​

FAQ

​

Q: How will the video lessons be released

 

A: To date as of May 2023, the Siberian timber vault (practical) as well as quite a few theoretical lessons have already been uploaded to the Bio-Veda portal. The rest of the footage from Brazilian build as well as the new vaults that I am building will be released at the end of 2023. The fully fledged Wautillarium Earthship hybrid theory and practical  will be released during this fall and winter.  Every time new footage is released the price of the training will go up.

​

During our biweekly ZOOM calls I do show raw unedited footage so you are still able to see how I did what I did. I am here to support your projects and you are welcome ask whatever questions related to my current build or your own construction project. Due to the short building season I am not able to video edit the new footage, as I take great care to script every single lesson and pre record the audio that I lay over the video. As you can see from the sample lesson, this training is vastly different to my previous water and dome courses. 

 

This training is my masterpiece which will be ongoing until the Wautillarium home is build, with self heating and self cooling strategies working in the various climatic conditions. After that point I will continue providing zoom support on donation basis (from 2025). Every time new footage is released, the price of the training will go up, to match the quantity of my time invested into the video lessons. The price of this training at the point will range from 1000-1500 USD 

 

​

Q: I am aware of your weekly live ZOOM calls, when does your course start? How can I catch up if I missed anything ?

 

A: The course started on the 8th of Jan 2023. The next session will start in 2024. Every week I release one lesson and during the Sunday ZOOM  call Q&A are discussed at length. You are welcome to join our training at any time during this year. All lessons and previous ZOOM calls are recorded and organised on our Bio-Veda portal . You can always ask any question, even from the previous classes, at any of our ZOOM calls. If you can't make our ZOOM sessions then you can ask your questions in our telegram chat and I will get it answered during Sunday and send back the recording to all other students, shortly after.

​

Q: I am interested in your courses on design & building, but live in Texas, USA, and we have more hot weather than cold. How much adaptation is included for warmer climates?

 

A: I will cover warm climate adaptations in great detail. Having lived in South Africa for 23 years, I know how uncomfortable hot weather can be. Also our summers here are very hot as well. In both training programs, we’ll spend a great deal of time discussing solutions for our passive homes to mitigate that unbearable heat as well as freezing cold.

​

Q: You have two training programs which cover the Earthship-Hybrid. What is the difference between the training programs? As a  newbie do I need to take both classes?

 

A:  No you do not need to take both classes. Some folk are able to sketch their homes and want to learn how to build using new methods which I present. Whilst others know how to build yet want to learn the drawing aspect to get their homes approved by an architect or an engineer. Others want to be able to visualise their future home from all angles (3D spin around) or figure out some complex detail (such as connection joints, cut angles etc)

 

Q: Will you be teaching us how to integrate a home for on-grid situation as well as the Off-Grid living?

​

A: Yes, I myself lived both off-grid but currently will be building with cheap municipal electricity already installed. I will show how to install. simple off-the-grid solar system. Complex electrical systems will not be covered at our training.

The water catchment, storage and filtration will be taught in great detail and we already cover it in my other Abundance of Water training. The focus of this training is to build a home that has a comfortable t°, without electricity or fossil fuels.

 

Q: Will I need a structural engineer?  How will an engineer react to a design like this? How to ensure structural integrity without an engineer? What about snow loads?

 

A: Being able to speak from position of knowledge and understanding how the vault works, how the forces are distributed laterally, why buttressing is important, compression vs tension forces etc. gives an engineer confidence in you and your design.  We will cover in detail the Cal-Earth engineering tests that Nader Khalili conducted with a US based engineer. I will also share with you important common sense thinking method so you learn to build without an engineer. This kind of thinking is ofcourse works hand-in-hand by understanding the physics behind catenary shapes. I also tend to overdo a little on materials instead of paying an engineer. However my latest 2023 Warillarium design, that I will use to teach this course from,  will be tested by an engineer with all the necessary calculations. The weight of the snow loads will be accommodated for.

​

Q: Long-term tests of the resiliency of the buildings. Have any been in use for a long enough time to show how they stand up over the years? 

​

A: The wooden "hobbit" home I will teach is my friends' design. He has lived in the same version for over 11 years. It has no cement foundation yet it is robust if it is kept dry. The superadobe and ferro-cement construction methods have stood the test of time. The tyre technique, from earthships is 100%, for exception of  wet clay that is rammed in them. In our training I will teach how to keep our homes dry and crack proof. I have made countless mistakes and will share with you what did not work and how to make it work. 

​

Q: What level of cold temperature can the building handle?

​

A: I am designing it to handle a range of [-32°C / -25°F >>> +35°C / 95°F] . This is the range of temperature that is observed throughout the year in the area I live. However we'll discuss the strategies we ought to implement in our homes if t° ranges are colder and hotter than that. For example thicker insulation for colder climates with backup heat strategies as well as larger awnings or deeper excavations for hotter climates.

​

Q: What might be the cost and accessibility of supplies? 

​

A: The wooden vault I share with you we managed to build for 1000 USD for ALL THE MATERIALS. There is a way to build for cheap by using recycled materials or by being resourceful about what you use. For example using lower grade timber that you will have to clean yourself (from bark) or by using second hand plywood from a large construction site will lower your cost of building up to 10x fold. Generally we build with low-cost lo-tech materials. I've lost my previous home to a bank so we are proud debt free builders. I am expecting a full Wautillarium home to be build for 15000 USD if one is being resourceful about materials. 

​

Q: I am worried that with my schedule and different time zones I will not be able to attend live sessions.  

A: Live Q&A presentations will be recorded and a video link will be sent out shortly after. If you are not able to attend, you'll be able to send your question to our telegram group and I'll answer it in our ZOOM call. The sessions are planned  for SUNDAY's at 20:00 Moscow time, for 1.5 - 2 hours (it is 9:00 am Central pacific time in winter and 10:00 am when clocks change in spring). During my building season (2023) I will change the release of the new lessons and zoom support sessions to every second Sunday. All the lessons that have been posted are available for immediate watching.

​

Q: What about the maintenance of such a building?

A: Wautillarium is a living machine that will clean your air, feed you using your waste water, keep you comfortable throughout the year, therefore it needs a little care in return.

If we are talking about maintenance of ecosystems (such is bio-char filter, water organising module, constructed wetlands  etc) then yes it does take a little time. For example Bio-Char filter has to have bio-char replacement after 3 years (production of 300 litres of clean drinking water per day). Plants in the wetlands have to be pruned. Pump for the toilet will break ever +- 2-3 years. Septic might have to be cleaned out every 5+ years. However I am striving to create a fully autonomous system: for example windows in greenhouse will open up automatically with WAX hydraulics. Considering that this home will feed you as well then certain work will need to be done with the garden.

 

Q: What about high humidity and/or high water table and water drainage?

A: I had the same question to Mike Reynolds, from Earthship Bio-Tecture, as I have a very high water table in the area where I'll be building it. I will post the answers from our video call. In essence you cannot have your home submersed deep in if you have a high water table. High humidity is something that we will go deeper into. Humid & cold VS humid & hot will have two different strategies and we will address them. Water drainage will be covered and 2 strategies will be discussed: diversion berm as well as the french drain.

​

Q: Will there be a good quality mockup / 3D design which can show the interior as well as the exterior of the home for better visualisation purposes

A: Yes, I am honoured to announce that my latest 2023 Wautillarium (Larium Aqua Terrarium) will be professionally drawn as a proper architectural blueprint with all the necessary details. I am employing a proper 3D Designer to finetune my design and give it life with textures, lighting etc. I will use THIS VERY DESIGN to teach this course. I will also be building this very same design for my family in 2023. Larium Aqua Terrarium is a result of 10000+ hours of DIY building experience on a tight budget, countless building workshops, lads of research and 100's of sketches . New strategies include low 1m/3 foot high walls for ease of construction, polycarbonate greenhouse and fractal build that allows to construct a home as resources and time become available 

​

Q: The #1 priority for me is to learn where in the world I should select to live, and hopefully have a family.  A peaceful, safe environment, which is becoming rare here in the US and many other places.

​

A: You know my answer, our country is best, we have freedom of speech, cheap prices on land, loads of cheap organic food, fantastic transportation, safety and total freedom. Don't trust anything you hear about our country from anywhere outside of our country. 500 years of R.U.$0 phobia did it's deed.

​

Q: Will you cover high wind, floods, high heat, fires and deep snowfall. Will this home design be able to accomodate for natural disasters. 

A: Wautillarium, just like an Earthship is  submerged in the ground and thus is fully protected from 3 sides. For floods we build up with sandbags. my 162 foot wall was covered by 6 foot high of raging river. I know what it takes to build for disaster. Having visited the town of Paradise after the devastating fire, I've made fireproof strategies to Wautillarium and we'll discuss those. Deep snowfall is something that I also have to deal with and thus I have redesigned the shape of my 2023 Wautillarium to accomodate for snow load on the greenhouse. (you can notice the shape is like an onion in order for the snow to just slide off)

​

Q: How do you build a bio shelter for retirement when you are older and short on energy?

A: This weautillarium course covers 2 strategies for the roof (+1 more using aircrete bricks) and 2 methods for building walls. I will make a separate lesson addressing strategies one can use to build with little energy/manpower/finance. The wooden room I've build with 2 elders of 61 and 70 at 4 hours per day for 6 weeks.

 

Q: Will you provide a detail list of materials needed to build this home

A: Yes I will. The home will be build in phases. Phase #1 will have the main room and 1x side room with a toilet and sauna/shower. Detailed list of materials will be provided for this part of the build. Phase #2 is green house, reactor, tropical jungle will all be developed in 2024 and materials used will be recorded and provided. This phase #2 part of training will also be available for you. Phase #3 will include second storey greenhouses and the onion shape zomes. These will form a separate training in the future to keep the price affordable for this training. The full list of materials will be included in the blueprints of the Larium Aqua Terrarium. These will be available for purchase in 2023

​

Q: My greatest challenge here in USA is zoning code compliance. My number one challenge is Permits, then comes sustainability and affordability. 

A: I will share a model I've developed whilst touring the US. It is under 200 sq foot with an additional 200 sq ft "fake" floor that will not count as floor space (because it is made of a dreamcatcher DIY net). A 200 sq foot or smaller greenhouse can be built in US without a permit. I will share strategies how it can be interconnected legally with your home, so you can tap it's heat and store it in the mass. I'll provide you with a design for such a home free of charge and I can develop a proper blueprint at an additional cost.

​

Q: How will this home be heated in cold weather

A: I have made a video called The Mechanic of Wautillarium. In essence it will heat itself just like an Earthship absorbing the sunlight into its thermal mass. After much research I have added  2x extra strategies, due to lack of winter sun and Subzero climatic conditions. Firstly large hot compost using Jean Pains' method and secondly we will passively channel the heat from top of the greenhouse into the insulated back perm on the shady northern side. These methods will be explained and shown in our training using a 3D model and my own build in summer 2023. 

​

Q: If I can't get through all the material by the end of 12 weeks, will I have access to the videos?

A: Yes our tutorials will be available indefinitely into the future and once the lessons are uploaded they will be made downloadable.

​

Q: Can the hobbit wooden vault be stretched wider, and to how wide?  

​

A: yes it can, but it will exert larger lateral force and therefore stronger buttress will be needed.  The current vault is 6.6 metres which is a good size for first time builder. Please note that wood comes in 6 m length and we had to join 6+1.5 m to make up the 6.6 m wide vault, which took extra time.  6m length of wood can give you 5 m vault. I would recommend to start with a 5 m vault, as then you do not have to join any wood, it will be a much faster build.

​

Q:  Is snow load a problem? Can the heater in my greenhouse melt this snow? 

​

A: Snow load is not a problem as long as the angle of the greenhouse allows for snow to roll off. Alternatively some form of vibration device has to be connected in order to make the snow roll offvibrator has to be connected. The beams for the greenhouse need to be strong enough to hold the snow  

​

Q: Will the compost pile stink and will it add unwanted heat to the house in summer?

 

A: There will be no spell at all due to correct ventilation and thoughtful and well researched design.