Village Building Convergence
Site :: PCC Sylvania Learning Garden
Location: 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219
Neighborhood: Far Southwest
Type: Institution/Organization
Website: http://pcc.edu/about/locations/sylvania/
Organizer(s): Kim Smith, Josh Liebschutz, Michael Rosati, Dylan Erickson, Jessica Anderson
Lead Placemaker(s): Bernhard Masterson: Natural Building
Attribute(s): Natural Building Permaculture Design Horticulture
Description
Portland Community College invites you to help us build community and have fun while creating a covered relaxation area in our PCC Sylvania Learning Garden. Share in our vision and get your feet and hands earthy as we create a cob bench, eco-roof, water catchment system, and rain garden. Spawned from a vibrant collaborative process, using reclaimed and locally sourced materials, and led by Natural Builder Bernhard Masterson, the structure will exemplify a plethora of sustainable building techniques. Keeping with Sylvania’s Native-American theme, the cob bench will depict salmon, respecting the pivotal role this majestic fish has played in the Pacific Northwest. The half-moon bench will encircle a gazebo, showing off a reciprocal roof system composed of round wood with space for future solar panel additions!
The gathering place will be built in PCC Sylvania's Learning Garden, a space that is being developed as an interdisciplinary Living Laboratory to demonstrate principles of sustainability. From growing organic produce for our cafeteria and composting leftovers in worm bins to scientific test gardens and growing natural dyes for art projects, the learning garden will be a dynamic place for students, staff, and the public to cultivate their minds, get in touch with nature, or simply relax in the shade or out of the rain on our new salmon bench. Please come join us during the VBC and help create a beautiful space together. And don’t forget to check out our workshops below!
Special thanks to Linda Gerber, our Sylvania Campus President for all of her generous support!
Directions
Public Transportation: Bus #44
For directions and campus map: http://www.pcc.edu/about/locations/sylvania/
Park in P-14. Parking passes are required.
Schedule
Cob building will take place each day, including construction, sculpture, art, and gardening. Lunches and snacks will be available daily for all volunteers!
VBC 2010 Volunteer and Workshop Schedule:
Cob building will take place each day, including construction, sculpture, art, and gardening. Lunches and snacks will be available daily for all volunteers!
- Friday, May 28
10- 5pm VBC Kick-off!
Come learn about the bench design and start mixing cob.
- Saturday, May 29
Volunteers: 9am-5pm Cob mixing and foundation building
Workshop: 10:30am- noon How to Build a Worm Bin with Josh Liebschutz
Learn basic concepts and techniques for indoor and/or outdoor vermiculture. Learn how to create an enjoyable ecosystem for your red worms by understanding their dietary needs, their environmental preferences, and their reproductive habits. View several functioning vermiculture bins and speak with an experienced vermiculturalist about choosing the best vermiculture system for your situation.
- Sunday, May 30
Volunteers: 10am-5pm Cob mixing and building
Monday, May 31- Campus closed for Memorial Day
- Tuesday, June 1
Volunteers: 9am-5pm Cob building, sculpture, and rain garden
Workshop: 10am-1pm: Natural Dyes 1: Extracting Dyestuffs and Mordanting Fibers with Serena Skaates
The first step in coloring fiber with natural materials is to create the dyebath and prepare the material to be dyed for fixing of the colorant. For our dyebaths, we will extract yellow colorants from weld leaves and red colorants from madder roots. We will prepare wool and silk fibers for dyeing by heating in metal salt solutions.
- Wednesday, June 2
Volunteers: 9am- 5pm Cob building, sculpture, and rain garden
Workshop: 10am-noon Natural Dyes 2: Dyeing the Fibers with Serena Skaates
The protein fibers and dyebaths prepared in Natural Dyes 1 are now ready to be used to obtain hues from purple through red, orange, yellow and soft green. We will also dye a variety of natural fibers, including cotton, using our naturally-fermented indigo vat to obtain the hues of blue and deep green.
- Thursday, June 3
Volunteers: 9am- 5pm Cob building, sculpture, and rain garden
Workshop: 2pm-4pm Natural Dyes 3: Post-Mordanting and Rinsing Dyed Fibers with Serena Skaates
The hues of the fibers prepared and dyed in Natural Dyes 2 and 3 will be adjusted as desired, as well as made more permanent in the final stage of the process.
- Friday, June 4
Volunteers: 9am- 5pm Cob building, sculpture, and eco-roof
Workshop: 11am-12pm How to Build an Eco-Roof with Greg Haines
Ecoroofs Everywhere is sponsoring our ecoroof workshop. Come help move soil and plants up to the roof and learn about the process of installing an ecoroof.
Workshop: 1pm-2pm Plant Native! with Erin August
Come hear about the advantages (less care, less water, more wildlife) of using natives in landscaping, and see how beautiful plants can be!
- Saturday, June 5
Volunteers: 9am- 5pm Finish cob bench, eco-roof, and rain garden
Workshop: 11am-noon How to Build a Rain Garden with Sam Moore
Rain gardens provide many benefits to our environment and (perhaps?) your checkbook! Come and learn the basics of designing and installing a rain garden. Hands on training included!
- Sunday, June 6
Volunteers: Noon-3pm VBC Celebration