4D Quick Cabin Build

Rosewater Ranch, Reno, NV, USA

Sunday, June 29 - Friday, July 4, 2025

Number of Students: 18

Cost: $800 (includes instruction, all meals, campsite, showers, toilets)

The Project

We’ll build a 120 square foot bath house/sauna over six action-packed days. The foundation will be completed ahead of time, but we’ll build the walls, put in a door and windows, and build an insulated roof on top.

The structure will be post and beam using wood harvested from the property. The walls will be stacked straw bales that we’ll cover with a thick base coat of plaster. We’ll use cob for sculpting and relief work and slipstraw to fill the wood framing above and below the windows.

Overview

There has been a lot of interest in 3D printed houses using concrete with claims to be super-fast to build as well as green. It’s great if people want to spend time pursuing faster ways to build small houses out of concrete using giant machines but these buildings are certainly not complete in a day nor is concrete a natural or green building material. Our 4D build will show that it’s possible to build a small house quickly, and better, using almost entirely natural materials.

The 4th “D” or dimension in our approach, is time. We’re honoring the vernacular methods and communal nature of building from the past while at the same time projecting these techniques and knowledge forward to create a brighter and more sustainable future. The basic techniques we teach are timeless and use clay-rich soils, straw, sand, stone, and wood. They also require a group of people - lots of hands and minds and hearts learning, laughing, and creating a beautiful, functional, comfortable, and green structure together. These factors are, we believe, even more important than putting up something fast.

This structure will have a straw-bale centric wall system but it will be covered, protected, and enhanced with earth. Earth is the mother of all building materials and for millennia people have used it to build beautiful, simple, efficient and inexpensive homes. It's plentiful, ecological, and non-toxic. Plus, it can't burn, won't rot and is much simpler to build with than conventional construction. When we combine earth with straw (which used to be considered little more than an agricultural waste product) we can speed up construction, increase insulation, and provide the fiber for cob, floors, plasters and other infill techniques.

What you will learn

• Design considerations for a cabin/house

• Strawbale wall systems

• How to mix, choose, and use the right materials for each step of the building process

• Making and building with cob, adobe, cordwood-cob, bale-cob, slipstraw (aka Light Straw Clay)

• How to make and use basic plasters

• Niches, carving, and sculpting

• How to build, insulate, and finish a roof system

• How to make an earthen ceiling

• How to make and use clay paints

We’ll hold several talks and slideshows that might include an Intro to natural building, all about codes and permitting, cabins from start to finish...etc. We’ll also take time to tour the other natural buildings on site which feature rubble trench foundation systems and earthen floors.

During every workshop we make time for specific issues related to individual situations. This usually includes a look at different climates and regions, living with families or in communities, dealing with the building code, physical and financial challenges, appropriate technologies and more.

Conrad’s book, “House of Earth” and my cob oven book, “Build it with Earth: the Cob Pizza Oven” are both included with the class.

Registration, Payment, & Refunds

This workshop requires a $300 deposit to hold your space. When a deposit is made, Kyle will reach out to you, welcome you to the course, and get you in the email loop with all the details.

Go here to make a Venmo deposit or send a check for $300 made out to Cobitat and mailed to 2055 McCloud Avenue, Reno, NV 89512. Full payments are also gladly accepted.

Deposit is refundable until 6 weeks before the start of the class. If you cancel with less than six weeks before the start of the class and your spot can be filled, we will issue a full refund. If it can’t be filled, your deposit will not be refunded.

Full payment is requested by two weeks before the start of each class.

Instructors

Lead instructor Kyle Isacksen has been building with earth since 2010 and teaching natural building since 2011 with House Alive and the Be the Change Project. Kyle has a background in construction, teaching, and simple living.  He’s worked as a framer, carpenter, and commercial roofer and recently finished building a “green” conventional house in his neighborhood in Reno. He was a science teacher for 7 years, is a frequent speaker on sustainable living, and is a contributing writer for Mother Earth News magazine and blog. Kyle enjoys basketball, hiking, reading, and martial arts. 

Kathleen O’Brien started natural building with two Versaterra workshops several years ago and has gone on to teach with us in India, Mexico, Oregon and Reno. She has extensive carpentry experience, is a certified permaculture designer and talented grower, and has over 20 years of public school teaching experience. She is an avid reader and writer and is currently building her own off-grid home at Long Ranch in Surprise Valley, Nevada.   

Jonathan Vocke started natural building with a Versaterra course years ago and has since built and taught with us in India, Mexico, and Nevada and on his own in his hometown of Baltimore. When not slinging mud he’s a professional musician and music teacher and an avid traveler and adventurer. Every workshop he’s a part of benefits from his musical talents, his energy, and his skill as a teacher.