12-Day Natural Building & Timber Framing Course, Portugal

This 12-day workshop in Portugal, structured as a 9-day Traditional Timber Framing Course followed by a 3-day Natural Building Course with a weekend break, provides a complete bottom-up building process experience. Held at Serra de São Mamede Natural Park area, it includes accommodation and vegetarian meals (excluding the weekend of June 20-21). Participants learn fundamentals of trigonometry and geometry for functional, beautiful structures, basic principles of timber frame design including component names and rules, timber selection and surveying for joinery placement, and raising techniques with logistics. The timber framing segment covers empirical and theoretical knowledge distilled through group interaction. The subsequent 3-day natural building phase explores diverse natural materials for wall infills in the timber frame, applicable to wood frames, rammed earth homes, stone structures, and retrofits of conventional buildings. Techniques emphasize infill methods using locally sourced materials for durable, breathable walls. This immersive setup allows practitioners to understand and apply timber framing from foundations upward, integrating natural infills for regenerative construction. Practical details include hands-on joinery, frame assembly, and infill diversity, fostering skills for comprehensive natural building projects in permaculture or off-grid contexts.