PermaLot is a land trust based in Bouzov Podolí, near Olomóc in the Czech Republic. I stayed there for a couple of weeks with Permaculture teacher and Natural Building expert Max Vittrup Jensen and his wife Radka, learning about mud plaster, cobbing and other natural building techniques.

Max and Radka live in a house that has been crafted to be an extension of their lives and philosophy. It shows an awareness and imagination in its use of materials, shape and colour that is largely missing from contemporary building.

Up the ladder in the barn on the left is where I (and any other helpers) slept, in a makeshift cabin with no door. After a couple of weeks I was quite getting into the whole idea of sleeping outdoors on a mattress, though waking up at night to go to the toilet was a bit of a problem if the moon wasn't up or it was raining.

The Czech Republic reminded me in many ways of Southern England: a similar climate, farmland and rolling hills. The local area was fun to cycle around and it had - as all Central European towns should - a nice old castle.

Locally there were also a few examples of businesses that had seen better days. There's a grimness to some of the town planning and concrete architecture that reminds me of similar postwar experiments in the UK.

Below is the Podolí village pool, designed to be used by the fire service. While I was staying Max put together a proposal for its regeneration as a swimming pool and meeting place, using a reed bed system and other sustainable principles. In the end the plan wasn't accepted; one of the reasons being the dramatic use of perspective in the visuals I made giving a misleading idea of the size of the new structures. Click on the image to see that proposal.

Max runs courses at PermaLot, and is constructing a Natural House on the site that will be an example of natural building and renewable energy use. While I was there work was continuing to straw bale the roof structure, to build an internal staircase around the mass heater using cob, and to prepare the underfloor heating.

On the 12-13 July a workshop took place to straw bale and begin plastering the inside of the roof. To see some images from that weekend, click here.

The Czech Republic is not the easiest of places to be an organic farmer (their President claims debate on global warming is "alarmist"), let alone be into something as radical and esoteric as building with natural materials and traditional techniques!

But Max is a Permaculturist in the best way; hugely committed to improving his local area and its people's quality of life. I have a lot of admiration for the sheer scale of his ideas and the energy and guts with which he carries them out.