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BiographyCatherine Wanek is the author and photographer of the new book, The Hybrid House, Designing with Sun, Wind Water, and Earth. She also wrote and photographed The New Straw Bale Home and co-wrote The Art of Natural Building. For five years she published and edited The Last Straw, the International Journal of Straw Bale and Natural Building. She has also contributed articles and photographs to Su Casa Magazine, Mother Earth News, Communities, Home Power and The New York Times. She is also a filmmaker. Catherine worked as an Assistant Director on Hollywood feature films and television from 1980-1989. She also co-produced the independent film Paper Hearts, starring James Brolin, Sally Kirkland and Kris Kristoferson, which was invited to the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. In 1992, she became an advocate of straw-bale construction while building a strawbale greenhouse. Subsequently she created a series of videos on the subject, including A Strawbale Workshop, A Straw Bale Home Tour, Straw Bale Code Testing and The Straw Bale Solution. She also produced, directed and photographed Build it With Rastra and Urban Permaculture. For more information see www.strawbalecentral.com In 1999, Catherine co-founded Builders Without Borders, a network of ecological builders dedicated to providing design/build education and hands-on help, to people and communities desiring to build affordable homes. In 2008, she led a BWB team to construct a straw-bale eco-house for an exhibition at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Currently BWB is developing sustainable designs for Haiti. See www.builderswithoutborders.org for more information. Catherine is owner of the Black Range Lodge, an historic bed and breakfast inn located in the mountains of southwest New Mexico, where she hosts workshops and conferences, including the Natural Building Colloquium. She is developing the Lodge as a center for ecological building and holistic living. For more information see www.blackrangelodge.com |
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