IMPACT Magazine Sept/Oct 21       A Publication of the American Water Resource Association                

Page 38 – A New Lens on Disaster Prevention, Response, and Recovery           – Kevin Rowell – Owner – The Natural Builders. How should political leaders and disaster professionals handle themselves during disasters? Resolute? Empathetic? Social intelligence research may hold the key…

Be sure to check the whole issue and some of our dear collaborators including: 

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Page 29 Riparian Urbanism: New Ways for Cities to Respond to Climate Change    – Josiah Raison Cain director of innovation at Sherwood Design Engineers

 How a rained-out hockey game helped prompt San Jose, California, to rethink its waterways and convert to riparian urbanism.     

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Page 35 Bridging the Equity Gap in Flood Risk Management – Hunter Merritt  is a social scientist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers    Social and environmental justice comes to flood risk management. It’s about time.

Take a journey to Kutapalong Refugee camp in Bangladesh home to over 1 million Rohingya refugees who fled genocide in Myanmar in August 2017. It is the largest refugee camp in the world today.  Since 2018 we have worked in Bangladesh with multiple clients including the United Nations International Organization of migration and Alight ( FKA American Refugee Commitee).  Establishing supply chains, assisting in the development of standards and helping construct the largest bamboo treatment facility in the world, built to improve the longevity of the camps structures. 

ARCHIVED PRESS COVERAGE

bam-boomGregory Pellechi: Bringing Back Bamboo (February 2013)South East Asian Globe, 2 pages (2.6MB) View Full Article“Bamboo enjoys a long and illustrious history in Southeast Asia, where it has been used in construction since time immemorial. The material has largely gone out of fashion in recent times, but six Finnish architectural students are seeking to reverse that….”. blindmonks Leslie Jacson: Blind Monks Examining an Elephant (July/August 2010) Home Energy Magazine, 6 pages (1.9MB) View Full Article” When the 7 moment magnitude (Mw) earthquake hit Leogane, Haiti, about 16 miles west of the capital city, Port au Prince, on January 12, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving about 1 million homeless, at least 280,000 buildings collapsed or …” towardAlec MacDonald: Toward a More Natural Method of Construction (May 2010) Small Buissness Monthly, 7 pages (446.4kb) View Full Article“On a bright autumn Saturday in 2008, Kevin Rowell delivered a captivating glimpse beyond the frontiers of green building. For this feat, staged in West Oakland’s deFremery Park as part of the Living Word Festival, he brought along a truckload of bamboo slats, some rope, and a few dozen students of …”
learntobementoredAshley Aymond: Stoking the revolution (July 2009) Natural Building Network News, 12 pages (282kb) View Full Article“EARLY one Saturday morning in January, Kevin Rowell dumped a bucket of dark mud on the floor of his big south-facing bedroom. It landed with a plop, spreading out and merging with a blanket of wet earth that already extended across much of the room. On his knees, Mr. Rowell took a trowel to the pile, nudging it this way and that until the mud was roughly …” the-dna-of-bambooHannah Apricaot Eckberg: The DNA of Bamboo (July 2009) Hope Dance Magazine, 3 pages (283kb) View Full Article“Bamboo is weaving its way into many aspects of our daily life. From soft, durable clothing to food, medicine, flooring and paper for local currencies, this versatile plant keeps popping up. This year at the ninth annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in the Indio Desert of California, the plant was bent and twisted, bound and tethered into a nearly ten-story-tall art installation that provided shade and inspiration ….”. estillosecasas: Arquitectura a “Pie Descalzo” or Barefoot architecture (May 2007) Estillo E Casas, 11 pages (10.1MB) View Full Article“Aunque no lo parezca, se localiza en plena Meseta Central, especificamente en San Jeronimo de Moravia, en una propiedad que gozo de unabella y amplia vista del volcan Turriabl. A ella llegamos una lluviosa tarde de abril, en la que compartimos una deliciosa tasa de cafe con el matrimonio propiertario, quienes pretos, nos relataron la historia de sueddificacion…”
downanddirtyDavid Gelles: Down and Dirty (February 2007) The New York Times, 3 pages (452.3kb) View Full Article“EARLY one Saturday morning in January, Kevin Rowell dumped a bucket of dark mud on the floor of his big south-facing bedroom. It landed with a plop, spreading out and merging with a blanket of wet earth that already extended across much of the room. On his knees, Mr. Rowell took a trowel to the pile, nudging it this way and that until the mud was roughly …” sfgateMarci Riseman: Reduce, reuse, recycle (February 2007) SF Gate Magazine, 2 pages (303.4kb) View Full Article“The problem in architect Darrel DeBoer’s home — lack of storage — is a common one, as is the solution — taking over a small breakfast room to maximize kitchen space. But the project turned out to be quite uncommon. The home that DeBoer shares with his wife, artist Shari Arai DeBoer, is a showcase of materials that would have otherwise been discarded….”. episcopal-newsPhina Borgeson: Building ‘Green,’ building community in two California dioceses (December 2006) Episcopal News Service, 3 pages (364.7kb) View Full Article“…Believed to be only the third straw bale church in North America, St. Francis’ new worship space will be cool, quiet and filled with natural light. Bruneau hopes that some of the members of the wider community who helped with the straw bale work will find it a calm and beautiful space for prayer and meditation….”.

2010 Interview with The Natural Builders Owner - Kevin Rowell