Silent Motion Island Yoga Centre Construction- A Story
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The Yoga of Building
Into our construction picture a couple of months ago comes Paula and Robert Laporte of EcoNest, and I have to tell you I really "got" why we chose this type of building, and am even more glad for it now that they have shown me how structures like ours can really work toward our overall health. I heard Paula's talk- as a part of a Tuesday night series at O.U.R. Ecovillage- and WOW, I tell you I really connected with the advantages of having this sort of building built.
There are more healthy technologies and building processes than I could have imagined available that we will be putting into this building now- and I thought we'd already done a lot!
Now I rest assured that I have the benefit of having great building science and a great healthy building consulting team behind me, in Paula and her husband. They were kind enough to give me copies of their books also.
The Light Of Knowledge
During Paula's talk, and subsequently, this new awareness has shined a light on a larger viewpoint of how health can be seen. This kind of clay and natural construction truly is "The Yoga of Building" and is in keeping with the principle of ahimsa- non-violence- that is the root ethic of spiritual practice.
Conventional building practices often fall short where the health of it's occupants are concerned, and we wanted to ensure that people who attend our classes and workshops or attend our longer in-depth yoga lifestyle immersions will not worry about their health- rather we want to educate them about how our structure, along with our various programs contribute to their wellness.
Construction and... Philosophy?
If we, as a yoga centre, want to have non-violent communication, yoga, meditation, inner peace, outer peace, world peace, and compassion for everyone, we need to start with ourselves and that includes our dwellings:
Your house is your larger body.
It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? and dreaming, leave the city for grove or hill-top?
Would that I could gather your houses into my hand, and like a sower scatter them in forest and meadow.
Would the valleys were your streets, and the green paths your alleys, that you might seek one another through vineyards, and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments.
-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
We welcome you to our little green valley of peace here, and we hope you can take a little bit of that back with you when you leave us.
A Little History
When we first started this project, I was TOTALLY ignorant of what I needed to do in order to create a centre that people could come and be at home taking yoga and meditation classes, but I had in my mind what I wanted it to feel like: A community feeling with love and understanding is the closest I can come to explaining it in words.
Leila mentioned that her dream was to have a cob house, and with a little research, we located the Ecovillage I mentioned above, went for a tour, and suddenly I saw what I needed to do. Still, I had little or no factual information about what the benefits of this type of building were- I just knew it was cool, and that I had long wanted a very natural feeling place to be.
All Kinda Plans
Just to give you an idea of how ignorant I was, I can't tell you the number of contractors who took me into the front of the building in the second photo and asked me if I had any plans.
My response was always- "Sure! I have all sorts of plans! I want this here... and that over there..." and so on. When you and I say 'plans' is ENTIRELY different than what a builder means when he says 'plans', and oh, by the way, many builders WON'T tell you that difference.
At least, until I met one contractor who said that I would get widely varying costs until I had a draftsman or architect draw up some PLANS. Ah, ok, I get it now...
The PLAN(s)
So, in the end, we had Phase 1 done by a draftsman headed off to architecture school, and Phase 2 done by an architect living at the Ecovillage named Elke Cole. She was VERY helpful in realizing our dream of a cob space, and it quickly became apparent that we didn't have enough time to build entirely in cob.
Cob is designed to be a structural material with clay and straw, similar to what all builders used until 200 years ago, and takes a long time to build to the heights we had planned (9ft). This might end up taking 2 summers to complete, and we don't have the luxury of that time.
Combining The Two Plans
Since it took literally 6 months to 'get' that we needed to have someone draw up plans for us, we were behind and needed to get moving! We decided that both Phase 1 (initially thought to be the reno of the existing building to teach in) and Phase 2 (the dream of a natural space) needed to be combined.
Hiring A Contractor
We had the good fortune of finally running into and getting a reasonable quote- after the plans were done from Doug at PRIDE Home Improvements. He's a great and helpful contractor who let us know the difficulties with the plans as drawn by the draftsman and some of the challenges we'd be facing with a cheerful and helpful demeanor.
Each ignorant question he's answered with patience and helpful info to allow us to manage our project in a reasonable (and with our budget) way. EVERY time we've given him a challenge or need to rein in the budget, he's responded with a resourcefulness I am constantly surprised about. Along the way, I think he's become a friend.
THE TRENCH
Well, the trench was a saga unto itself, as every time we dug, we found something new- first, a 300 foot length of tangled 1/2 inch steel cable; then a tree stump that had to be chopped off as we couldn't find it's bottom; and finally granite and shale as we dug the sewer line...sigh... it took almost 2 months to "get out of the ground" so to speak, and many hours jackhammering...
Brian Hay did a great job on the excavator, and without him, the project wouldn't have gone forward. He contributed a ton of his time to jackhammering also and put up with me while I fumed about the difficulty of this part of the project. Brian added an exit driveway also, and new gravel to our existing driveway, plus a bunch of new space for parking. My apologies for not calling out his considerable contribution to this project on this page before.
Raising The Roof
Now the boys are working on the roof, have built the shrine, and we're itching to get in there and start on the earthen floor with hydronic heat!
That's the story so far, as Doug's guys- Rodney, the lead journeyman carpenter and Stu, his helper- along with Elwood the puppy have been doing a great job
August Update
Now we're in the earthen construction phase of our project, and could use as many hands as possible, skilled or otherwise. You'll learn about earthen construction with floors and walls if you show up soon!Many thanks to Nick Schlosstein who did a great job preparing the floor for insulation and James Cunningham of Guardian Consultants who has volunteered quite a bit of time to our project as a volunteer. His extensive technical background in building has been invaluable.
September Update
We've FINALLY got clay on the property! We're preparing for next week's phase of putting in the clay and wood chip combination into the walls. Thanks to Miles and Janie of Happy Willow Bottom Farm for the gorgeous blue clay we've liberated from their back lot. This clay is so nice, it's almost artist quality, it's slightly blue and is as sticky as anything! Check out our new photos!
The copper-colored roof is now on, and the centre skylight is installed and waterproof. Our flashing is on around the edge of what will be a living roof by the end.
October Update
We've added some new photos and video to our site, explaining what we're doing. We've made quite a lot of progress in filling in the walls with clay slip and wood shavings, and should be able to start on our earthen floor next week!
November Update
Well this month has been full of highs and lows. The main part of the floors is now complete with the radiant flooring installed and the main cob put over the top of that. It took about a week to put in the cob flooring over the plastic tubing that will be heating the floor, and it began drying and as of the last week of November, while I write this, it's just been drained due to cold weather. It's snowing here in the last few days.
The construction project will be on hold from this point until further notice (watch this space) because I have to leave Canada for a few months until my immigration issues are completed. I'd like to thank Eric, Ryan, Jeremy, Robert and Mike for completing this critical phase of the project and to Doug McNeil from PRIDE Home Improvements for helping us with closing up the yoga centre until such time as we can get going again, probably this upcoming summer.
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