Building with Straw

Join Studio For Now for a discussion about the benefits, challenges, and transformative potential of building with natural materials like straw and mud. In this session, we’ll explore the history of natural building and its potential revolutionary impact on housing, climate resilience, and community empowerment.

Building with Straw will feature insights from Joe Trumpey, who has completed three straw bale structures in Michigan, and Aziza and Nyame, who are leading the Detroit Straw Bale Revolution and moderated by Elle Gover, design researcher at Bloom Housing and board member at Bale Craft . Together, we’ll discuss their experiences, share examples of completed and in-progress projects, and connect to create a growing network of natural building enthusiasts in Detroit.

Attendees will leave with:

• Understanding of the materials and methods encompassed by the term “natural building”
• An introduction to straw bale architecture and natural building practices.
• Real-life examples of existing and in-progress natural structures.
• Knowledge of how materials like mud, straw, clay, and hemp can empower us to build affordable, non-toxic, and sustainable homes and buildings that strengthen our communities.

This introductory conversation is a call to action for Detroiters—and people everywhere—interested in reclaiming the skills to create housing for themselves and their community that supports both people and the planet.
Timing:
10am-10:15am: Welcome
10:15am-11:15am: Building with Straw Conversation
11:15am-11:30am: Q+A
11:30am- 11:45am: Tour of the Carhartt tool library, workshop schedule and resources

About the Carhartt Workshop
The Carhartt Workshop, located on the second floor of the Carhartt flagship store, is community space offering free tool rentals from their extensive equipment library, alongside free workshops, instructional sessions and other resources.
Studio For Now is a place-based art project curated by Ellen Rutt for Detroit-area artists and makers to access methods, materials and connections that facilitate growth within their own practices in service of ecological and creative flourishing.
Contact [email protected] with any questions

Aziza K.S. Knight
Dr. Aziza K.S. Knight intelligently fuses art, intuitive spiritual coaching, manual touch bodywork, assisted harmonic breath, and Reiki in her integrated healing practice. More commonly known as “Dr. Zee”, she has been studying and practicing spirituality, the arts and health sciences for the duration of her lifetime. She has an academic background in Psychology (B.S, 2008), Reiki (Master Level III, 2011), Chiropractic (DC, 2014), and Grief & Bereavement Counseling (2019) and is an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church, whose only tenet is to support those who have committed to “do that which is right”.
Aziza is the co-founder of Detroit Strawbale Revolution. Together with Nyame and others, they are in the process of building a mud-and-strawbale prototype and hosting community workshops. “Natural building invites us to think about new ways to walk and chill on this earth, and use our resources in a more conscientious way. The climate chaos we are experiencing stems from the colonial view of humans separate from nature; nature as something separate and out there, and in the worst case, nature as something to control and tame. The earth is a home, and natural building is the soft commitment to treating the earth as our home. It reminds us that the earth provides everything we need, from wood to straw to mud to stone, and that by sharing knowledge, tools and skills we can live abundantly on this earth.”

Nyame Adama Selassie
Nyame Adama Selassie is a mother, medicine woman, author, and activist for human and social justice and earth based sustainable living. Her life has been adventurous and colorful as she raised her children being a gangster, traveling and living in Spain, the Caribbean and U.S. She has received sacred teachings from both her African and Indigenous native roots. She has been on her journey of self-healing and sharing her medicine for over 35 years; the knowledge of healing from the inside out.

Nyame works primarily but not exclusively with women as a guide and support in discovering their own sovereignty through wholeness of emotions soul, body and mind. She has shared her teachings in communities, prisons, schools and organizations from North America to the jungles of Palenque, Chiapas and cities of central Mexico.

She is currently involved in the movement of Eccobarrios U.S.A. through childhood education, building of a national databank of black sustainable partners in building agricultural economics, human and social justice and community building.

Joe Trumpey
Joe Trumpey is a Professor of Art at the Stamps School of Art & Design, and a Professor of Natural Resources at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Joe Trumpey dedicated seven years to researching natural building techniques, resulting in a sustainable home that broke ground in 2007 and emphasizes low-energy materials and off-grid living. The 2,200-square-foot residence utilizes a photovoltaic array for electricity and incorporates green design principles and primarily used materials sourced within ten miles of the site. They have not burned a gram of fossil fuel to heat the home and hot water since 2010. With significant contributions from his family, including extensive stonework and lumber milling, the home exemplifies the combination of beauty and functionality in sustainable architecture.Trumpey guided students in his Green Building class in constructing the first official student-made building in Ann Arbor at the UM Campus Farm Matthaei Botanical Gardens, focusing on green building through a straw bale structure that will serves as a social space for farm activities, while learning about historical straw bale construction. The class previously built a strawbale cottage at the UM Biological Field Station in Pellston, Michigan.

In Joe Trumpey’s class, Tree to Table, students transform storm-damaged campus trees, including the historic Tappan Oak and cherry logs, into functional furniture, while emphasizing sustainability, tree biology, and woodworking skills to promote eco-friendly products and address the issues of disposable consumer goods, with plans for further interdisciplinary development.

Elle Gover
Elle is a designer and researcher currently working on Bloom Housing, a service aiming to expand access to affordable housing across the United States. Their personal work focuses on incorporating natural building materials with accessible design to create sustainable, healthy, and cost-effective homes. This spring, Elle and their partner, along with a team of natural builders and helpers, will begin building a tiny cabin in Northern Michigan using straw-SIPs produced locally by Bale Craft. This project will serve as both a research project and a demonstration of affordable, scalable, low-carbon building practices.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Carhartt Workshop, 5800 Cass Avenue, Detroit, United States