Meet the Team
Lola Byron
Founding Director of The WNB Collective
I first discovered Natural Building in 2010 and it has been my life passion, work and obsession ever since. Creating the Women Natural Builders Collective has been a dream come true for me, I feel honoured to help Women all around the world on their journey of discovery and empowerment in the natural building world.
My background is in Art, specifically in sculpting. I graduated from University and continued my studies to become an art teacher in Further Education. I got to the point where I had everything I was supposed to need to be happy (job, partner, car etc) but I felt overwhelmingly unfulfilled...was this it? is this what I was striving for? I knew I needed to explore more options, so I decided to try something new and enrolled on a Permaculture Design Course(PDC) in Bristol with Sarah Pugh. This experience changed my life forever, it opened up a different world to me; showed me how we can function differently on this planet and with each other, and it taught me that it is time to act now; it is time to be the change we need in this world. Once this door had been opened I knew there was no going back and that was just fine by me.
Yuly - Core Builder
Yuly is one of the core builders in the WNB crew. She was born in Israel and has lived in South West Portugal for the past five years. She is dedicated to aligning with nature’s way through Permaculture, Natural Building and other regenerative practices, and is always exploring alternative ways to find harmony in simple abundant living.
Tati - Core Builder
Tati is a core builder with the WNB crew. She moved to live in South Portugal six years ago from Israel. Currently together with her partner she is establishing an off grid farm, growing vegetables, building their home and parenting their magical child. Over the past 10 years she has been experimenting with natural building projects in Israel, India and Portugal.
Melody - Core Builder
Melo is a WNBC core builder and our head carpenter. She was born in Portugal and grew up in France before returning back to her Portuguese roots.
At 19 Melody realised her dream to leave the mainstream system and renovate a campervan using only recycled, salvaged and found materials. This gave her a great insight into working with wood and it started her journey to experience and learn more about carpentry and natural building. She has always had a deep connection with the source of her materials, listening and observing the forest and taking only what is available and in surplus.
Melody spent many years travelling and building anything from campervans, to compost toilets to beautiful geometric zome structures, she built up her skill set and knowledge before becoming a key part in the WNBC team in 2020. Melody is a great problem solver who loves to work through challenges in a creative way, she is passionate about what she does and loves to share her skills to inspire others in this field.