The site of the first Village Building Convergence project in 2001 is now known as Planet Repair Institute. The vision of PRI is to assist communities to directly engage in local actions that they can see have a global, cumulative impact. Whether helping to develop resilient, socially grounded local urban permaculture systems or inspiring other neighborhoods to become increasingly active, PRI will be a catalyst for more and more constructive transformation.

This year’s VBC projects will include Portland’s first-ever strawclay insulation retrofit to an existing building. We will be adding salvage material “attachment fins” to the exterior of PRI that will be infilled with strawclay insulation and then finished with gorgeous and sculptural earthen plasters. The interior of PRI will also be insulated this way later in the summer. We will also at start at least one of two other projects. These will include the construction of Portland’s first elevated, spherical, solar-powered cob Chicken Palace, with a spiral chicken ladder. We may also complete the adaptation of an existing cob fireplace into a serviceable pizza and bread baking oven.

Schedule

Saturday, May 29th

9am-4pm Strawclay home retrofit begins

Sunday, May 30th

9am-4pm Retrofit continues until ready to plaster

Monday, June 31st

9am-4pm Chicken Palace begins

Workshop: 10am: Mushroom Cultivation with Sebastian Collet

Tuesday, June 1st

9am-4pm Finish Chicken Palace

Wednesday, June 2nd

9am-4pm Cob chimney retrofit

Thursday, June 3rd

9am-4pm Strawclay home retrofit “scratch coat” plastering

2pm: Block Repair site tour

Friday, June 4th

9am-4pm Omni-project detailing

Saturday, June 5th

9am-4pm Intersection Repair painting at Share-It Square