Everyone knows that housing in Detroit is a major issue.  From unaffordable rents, prohibitively expensive heating bills, housing discrimination, tax foreclosures, deteriorating roofs and structures, health problems from mold and lead, flooding basements, housing is intimately connected to the many struggles residents face.  We believe reimagining housing through natural building can address the social, economic and environmental problems we are facing.    

Socially, natural building promotes inter-connectivity in these times or intense isolation.  In conventional building, labor is contracted out and is highly specialized, leading to the need for large sums of upfront capital.  Our project allows for like-minded solutionaries to build and educate together, as the primary tools for the natural build are our hands and feet, and anyone is able to participate. By working collaboratively, strawbale buildings promote unity and communal self-sufficiency rather than the depersonalized exchange of money. Natural buildings also bridge the connection between city-dwellers and nature, reminding people that even when we are alone, we are supported by the land.

Economically, natural building will lead to a more equitable future for Detroiters.  Detroiters face many of the same challenges in obtaining fair, equitable, affordable housing and land as many people across the country. Discrimination in housing sometimes forces people to live in unsafe, unsanitary conditions.  Housing is a human right.  However, dependence on a system that is failing the people is not the solution.  We believe in nature's model of small scale, decentralized, regenerative possibilities to housing.  By educating and training others in how to access and harvest local resources, and use creative skills and knowledge to build their own structures, composting toilets or simple storage facilities, we are depending on ourselves, our community and our land, not on a discriminatory system. 

Environmentally, natural building invites us to think about new ways to walk and chill on this earth, and use our resources in a more conscientious way. The climate chaos we are experiencing stems from the colonial view of humans separate from nature; nature as something separate and out there, and in the worst case, nature as something to control and tame.  The earth is a home, and we aren’t going to mars, and natural building is the soft commitment to treating the earth as our home.  It reminds us that the earth provides everything we need, from wood to straw to mud to stone, and that by sharing knowledge, tools and skills we can live abundantly on this earth. 

This project is a tiny step.  Yet, by fundamentally shifting our view of the land and community we believe different futures will be born. We want to see a future of  thriving where both the people and the planet is nurtured and cared for