founding members of the Ontario Natural Building Coalition, Tina has made numerous contributions in the natural building world and has plastered in France and Haiti. Passionate about food, gardening, and chickens, Tina lives in a modest timber frame home with her spouse, daughter, their flock of chickens, and their slowly expanding gardens. She is co-author of More Straw Bale Building, and she operates Shelter By Hand, a timber framing company, with her spouse. She lives in Low, Quebec.

Tim J. Krahn, P. Eng. is a registered professional engineer and partner in Building Alternatives Inc., a consulting engineering company specializing in non-conventional structural and building envelope engineering with an emphasis on natural materials and energy efficiency. He holds a masters degree in geotechnical engineering and a bachelors degree in civil engineering from the University of Manitoba, and is a founding member of the Natural Building Engineering Group, the current chair of the Ontario Natural Building Coalition, and is active on the Renewable Materials task force of the Embodied Carbon Network. He received the first building permit for a rammed-earth structure in the city of Ottawa, and has been the structural engineer on more than twenty rammed-earth projects in Canada, including the first net-zero municipal building in Ontario, the Oxford County Municipal Solid Waste Office and Education Centre. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada.

Rob Roy is widely recognized as a world leading authority on cordwood construction. He is Director of Earthwood Building School in West Chazy, New York, which teaches owner-builders how to build with cordwood masonry. Rob and his wife Jaki have built four cordwood homes and numerous outbuildings, and have conducted workshops all over North America and around the world. Rob has authored and edited 15 books including Cordwood Building, second edition (2016), Timber Framing for the Rest of Us, Earth-Sheltered Houses, and Stoneview.

Rob Avis, PEng, is co-owner and operator of Adaptive Habitat, a leading-edge property design firm for resilient homes, acreages, and farms, and Verge Permaculture, a globally recognized award-winning education business described by Geoff Lawton as “one of North America’s premier permaculture design and education companies.” Co-author of Essential Rainwater Harvesting, Rob has been professionally involved in project management, ecological design, and sustainable technologies since 2005. He lives in Alberta, Canada.

Michelle Avis, PEng, is co-owner and operator of Adaptive Habitat, a leading-edge property design firm for resilient homes, acreages, and farms, and Verge Permaculture, a globally recognized award-winning education business described by Geoff Lawton as “one of North America’s premier permaculture design and education companies.” Co-author of Essential Rainwater Harvesting, Michelle has over a decade of experience in project management, ecological design, and sustainable technologies. She lives in Alberta, Canada.

Michael Henry has researched plasters and plastered his way across Ontario for the past decade, plastering for Camel’s Back Construction and Straworks. His attention to detail and mad-scientist plaster experiments have made him a noted expert in the field and a sought-after workshop leader on plasters at the Endeavour Centre. Michael is co-author of Ontario’s Old-Growth Forests, and he lives in Peterborough, Ontario, with his wife and two children.

Michael G. Smith is a natural builder, trainer, designer, and consultant who has been working with natural building systems for over 30 years. He holds a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT. In 1993 he co-founded the iconic Cob Cottage Company with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley, reviving the ancient tradition of cob building. His hands-on workshops focus on energy efficiency, empowerment of people through simple, accessible techniques, and the regenerative use of locally available materials. Smith has led or been involved in over 100 natural building projects in North America and internationally and he is a board member of the Cob Research Institute, where he helped write the first model building code for cob. He is co-author of The Hand-Sculpted House and The Art of Natural Building and author of The Cobber’s Companion. He lives on an organic farm near Sacramento, California.

Massey Burke is a natural materials design-build consultant, educator, and co-director of the California Straw Building Association. She has worked with cob since 2005, and focuses on removing barriers to scaling up natural, climate-positive building methods. A contributor to The New Carbon Architecture, she lives in the San Francisco Bay area, CA.

Lydia Doleman is a licensed contractor with two decades of experience as a natural and sustainable builder, cabinet maker, and trainer. She has taught carpentry and natural building at Solar Energy International in Colorado and was lead ecological builder for Portland’s City Repair project from 2002-09. Aiming to merge three converging passions in her life – art, ecology and social justice – Lydia has created beautiful, high-performance, low-impact buildings across Oregon and Washington, including Portland’s first permitted straw bale home, The Rebuilding Center’s cob entryway, and a 3,300-sq.f light straw clay brewery. She’s written articles for The Last Straw Journal and Permaculture Design and appeared on NBC News and HGTV’s Off Beat America on the topic of tiny homes, featuring a small-scale light straw clay timber frame home. Lydia lives in southern Oregon.

Leslie Doyle is the owner of Restoration Gardens Inc., a green roof design and installation firm that has designed and built dozens of green roofs for residential and commercial buildings from 80 square feet to 30,000 square feet. She is a certified LiveRoof Installer and an accredited Green Roof Professional by the Industry Association, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. She shares her knowledge and passion for integrating nature in the built environment as a green roof instructor at the Endeavour Centre and formerly at Fleming College. Leslie lives in Toronto, Ontario.