Womens Natural Building and Carpentry Workshop
'Womb Temple'
May 10th - 19th 2025
@ Templo Da Vida, Castelo Branco, Portugal
We’re thrilled to announce our collaboration with Templo da Vida and extend a special invitation to come and join us for a unique 9-day, women’s-only natural building workshop. Together, we will create a space that honors, nurtures, and supports women through all stages of b-earth and new parenthood, a sacred womb temple sculpted with earth. Led by the WNBC’s core builders, you will gain a deep understanding and hands-on experience of the ancient art of natural building, all while celebrating the feminine in a safe, supportive environment.
“There’s a magic that happens when women come together —
walls come down, layers peel back, courage rises, and our truths find a voice.
We gather to create something that can’t be felt alone.”
What is Natural Building?
Natural building is so much more than just building with natural materials; it is about reconnecting with our ancestral roots and our natural environment. It’s about building beautiful, durable, healthy and spiritually uplifting buildings as well as building relationships with people and the planet along the way. It’s about observing and respecting the world around us, consciously using local, renewable and sustainable materials to create buildings that work in harmony with our mind, body and soul, and the environment they inhabit.
Building a structure with natural materials is an empowering, humbling and inspiring experience, and building with only women creates a sacred, safe and supported sisterhood. We will connect with the earth, with ourselves, with each other and with these ancient building techniques which are silently ingrained in all of us. Together we will tap into this hidden knowledge and bring to life the skills and magic to create your own home.
What is The Women's Natural Building Collective?
The WNBC is a collective of experienced women builders living and working in Southern Portugal. We build unique natural structures that respond to their environment whilst also creating job opportunities and a training programme to empower women with the skills to build. We share a passion for building, for celebrating and honoring the feminine, and a deep calling to do what we can to protect our planet in a hope to create a more balanced and beautiful future.
Why women only?
We have nothing against our fellow brothers, honestly; as a collective we often work with men and we also have mixed gender courses. What we have noticed over the years, however, is how differently women respond on a site when men are present, especially when power tools and machines are introduced. Seeing this we wanted to create a space for women to feel more comfortable, safe and supported to experiment and try these often ‘male dominated’ activities. We also know from experience that when women come together, with intention, a shared vision and similar goals, something very magical and special happens. Our workshops are a lot more than just building, it is also a celebration of the goddess within us all!
Who is the workshop for?
This workshop is for women of any age and physical ability; no one is excluded from building with earth, we embrace our diversity and differences, our strengths and weaknesses; we can all play an important role in the process no matter how big or small. This workshop is for your personal development, inner growth, empowerment and is designed so that every individual walks away feeling inspired, connected and confident to continue to build with earth and with the ethics of ecological house design.
What will you learn?
During this workshop you will be connecting with the earth from day one; gaining experience, trusting your intuition and learning through doing. You will be guided by our experienced and passionate team of women builders with many years of experience and a wealth of knowledge and skills. We will be building a house, a temple for women, a nurturing, safe and sacred space to b-earth.
Our mission during this workshop is to teach you the art of natural building. While together, we begin to build the temple that we have been lovingly designing for the past 6 months, there will also be an opportunity for participants to stay longer after the workshop and continue to build with our team.
In this workshop you will learn how to;
Test clay sub-soils and use the results to create the perfect earth mix
Learn about ecological house design and climate specific design and implementation
Learn about the stages of construction; foundations, walls and roof
Create a dual functional foundation system
Learn carpentry through erecting the timber frame of the building
Make a strong and supportive stem wall
Mix and work with cob
Mix and apply slip straw
Work safely with power tools and hand tools
75% of this workshop will be hands-on learning, with some theory sessions and documentaries woven in to give you the solid foundations on how to build, where and why!
Alongside all of this we want to integrate and celebrate the feminine energy between us, to share, laugh, dance, cry (if we want to) and explore the different layers of ourselves. We will have additional (optional) morning and evening activities; movement, women's circles, meditation, dance and singing; to celebrate all that we are and all that we can be.
More about the host!
Meet Alora, her daughter Anistasia and her beautiful vision for Templo Da Vida:
Alora is a Sacred Artist, Bearthkeeper and Mamapreneur passionate about restoring natural wisdom, wellness, love and birth.
For the past 4 years Alora has been devoted to a vision and mission she received upon arriving on the land in the heart of Portugal back in August 2020.
I received a vision that it was once a natural birthing cave and I was to restore it as a birthing sanctuary. A year later I returned and bought the land with my beloved to initiate the vision, 6 months later we conceived and in November 2022 welcomed the blessed arrival of our daughter Anastasia. Amidst the challenges of navigating living off grid in a pandemic and then the news of Anastasia’s father leaving when she was just 4 months old Alora took some space to grieve and embrace the transformation and gift of Mamahood before resuming the vision.
As a single mama for me theres nothing more healing and empowering to share with my daughter than building this sanctuary with other women to bless the space and devotionally resume and nurture the vision that will inspire, empower and nourish all those that come to visit and co-create.
TEMPLO DA VIDA is 1.5 hectares of urban land nestled in the farmlands of Orca, central Portugal. The ultimate vision is to create a sanctuary, school and spa to nourish, connect and create a sacred space to birth, grow and thrive.
FEATURES...
We have beautiful majestic boulders, a well, stream, hot running water, double compost toilet, our home, a A frame wood cabin, our beloved 6m yurt known as the nest and a pop up source cafe sharing cleansing and nourishing feasts and fountains of goodness. The land is well resourced, we have granite up top, soil and sand in the middle and soil and clay at the bottom. our trees are still quite young except for the fruit trees. We plan to make everywhere a food forest.
We run solely on solar and have water pumped and filtered from the well and 4 full IBC rain tanks. Offering hot and cold showers.
Ultimately we plan to offer pregnancy, birth and family retreats, bearthkeeping and creative earth school and wholistic wellness spa to the local and global community...
The bigger vision is to acquire and reforest the surrounding lands and that this space will be the heart, birth place of a new village.
Food
We will be eating fresh, local, vegetarian (always vegan options) meals 3 times a day which will be lovingly prepared by our experienced chef and our support crew. If you have any allergies please let us know in advance so we can accommodate your needs.
Accommodation
We have two options for accommodation, firstly is that you bring your own camping equipment and we create together an intimate base camp for the duration of the workshop. There is also plenty of space for camper vans.
Secondly there is the option of sleeping in a shared bell tent (picture below), with mattress and bedding, for an additional 10€ per night, private options can be discussed upon request.
Fee
The fee for the workshop is €1,166
Workshop Details
Dates: May 10th - 19th
Cost: €995 (includes tuition, meals, camping facilities, sauna nights, transportation to and from the site, specialist facilitators, and a comprehensive course handout)
Deposit: €300 (non-refundable) to secure your spot
Arrival: Please arrive by 1:00 PM on May 10th for a welcome lunch and orientation.
In the unlikely event that we cancel, deposits will be refunded in full. If you cancel within two weeks of the start date, we request the course fee to be paid in full. Late bookings may be accepted if space allows.
Come Build With Us
This is more than a workshop—it’s an opportunity to connect with the earth, yourself, and a vibrant sisterhood. Let’s celebrate, create, and bring your dream of natural building to life.
We can’t wait to build with you!
