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Stories on sustainable thriving, including experiences from Earthville’s projects and occasional reposting of particularly interesting green bits from all over.
On International Women’s Day of 2019, Didi Contractor, co-founding Professor Emeritus of the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture at Dharmalaya Institute, was presented with the Nari Shakti Puraskar, India’s highest civilian honor recognizing women who have made great contributions to India. The award was presented by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.
After the invigorating monsoon season, autumn is a natural time for reflective engagement as we return outdoors to work with the earth. Dharmalaya Institute’s autumn 2018 program season began with a five-day silent meditation retreat, led by mindfulness trainer Ellen van Iersel from the Netherlands, which set a contemplative tone. We then welcomed a lovely […]
Didi Contractor, a celebrated earthen architect and co-founding Professor Emeritus of the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture at Dharmalaya Institute (a project of the Earthville Network in the Indian Himalayas), was honored with WADe Asia’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in natural building in the Himalayas, which has inspired countless architects in India and beyond.
After years in the making, a new feature-length documentary film entitled “Didi Contractor: Marrying the Earth to the Building” premiered at the 2016 Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) in India. Directed by Steffi Giaracuni of Switzerland, the film explores the life and work of acclaimed earthen architect (and artist and designer) Didi Contractor, whom some […]
Last month, friends new and old from all corners of the globe (five continents!) came to Dharmalaya to participate in our fourth annual SanghaSeva retreats at Dharmalaya. As usual, we were feeling like family by the end, and mountains were moved — both outside and in.
After an unprecedented four-and-a-half-month monsoon, the Dharmalaya Institute in the Indian Himalayas is reopening its brand-new (and still-to-be-varnished) doors to volunteers, students, and interns, with a series of volunteer, service-learning, and retreat programs spanning the next eight months.
Some food companies have begun selling food products that are labeled as “natural” despite the fact that they contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients.
The Dharmalaya Institute, in partnership with venerated earthen architect Didi Contractor, is launching the Internship in Vernacular Eco-Architecture. The internship is a formal, academically-supervised service-learning program designed to provide architects (and students of architecture) with both practical experience and deeper theoretical knowledge in the arts and practices of sustainable building.
After a marathon rush of construction activity through the winter, the Dharmalaya Institute held the first programs in the new (and still-unfinished) main building of its Himalayan eco-campus for sustainable and compassionate living. Over thirty participants from ten countries made the journey to the mountain village of Bir for the occasion…
When we left you with the season finale cliffhanger last June, we had just bundled up our baby building with prayers that she’d survive the monsoon rains without a roof….