Mud Talks

In our twenty-ninth Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Ben Loescher deliver his podium presentation "Building Momentum: Creating a U.S. Earthen Masonry Standard" at the Earth USA 2024 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download the accompanying PDF research paper here.

Ben Loescher is a founding Principal at Loescher Meachem Architects, where his work focuses on the reuse of existing buildings and the founder of Adobeisnotsoftware, an earthen education and advocacy initiative. He has acted as author of portions of the International Building Code sections on adobe masonry, and recently initiated the recent effort to create international design standards for earthen masonry through the Masonry Society.

Earth USA 2024 was the 12th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our twenty-eighth Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Anthony Dente, Lisa Morey and Rachel Tove-White deliver their podium presentation "The Challenges of Keeping Earthen Construction Low Carbon" at the Earth USA 2024 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download the accompanying PDF research paper here.

Anthony Dente is a licensed engineer across the US and CEO at Verdant Structural Engineers and Verdant Building Products, which produces straw SIPs developed with EPA support. He’s the vice president of the Cob Research Institute and was the lead engineer for the Cob and Hemp-Lime IRC appendices. He leads the earthen masonry structural committee in TMS and authored Essential Cob Construction with New Society Publishers. Please visit www.verdantstructural.com for more information.

Lisa Morey, is owner and founder of Nova Terra Inc (formerly Colorado Earth LLC), a company that designs, manufactures, and builds with earthen masonry. Committed to the advancement of earth building, Nova Terra is exploring new additives to reduce the embodied carbon of compressed earth blocks while creating energy-efficient and durable walls. Please visit www.novaterrausa.com for more information.

Earth USA 2024 was the 12th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our twenty-seventh Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Lola Ben-Alon deliver her keynote address "EARTH MATERIALS "RECIPES": EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH AND PEDAGOGIES" at the Earth USA 2024 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lola is an Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP, where she directs the Natural Materials Lab and the Building Science and Technology curriculum. She specializes in earth- and bio-based building materials, their life cycle, supply chains, fabrication techniques, and policy. Ben-Alon received her Ph.D. from the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and holds a B.S. in Structural Engineering and an M.S. in Construction Management from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. At the Technion, Ben-Alon co-founded the Experimental Art and Architecture Lab. Her work has been exhibited at the London Craft Week, Indian Ceramics Triennial, Tallinn Architecture Biennale, Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, and published in Building and Environment, Journal of Green Building, and Automation in Construction. Ben-Alon serves on the board of ACSA’s Technology | Architecture + Design, and Elsevier’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

Earth USA 2024 was the 12th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our twenty-sixth Mud Talks podcast, we speak to Paul Mallory about his owner builder adobe experience in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Paul has gone through all phases of owner builder support at Adobe in Action - he has taken all 8 of our online courses, participated in our remote owner builder support program and also served as a repeat volunteer for our biennial earthbuilding conference Earth USA. Listen as Paul walks you through his personal owner builder adobe journey.

In our twenty-fifth Mud Talks podcast, we celebrate the milestone of 25 episodes by returning to our roots with a new round of adobe inspiration by Quentin Wilson - recorded in Quentin's adobe home in La Madera, New Mexico.

In our twenty-fourth Mud Talks podcast, we speak to future adobe owner builders Jaimus & Kim about the steps they have taken to get their property ready for an upcoming off-grid adobe home build in Eastern Arizona.

In our twenty-third Mud Talks podcast, we speak to owner builder Rex Edhlund about his adobe blockmaking operation and plans to build his own adobe home in Pioneertown, CA.

In our twenty-second Mud Talks podcast, we speak to Dan Krause about his owner builder adobe experience in the Taos, New Mexico area. Dan has participated in all 8 of our online courses at Adobe in Action and also gave a podium presentation about his project at Earth USA 2022. You can download his full paper about the project here. Dan recently became a board member at Adobe in Action. Listen as he walks you through his personal owner builder adobe journey.

In our twenty-first Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Stephen Hren deliver his podium presentation "Experiments in Modernizing Cob Construction" at the Earth USA 2022 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download his accompanying PDF research paper here.

Stephen Hren is a general contractor, writer, and home inspector living in Durham, North Carolina. He has been building with cob for over two decades.

Earth USA 2022 was the 11th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.

In our twentieth Mud Talks podcast, we listen to Lola Ben-Alon deliver her podium presentation "Pedagogical and Research Frameworks for Earth Architecture" at the Earth USA 2022 Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Download her accompanying PDF research paper here.

Lola Ben-Alon is an Assistant Professor at Columbia GSAPP, where she directs the Natural Materials Lab and the Building Tech curriculum. She specializes in socially and environmentally sustainable building materials, construction practices, and engineering-architecture collaborations. Her current work focuses on natural earth- and bio-based building materials, their manual and digital fabrication, life cycle, supply chains, and policy. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate the embodied and operational impacts of low-carbon assemblies such as cob, rammed earth, and light straw clay.

Earth USA 2022 was the 11th International Conference on Earthen Architecture & Construction hosted by Adobe in Action. More information about the conference can be found at www.earthusa.org.