Over the weekend of the 6-7th of April Natural Building Australia brought together a variety of designers, architects, builders and natural materials professionals in a one-stop-shop affair in North East Victoria. The Natural Building tent included talks, panels, practical demonstrations and a chance for punters to chin wag with those passionate about natural building and design.

Although many of us have been present the festival for the last 6 years, this year we were prepared with our own program, and an (important) undercover space where we could gather and represent the various styles and offerings across the field, engage one on one and through Q and A sessions, and engage with a wide variety of people curious on how they can move forward with their project, renovation or dream home with confidence and support!

Over the two days we brought together a number of trades and professionals (most of whom you can find on our growing directory) to talk shop, and there was a full crowd in attendance for every session! We discussed pressing issues such as;

How to find designers, engineers and builders who are on the same page?

How do we get financing and what about insurance for natural homes?

What is happening in terms of getting approvals for natural materials in the BCA?

How can we design smarter using natural materials and think about passive design throughout the process?

And much more!

We will be uploading some recordings made of the panel events in coming weeks and we look forward to expanding the program next year to include more topics and sessions to encourage and facilitate more owner and natural building so we can see a change in the way housing is both thought about and constructed for long-term sustainability and energy efficiency. If you have any burning topics you’d like to see covered in the future please get in touch contact@naturalbuildingaustralia.org

Thanks to all our members and supports who helped get this exciting venture over the line. Bigger and better things to come as we gather together more natural builders, suppliers and trades together for an annual get together, network and continue to educate and encourage more Australians to think smarter and more sustainably about their homes. We’ll be uploading more blogs on each of the panels shortly.