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About

In 2005 I traveled to the small mountain village of El Rito, New Mexico to learn adobe construction with Quentin Wilson. After more than 20 years of study and field work, I now teach a series of online adobe construction courses which guide students through the design and construction process of a healthy, energy-efficient home using earth as the primary building material. Visit Adobe in Action for an owner-builder training program, Santa Fe Community College for a college-level adobe certificate and Adobeisnotsoftware for an architect & building professional pathway.

Field Research (Ongoing)

More Clay launched in January, 2026 together with earthbuilders Steffen Dachsel and Andrei Mazas. More information coming soon.

Sourcing Clay in California launched in 2024 with a field trip to West Coast Sand & Gravel in Thermal, California to scope out clay for upcoming adobe projects in the Pioneertown/Joshua Tree area. The mountains you are seeing in the pictures below are made of almost pure clay. The extracted material is hard as a rock and super cohesive when mixed with water. A key step to working with this type of (montmorillonite) clay is to screen it down to at least a 1/4" particle size (even smaller is better) before blending it with water and aggregate. After collecting some field samples we ran the clay through a barrel sieve (imported from Germany) that attaches to the front of a concrete mixer and breaks the clay down to a workable size. Initial soil tests are pointing towards a mix ratio of 1 part clay to 8 parts sand for adobe block and plaster mixes. This type of clay is also perfect for making light straw mixes.

Mountains of clay in Thermal, California

Collecting samples from the unsifted clay extractions

Pre-crushed clay ready for loading and further processing

Light Straw Clay as Insulation launched in 2023 with a 4-day workshop I attended in the Uckermark region of Germany taught by renowned architect, earthbuilding specialist and author Franz Volhard. Light Straw Clay is a time tested, owner-builder-friendly technique for insulating walls and roofs. Clay is stirred up with water and mixed with long straw to create a building material with a dry weight of around 1000 kg per cubic meter. With a relatively high proportion of clay, the material has high strength and elasticity and is easy to place into wall and ceiling cavities. For more information on this technique I highly recommend ordering a copy of Franz Volhard's book Light Earth Building.

Clay slurry soaking box with long straw added

Finished light-straw-clay mix ready for the wall

Example light-straw-clay interior wall application

Sourcing Clay in Iceland launched in 2022 with a field trip to Halla Steinólfs' farm in the Búðardalur area of Northwest Iceland. It is not easy to find clay in Iceland due to the island's relatively young geology. Halla's clay (which is only about 15,000 years old) shows considerable binding strength and should make a fine earthen plaster. Initial plaster tests are pointing towards a mix ratio of 1 part clay to 3 parts sand. Sourcing Icelandic clay was the final step in material procurement for my ongoing Wool Wall project - a prefabricated modular wall system for a new generation of natural & sustainable buildings in Iceland. Other materials sourced during this visit to Iceland include washed raw wool from Blönduós (for insulation on the exterior side) as well as turf panels from Skagafjörður (to add thermal mass to the interior of the wall). Halla's clay will be used to finish the modules with an earthen plaster. A full-scale wool wall module (3m long x 2.5m high) and small test building are on the horizon.

Halla taking clay clay samples from her property

Getting ready to perform a hand wash test on the clay sample

Test earthen plaster using Halla's clay applied to a model wool wall panel

Wool Wall launched in 2021. Read the full Timeline & Progress Report here.

Mud Talks is a podcast series that I have been recording for the non-profit organization Adobe in Action since 2018. The series is built around conversations with Adobe in Action board member Quentin Wilson (and other practitioners from the field) on building and maintaining your own earthen home. Listen to the podcast on Spreaker.

Mud Talks 23: Owner Builder Rex Edhlund Making Adobes in Pioneertown, CA

Field Research (Archived)

Casa Grande Ruins Boundary Wall was an adobe restoration workshop that I co-led for Cornerstones Community Partnerships at Casa Grande National Monument in Arizona in 2019. We restored a section of an adobe boundary wall which was built by the CCC in the 1930s. Various volunteers helped make adobe blocks and build the wall. We employed a single-wythe (12 inch wide) adobe wall technique using natural adobe bricks and mortar. This is the largest adobe block size I have ever used - 12" x 18" x 4" with a dry weight of 54 pounds per block! All of the adobe blocks used for this phase of the project (about 500) were made on site by hand.

Death Valley Boundary Wall was an adobe restoration project I led for Cornerstones Community Partnerships at Death Valley National Park from 2015 to 2018. We restored a section of an adobe boundary wall which was built by the CCC in the 1930s. Americorps and various university programs supplied volunteers to help make blocks and build the wall. We employed a double-wythe (16 inch wide) adobe wall technique using natural adobe bricks and mortar. All of the adobe blocks used for this phase of the project (about 3,000) were made on site by hand. Special lime-stabilized adobe blocks were also made on site. The lime blocks were set at an angle to cap the wall with a weather-resistant roof to help shed rain and protect the adobe wall below.

Red Ryder Adobe was a small adobe structure that my wife Cornelia and I built over a 2-week period in Pioneertown, California in 2018. This was a further preliminary project to help Adobeisnotsoftware promote their mission of advancing adobe construction in California. Building with adobe is complicated in California due to seismic concerns. We therefore chose a double-wythe (24 inch) adobe wall technique for this project. Threaded rods run from the foundation all the way up through a wooden bond beam at the top (via the double wall chase). Strips of geogrid were incorporated into the brickwork every 3 courses for added reinforcement.

Iceland Turf House was a 4-day workshop that I attended at Tyrfingsstaðir, Skagafjörður in 2018. Our instructor - Helgi Sigurðsson of Fornverk ehf - guided us through the reconstruction of the stone foundation and turf walls of an old farm building. The turf blocks were cut and gathered directly from the field below. The course was organized by Byggðasafn Skagfirðinga - Regional Folk Museum. More information about Icelandic turf houses can be found here.

Reykjavík Soil Tests was a meet up with Miðgarður in Reykjavík, Iceland in 2018 to test locally-sourced clay and aggregates. Miðgarður is a building association that plans to build dense, green, low-rise neighborhoods which are centrally located and have a low priority for vehicles. The soil tests were successful and we see a real possibility of incorporating earth as a building material into their projects. One idea is to use earthen blocks for walls which separate adjoining apartments to enhance soundproofing. A thermal wall heating system (finished with earthen plaster) could easily be incorporated into these earthen walls to tap into Reykjavík's geothermal heating reserves.

Two Santa Fe Hornos was a design & construction workshop held at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden in 2016. The oven bases and adjacent benches were installed by a landscaping company before the workshops commenced. We continued the work by employing a sand form and cob wall technique to construct the oven domes. The small oven's inside diameter is 3 feet. The large oven's inside diameter is 5 feet. The oven walls are approximately 10 inches thick. The door openings are approximately 15 inches wide by 12 inches high. The oven materials (clay-rich crusher fines and coarse construction sand) were all sourced locally. We finished both ovens with two coats of natural earthen plaster strengthened with horse manure and lots of chopped straw.

Pioneertown Garden Wall was a preliminary project in Pioneertown, California in 2015 to help Adobeisnotsoftware promote their mission of advancing adobe construction in California. Local adobero Kip Powell made the natural adobe blocks directly on site using locally sourced soil and aggregate. We capped the wall with low-fired red bricks from Mexico.

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