From: Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] May 28/SB Perm Network ECO-Film Night Honors Nader Khalili/ Santa Barbara
Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 06:21:52 -0700
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
ECO-Film Night
Honoring the Life of Visionary Architect Nader Khalili
with film-maker Dastan Khalili & documentary film feature
"Earth Turns to Gold"
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery
7pm, donation $5
"Earth turns to Gold in the hands of the Wise"
Rumi
O n Thursday, May 28, at 7pm, Santa
Barbara Permaculture Network ECO-Film Night
honors the life of visionary architect Nader
Khalili and the California Institute of Earth &
Architecture (Cal-Earth), with a feature film
documentary "Earth Turns to Gold" by Dastan
Khalili.
Designing with Nature, using Earth,
Water, Air, Fire and the simple shapes of arches,
vaults and domes, Nader Khalili taught we could
easily build homes for humanity with nothing more
than the soil beneath our feet. He suggests that
if we recognize the equilibrium of these
elements, we will never have any environmental
problems. Learning the perfect harmony of nature
and how it can be applied to architecture, this
practical harmony can help us build habitats that
are sustainable, nontoxic, and ecologically sound.
Leaving behind pitched roofs of
conventional housing, his arched earthen
structures don't require a single tree to be cut,
helping to eliminate deforestation around the
globe Because of the dome egg shaped
"shell-a-structure" design, they are some of the
strongest buildings possible, able to withstand
hurricanes, floods, and fires. Originally
designed to be ceramic (fired earth) houses, if
properly built, grow stronger in fire, and have
been tested to 6.5 on the Richter scale for
earthquakes, making them perfect candidates for
housing in Southern California.
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network began
visiting Cal-Earth more than ten years ago for
annual road-trips in the Fall to follow the
evolving site and its many innovative building
prototypes. A strong friendship developed that
lasted until the death of Nader Khalili last
year. Noting that Khalili's work actually
started in Santa Barbara County, with a 600 ft
prototype house on an 850 acre proposed village
site in New Cuyama in the late 1980's, Santa
Barbara Permaculture Network wanted to
acknowledge his extraordinary life with an
evening of tribute in our community.
Khalili was a Muslim born in Iran. His
grandmother raised him on Sufi mysticism and the
poetry of Rumi, a poet born in 1 3th century
Persia, who inspired all of his work. Khalili
became an architect who built high-rises in both
Los Angeles and Tehran. In the 1970's he took a
sabbatical from his busy career to travel through
the deserts of the Middle East on motorcycle.
While searching for simple structures suitable
for housing the poor he noticed dome-like
structures used for baking and grain storage that
had stood strong through the millennia in areas
frequented by earthquakes. He returned to found
Cal-Earth, located eventually on a ten acre site
in Hesperia, California, where he worked
tirelessly to perfect a building technique that
would use only natural, on-site materials, but
could also pass rigorous building and safety
codes. One of his best-known inventions was the
Super Adobe Earthbag construction system,
developed for NASA in the 1980's, who had put out
a call for designs for structures on the Moon and
Mars. Khalili argued the same wisdom and logic
for using on-site materials, as transporting
materials from Earth would cost more than gold.
Khalili's smaller Earthbag houses were proposed
as affordable solutions for poverty stricken
areas in Africa, India, and South America. He
received special recognition from the United
Nations for his Housing for the Homeless
proposal in 1987 and his prototypes were
recognized with the Aga Khan Award for
Architecture in 2004. He is the author of
numerous books including Racing Alone, and
Sidewalks on the Moon, and was an accomplished
translator of the poetry of Rumi. At the time of
his death, he was perfecting a 3 bedroom, two car
garage house designed with middle America and the
suburbs in mind. With the devastating fires that
had frequented all of Southern California in
recent years, he felt it was time to build houses
that fit into the fire ecology of our region.
Dastan Khalili is a film-maker who has
recently finished a series of films of his
fathers life work. His Greenworks Company works
in affiliation with the Cal-Earth non-profit, and
is dedicated to making and distributing
environmental and humanitarian films and
productions. Copies of the films and books will
be available for purchase at the event.
The event takes place on Thursday, May
28, 7pm at the downtown Santa Barbara Public
Library, 40 East Anapamu St, Santa Barbara.
Donation $5, no reservations needed. The event
is presented by Santa Barbara Permaculture
Network Non-Profit. For more information, (805)
962-2571, margie@sbpermaculture.org,
www.sbpermaculture.org
-end-
More Info/Website,You Tube sites:
Cal-Earth website: www.calearth.org
Cal-Earth on You Tube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5_LPYFyaFE&feature=channel_page
www.youtube.com/user/dastonkalili
[permaculture] May 28/SB Perm Network ECO-Film Night Honors Nader Khalili/ Santa Barbara,
Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, 05/22/2009