Bring Hempcrete Workshops to SC!

South Carolina needs building workshops centered around Climate-Smart building methods and materials. We're kicking things off with a HEMPCRETE PILOT PROJECT in Charleston, SC and we need your support! Your donation will help to make this possible.

More details are at the bottom!

There is a huge demand that has been growing over the 12 years that I have operated Root Down Designs, a small, woman-owned architecture firm in Charleston, SC dedicated to advancing sustainable, healthy, and oftentimes, alternative building methods. Our work is also heavily rooted in affordable and equitable housing solutions, as well as land and racial justice advocacy work; it all goes hand-in-hand.

We have been advancing these methods through both the architectural development, but also through hands-on, community-building style workshops. Hempcrete (Hemp-Lime), Rammed Earth, Compressed Earth Block, Strawbale, Light-Straw-Clay, Cob, Adobe, natural plasters and paints have all been topics of my workshops; always with a cross-over into passive solar strategies, thermal mass vs. insulation, thermal dynamics, and other important topics related to building in a southern environment. People are hungry for this information, to help inform them and empower them so that they might go on to do DIY projects of their own; many of whom do.

“Sense of community,” “empowering,” and “uplifting” are terms often used to describe these workshop experiences.

We’ve worked with elementary school children, high schoolers, college students, and adults. We've taught natural building workshops atThe Governor’s School of Math and Science, The American College of the Building Arts (where I am an Adjunct Professor), Greenville Technical College,SC State University, the Acorn School of Charleston, and dozens of privately-owned locations.

We have organized community-building events at places like the Romney St. Urban Garden cob oven in downtown Charleston, the rammed earth bus stop on Morrison Ave., the straw-clay chicken coop at Fresh Future Farms, and MUSC’s outdoor garden kitchen.

In Feb 2020, we launched a ‘Women’s Natural Building Collective,’ 35 Charleston-based women showed up to our very first workshop. Then Covid hit. But talk about a demand!

In Oct. 2022, we co-launched a Hempcrete Building workshop at ACBA, in partnership with Black Belt Justice Center. 60 participants came. 35 more sat on the waitlist. SC was well-represented at the workshop by a diverse group of individuals, including many of our Black Farmers, as a key component of our Hempcrete vision is a regional, circular economic & regenerative agriculture + building approach. We are creating new, decentralized construction systems in the south.

35% of those participants in this workshop were there on a free scholarship! Meals were provided. Lodging was provided for those who needed it; providing REAL accessible pathways is a guiding principle of our workshop. This was only made possible through funding by the Christopher Reynolds Foundation.

With every workshop experience and every time I check my inbox, I am reminded of the demand that is rapidly growing across the South, and across the country. People who are interested in being a part of the much-needed changes within the building industry, from the materials we’re using to the ways in which communities are composed. As the effects of climate change and housing disparities increase, here in Charleston we sit at ground zero. We can be a part of this change by investing in the work that is needed.

The demand is REAL, and we cannot even begin to meet the demand without growing a team and access to funding….and therefore, in Jan. 2023, the Root Down Building Collective, a brand new, grassroots 501c3 organization was born! As the Executive Director and Founder, I have been met with the unwavering support of 10 incredibly talented individuals who are my Board of Directors. Be sure to check them out! I am also constantly humbled by the many who offer their help and support!

RDCB is kicking things off with a HEMPCRETE PILOT PROJECT!!! This project will include the R&D which is needed to understand the wall assembly for a 150 mph. wind zone + seismic zone. We are working with Tim Callahan, the mastermind behind the Nauhaus Hempcrete Pilot Project in Asheville, NC & the author of 'Building Green' as our hempcrete consultant, and Medlock Structural Engineers. We have already received zoning approval from Charleston County. Next step: Building Permitting Approval. And then: workshops delivered to you!

This project is being designed for a prefab Hempcrete panel concept, which can also work with both a prefab hempcrete block as well as a cast–in-place method; providing diversity within the method. The data gained through this pilot project will give us the needed information to be able to advance and grow this work in SC and neighboring southern states.

The Hempcrete Studio will be built in Charleston County through a series of building workshops and educational opportunities.

Your tax-deductible donation will help to support the work of this organization; we are growing our capacity with additional teachers and facilitators so that these offerings can reach more people in SC and beyond. We are working to meet a demand that we are currently unable to meet.

Your donation will be used as follows:

$5k - used for the training and support of future workshop facilitators

$4k - scholarship fund - this amount will fund 10 future participants

$1k - tools + materials!

We need your help! Any tax-deductible donation amount will help with all of the time and expertise needed to fuel this work. We are applying for grants, but at this time, we are operating on a 100% volunteer basis and a $0 budget.

To learn more about the Root Down Building Collective, and Root Down Designs, click on these links. Also, check out the incredible perks we’re including below!

In gratitude,

April Magill

Donation Perks: