The Domes Trash and Cob Bench

I cannot wait for this bad boy to be finished. No, really, it'll be amazing and beautiful. So much work has gone into making this cob bench. For those of you who don't know, my boy Brennan Bird has been spearheading this project as a monument to sustainability. The bench has been made entirely by volunteers and mostly students and is made out of mainly cob (an earthen building material from clay, dirt, water, and straw) as well as gravel and portable landfill devices.

The portable landfill devices are an awesome idea and allow people to use their trash instead of just simply throwing it away. The plastic trash is cleaned and compacted into a bottle until the bottle is as hard as a brick; at this point, it can be used for building. This not only creates a practical use for all the things people throw out that cannot be recycled, but also makes people aware of how much trash they really create.

The bench is being built on The Domes property (also known as Baggins End) at UC Davis and if you can, you should definitely come and check it out. I personally have donated my trash and time to this along with dozens of other people.

Also, I posted a little while ago about the Domes having some issues with student housing (see link above) and we have now started an online petition HERE. Please sign it guys! It would really mean a lot. This place has too much history and potential to be demolished!

Save the UC Davis Domes

Also known as Baggin's End, the Domes is the most interesting place on campus in my opinion. Made up of about 28 students who are committed to living and cooperating in a sustainable manner with each other as well as the environment, it really is an amazing place. These past few months I have spent a lot of time at this student based cooperative community and have experienced countless new things--whenever I am there, I feel as though I'm in the presence of this awesome energy, and whenever I leave, I feel inspired. If you live in Davis or the surrounding area and you have never experienced the Domes first hand, then you really do need to, and soon...

Sadly, the current landlord of the Domes, UC Davis Student Housing, has decided that the 39 year old Domes are no longer inhabitable and that they need to be taken down in order to build up new housing structures. The current residents are supposed to evacuate the premises by the end of July. This, my friends, is a travesty. There is currently a strong student movement that is aiming for continual habitation of the UCD Domes and to "request that UCD acknowledge the community’s worth by protecting and nurturing it as they move forward with the proposal of the Sustainable Living/Learning Community" as Kara Sweeney, a fellow Domes advocate says.

Here is the vision statement of the domes according to our wiki page:

""As members of the Domes Community, we choose to promote and exemplify a lifestyle that incorporates the following: living practices including organic agriculture and permaculture, low-impact construction, energy efficiency, alternative forms of waste management and the general reduction of our ecological footprint, which allow us to meet our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. interdependence on levels ranging from emotional to economic. understanding of differences and conflict resolution through the consensus process. To encourage creativity, inspiration, initiative, personal growth and diversity. To structure our place and our community as an accessible educational resource for each other, the University of California at Davis, and the greater community of the world."

This community is invaluable to Davis as a whole and it would be horrible if it were to be bulldozed so that some more high rise student housing could be built on the historic site. If you would like to help in any way please just ask or if you have a Facebook, you can join the open group called "Save the Domes." We need all the support we can get.