Who am I?


From baking to building

My name is Christo Markham. With a history of baking and building it was only a matter of time before I bumped into cob and natural building.

After having worked in a Danish style bakery, apprenticing with a framing carpenter and building rammed earth houses and buildings; I left the U.S.A. and traveled in Mexico, Europe and Northern Africa.

The Netherlands is where I finally settled, became a father, and worked in the graphic industry for fifteen years. Falling back on my roots in baking, I have been baking our own bread for several years.

Wanting to deepen my understanding of bread I built an earthen oven. Struck wholeheartedly with an unexpected eureka, building that earthen oven changed my life. This was what i loved to do!

Since then I have taken workshops in natural building, apprenticed with the Cob Cottage Company at the North American School of Natural Building, taught workshops and worked on various projects in Europe and the U.S.A.

Inspired by natural builders and earthen building traditions from around the world, my perspective on how to build has changed. Nowadays, I believe in building sustainable, healthy objects with natural materials.

Important aspects of natural building to me:


- enjoying working together, while building healthy things with natural materials

- creating unique and beautiful places with people of all ages and backgrounds

- discovering that we all have something special to teach and learn from one another

- respecting each other's abilities and the world around us.

I work together with natural builders from Holland and around the world, and promote natural building and sustainable living wherever I am. Member of the Natural Building Network since 2006: www.naturalbuildingnetwork.org

People that i regularly work with:


www.xavieco.com

www.lartierra.com

www.groenebouwmaterialen.nl

www.housealive.org

www.hironatuurlijkwonen.nl


 

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