After stealing her sister’s Legos at the age of 3, Lydia Doleman became fascinated with building. Lydia has been building with straw and other biobased materials since the early 2000’s. Owner of Earth Dragon Natural Building, her work focuses on empowering people and communities to build with natural materials, fosters community connections and creates beautiful high-performance housing. Her work seeks to imbue crafted spaces with the sacredness of natural materials in a way that transforms human habitations into artistic, ecological symbols of home and belonging.
About a third of Oregon’s regulated greenhouse gas emissions result from the Residential and Commercial Sector. Emissions are generated during building construction (embodied emissions) and during day-to-day operation (operational emissions). By employing appropriate techniques during construction, builders can reduce both embodied emissions and operational emissions. Indeed, buildings could be the 6th largest carbon sink. Lydia Doleman’s book “Essential Light Straw Clay Construction” recently published by New Society Publishing is available online. It covers the details of how to build utilizing light straw clay construction.
Maybe you are likely to be undertaking construction yourself or know someone who is. Maybe not. Either way this program will provide you with valuable understanding and insights into one approach to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
The SOCAN April Public General Meeting at 6:00 pm on April 28th at the Medford Public Library will feature Lydia Doleman discussing her passion for climate friendly construction and what the benefits are.
