# IT WE THE NBC By [Woods Edge Natural Builders Collective](https://paragraph.com/@woodsedge) · 2021-12-08 --- The Woods Edge Natural Builders Collective is a group of friends based in Durham, North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are building living, breathing spaces using materials acquired as locally as possible. We are designers, builders, and artists, animated by the desire to construct buildings and places which embody a more human-scale approach to living, by creating resilient spaces which are intentionally built around human needs. The purpose of every building we construct is to outlive the resources expended in its construction, and not only stand, but provide a function that lasts for centuries - be it a home, community space, healing space, or sanctuary. In this, **we aim to help everyone that we work with plant a seed which they can be sure will grow into something that will outlast them**, and provide lasting well-being for an individual who they might never even meet. ![Earthen House - about three months from completion in Sep 2021](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/2172016b10d7d17d78b48488e7941453abc90e47f15e9696bfd0f3d9bf8d164c.png) Earthen House - about three months from completion in Sep 2021 After wrapping up our first project of a 350ft earthen home, we would now like to find a way to make our time and skill accessible to all! Gearing up to turn our collective into a thriving business which is accessible to all is complicated, but the necessities can be narrowed down to three key resources: * **Proper tools and transportation** * **Resources (time, space, training) for further developing our skillset as a collective** * **Scholarship pool for those who wouldn’t be able to seek our services due to financial need** We aim to provide a professional and highly skilled construction service to those who would seek it out, and although building with locally and naturally derived materials has been common throughout human history, the resources for this type of work in the larger construction industry are few. **This means that the work which we do is, in a sense, experimental.** Figuring out the best way to process local soil into a building material is an experiment at every new site - it’s an art in and of itself! Discovering solutions towards making things like mud walls and lime plaster showers fit local and international building codes is part of the unique but very broad skillset we are developing as a group. Interfacing with municipalities and utilities has thankfully become simpler over time, but there are still many mutually unknown facets of what is known as “natural building” that require an open and collaborative spirit to uncover and resolve. ![Early brainstorming for the earthen house](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6f0b895d68660e57a186efcc6efb48acf12638eb3006a516cece5bd3022e8d26.jpg) Early brainstorming for the earthen house ### There are myriad things waiting to be learned by following the history of human building techniques. Our mission is to have a robust understanding of the way that cultures before our own built their homes, and at the same time to stay abreast of all of the development happening within the global natural building community. The right to a healthy, resilient house is far from being commonly recognized as a basic human right, but working with communities, groups, and traditions around the world will allow us to help ferry this idea towards its due time. At a longer view - the path we’re traveling has us looking at purchasing land local to where we live now, where we can build and experiment freely with the timeless art of creating spaces, both interior and exterior. Though far down the road, it will eventually be the first major evolution of our collective praxis, **and will be the time when we can truly begin our most important work!** --- *Originally published on [Woods Edge Natural Builders Collective](https://paragraph.com/@woodsedge/it-we-the-nbc)*