SOLID EARTH ADOBE BUILDINGS
Earthbuilding Construction and Adobe Brick Manufacture
With over 200+ completed projects since 2002 and many years of teaching experience in NZ and abroad, Solid Earth Ltd is one of the most experienced natural building companies and the longest standing Adobe Brick manufacturer in the country.
Our focus is on creating beautiful, healthy living spaces that have minimal environmental footprint. We take pride in our state-of-the-art workmanship, extensive research and innovation in the field, as well as our contribution towards the NZ Earth Building Standards. We believe that natural building is the way of the future. Our company is dedicated to regenerative environmental practices, ethical employment, heart-centred leadership and community.
We specialize in the Adobe Brick technique, natural plasters over a range of substrates, earthen feature walls in timber-framed buildings, as well as the restoration of historic cob buildings. We carry out earth building construction work only, working in with other construction professionals and tradespeople as required.
We opted for building an adobe house after weighing up various earth-building options. Verena was invaluable in our building process – very responsive to our many email questions and really knowledgeable. She visited for two overnight stays – the first to teach us how to make the bricks and the second to get us laying them. Verena’s experience in building and design meant that these visits were fantastic for our confidence. She brings a ‘down-to-earth’, well-informed, and good-humoured approach firmly grounded in principles of sustainability and we would highly recommend her to anyone considering building in adobe.
Leigh Harrington, Shannon, NZ
I came to the Solid Earth summer workshop without any experience and with a relatively small amount of previous study on Earth building; I left with a comprehensive base-level understanding of the material, the techniques, the theory and the practicality and perhaps most importantly, a feeling of competency in working with clay. Verena was an excellent host who made the learning material accessible and relevant to all sorts of participants. I would highly recommend this workshop to anyone with an interest in incorporating clay into their lives!
Chrissy, USA
Our design and build 187m2 new home has been years in the planning. We discovered Verena and Scott and their awesome product while we were living in Nelson. Verena was exceptionally helpful with integrating the earth brick into our design. Throughout the whole process we have found Solid Earth Ltd extremely helpful, friendly and totally professional. The scientific and technical information supplied for Building Consent definitely helped our project across the line. We would not hesitate to recommend Solid Earth Ltd to anyone considering an earth brick project.Ali and Joy Kingan, Oamaru.We were delighted, and relieved, to find someone of Verena’s calibre who could help us with a complex 1860s cob cottage conservation project. Her expertise was invaluable to develop the project with funders, engineers, builders, and the building conservator. She was able to diagnose particular problems through careful research, her team worked incredibly well to get the job done, and we couldn’t be more happy with the results.Steve Austin, Marlborough Museum, Blenheim.A thorough and extensive workshop on all aspects of earth building and wall finishing, wonderfully presented by passionate and experienced hosts. Enough theory to aid understanding and plenty of hands on experience to give a good feel for the material and it's many uses in construction. Highly recommended for those who are just curious through to those who are about to build.Ian Astbury, Takaka.
