OUR TEAM
Greg - Co-founder, Lead Instructor
Greg apprenticed at the Cob Cottage Company (with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley) in 2008, and left that experience feeling passionate about spreading the knowledge and joy of natural building to others. He began teaching workshops in central North Carolina in 2009, and then bought rural land and started a homestead with Danielle in 2014. This is when we officially began teaching under the Mud Dauber School name, and at our current campus.
Greg was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. Favorite childhood memories involve camping in the Adirondack Mountains, cross-country road trips with his family, drawing/designing tiny living spaces, building with Legos, and endlessly making art. He formally studied Industrial Design at Syracuse University. While there, he fell in love with the process of design, enjoyed pottery classes, and interned at a small organic farm. All of these things were formative in leading him to natural building.
In addition to instructing workshops, Greg has been involved in contract work in the Central NC area since 2010. He has had his NC General Contractor’s license since 2017. In addition to conventional work, he has built a handful of straw bale residences, many naturally-built backyard studio spaces, and a variety of other custom design/build projects. His work is featured at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, Sanctuary Farm, and at many local private residences. He also regularly presents on natural building at local libraries and events.
Danielle - Co-founder, Lead Instructor
Danielle’s love of building began in childhood, where she spent many hours at her father’s drafting table, dreaming of one day building her own home.
After attending a cob building workshop in 2009, Danielle’s passion for natural building was kindled. She volunteered on every project available to learn about dry-stacked masonry, foundation systems, earthen floors, natural plastering, and green roofing basics. Inspired by all she learned, in 2010 Danielle built her own tiny cob home. With little money, and a lot of time and help from friends, she built a 12’x12’ two story cob cottage. Her cottage was built with cob mixed entirely by foot on a foundation of dry-stacked salvaged concrete. It also features an earthen floor, clay and lime plasters, a living roof, and cat stairs and cat nooks encircling the entire exterior.
Danielle is passionate about sharing the opportunity for people to get hands-on experience through the Mud Dauber workshops, where she focuses on creating a welcoming, ego-free environment where everyone can feel comfortable, at any skill level. She sees the campus as a place of reciprocal learning, where we can pause our regular routines and dream about what else is possible.
In addition to workshops, Danielle works in the natural building field. She has worked on various projects ranging from small residences, natural additions, backyard cottages and studios, and a recent new exhibit at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC featuring naturally built structures.
GUEST INSTRUCTORS:
Stephen Hren - Guest Instructor, “Intro to Permitted Cob”
Stephen Hren is a builder, writer and home inspector who lives in Durham, NC. He has been active for the past quarter century in building with cob and utilizing other natural and solar technologies to facilitate greater connectedness with our non-human neighbors. He has completed two of the first inspected cob residences in North Carolina and continues to work and advocate for bringing holistic building practices into the mainstream, and empowering individuals to build for themselves for their own independence and for future generations.
April Magill - Guest Instructor, “Intro to Hempcrete”
April is a leading voice in the advancement of alternative, climate-smart & healthy building methods and has been a pioneer in the southeast. She is an Architect, small business owner, Executive Director, and Adjunct Professor; April has been a keynote speaker and presenter to many organizations and universities over the past decade.
April has been a Charleston County resident since 2004 and has devoted her career to the advancement of sustainable architecture and affordable housing. After advancing her career at several Charleston architecture firms, in 2011 she took a leap of faith and founded Root Down Designs, a women-led architecture firm dedicated to sustainable architecture and affordable housing in the south where she serves as the Principal Architect. April pioneered several carbon-negative and alternative housing prototypes in Charleston, such as a Rammed-Earth home and Compressed Earth Blocks. She has worked with multiple building jurisdictions in helping clients obtain building permits for alternative materials and healthy housing. Working with financially-challenged clients and creating affordable building options has been a strong tenant of the Root Down team.
As a way to educate about these healthy and natural building materials, she began teaching building workshops with a ‘community-building’ ethos embedded. April has led over 4 dozen community-building workshops and courses across the southeast, including educational institutions such as Greenville Technical College, The Governor’s School of Science & Math, and the American College of Building Arts. Her passion for sustainable architecture and community-building workshops was noticed by The American College of the Building Arts, and she began serving as the Professor of Sustainable Materials in 2018.
Tim Callahan - Guest Instructor, “Intro to Hempcrete”
Tim Callahan is a former naval architect and general contractor. He is now in his fifth decade of design-build work, with extensive experience in guitar-making, timber framing, custom cabinetry, custom blue-water sailboats and residential construction. Since 1995, his work has been focused on the creation of healthy & energy-efficient homes. In an effort to develop a model for a low-carbon and non-toxic living environment, Tim led the design team for the Nauhaus Prototype in 2009; this was the first of 10 permitted hemp-lime projects which he has designed, ranging in size from 1200-9600 square feet. In 2005, Tim authored the book, ‘Building Green: A Complete Guide to Alternative Building Methods.” Tim lives in Asheville, NC, where he enjoys the outdoors and making music with his friends.