Cambia is nestled within 15 acres, with about 5 of which is mostly a thicket of young scrubby vegetation and about 10 acres of mature (80 year old or so) forest. We have a small old house (over 100 years old) that we have restored and currently using as our common house: it has our kitchen, living room, office and one bedroom. Personal dwellings are small and modest. We have a cabin with a loft, a cozy sailboat with a deck, a fantastic vintage air stream trailer that's completely remodeled inside, and a building that we built which we call "the barn" (due to lack of better names) which has a workshop, guest space, residence, and a sacred space for gathering and meditation. We have a shed that is now used as a tool shop and workspace, a 30 ft diameter reciprocal framed gazebo used for workshops, classes, and gatherings, and a traditionally built wigwam. We're currently working on a new straw bale cabin, and will soon be adding a seed drying room, farm work space, and building a green house. There are also many outdoor spaces, like a dome covered in vines for summer, fire pits, a hand dug pond, campsites and playgrounds in the forest. |
Don't Build Your House In a Beautiful Place, Build it right next to it. Preserve the beauty by leaving it untouched. A humble house snuggles up to hillside or takes shelter under a large tree, it doesn't rush to the middle of a beautiful meadow. That's left for the deer and the kids to play in and for you to watch from your porch and remember the secondary place of your creations. |
Between Architectural- Anthropocentrism and Nature Worshiping
In making a space for humans in the forest we don't want to stand out or blend in. we aren't contrasting with bright colors nor are we using camo-nets. we don't accept all the trees and terrain as they are nor do we flatten the hilltop to create exactly what we want. like the complex dynamics of two trees growing next to one another we want to take the time to grow alongside nature maintaining a mutually constituent relationship.
An oak tree has no plan or blueprint for development; but it has certain needs, limitations, and an oaky kind of way in which it does things. (genetics). granted, nothing we would ever build could be as beautiful or artistic as an oak tree; but in a similar vein, we don't have a plan for developing the space. every thing that we do affects the appearance of the space and therefore the next step.
In making a space for humans in the forest we don't want to stand out or blend in. we aren't contrasting with bright colors nor are we using camo-nets. we don't accept all the trees and terrain as they are nor do we flatten the hilltop to create exactly what we want. like the complex dynamics of two trees growing next to one another we want to take the time to grow alongside nature maintaining a mutually constituent relationship.
An oak tree has no plan or blueprint for development; but it has certain needs, limitations, and an oaky kind of way in which it does things. (genetics). granted, nothing we would ever build could be as beautiful or artistic as an oak tree; but in a similar vein, we don't have a plan for developing the space. every thing that we do affects the appearance of the space and therefore the next step.