Hands-On
Workshop
Explore Our Hands-On Workshops
Learn the skill of shelter making by working with your hands on in our Natural building kalari.
2026 Workshop Calendar
The Hands-on and Complete Companion of Natural Building Combo workshop –
- March 26th – April 4th 2026 (Status: Housefull & Closed) – 10-Day Combo Hands-on workshop
- September 3rd to 12 th, 2026 (Status: Open) – 10-Day Combo Hands-on workshop
- December 2026 (Status: Dates not fixed) – 10-Day Combo Hands-on workshop
If you’re excited about joining this year’s Hands-on and Complete Companion Natural Building Combo workshop, you can now sign up for the waiting list in case all seats are filled. If there are any cancellations or openings, we will notify you promptly. To ensure you have a reserved seat, please email thannalroots<@>gmail.com
Natural building workshops are the platforms where people understand the significance of Natural Buildings through sensing various materials used, how they are prepared, hands-on experience on indigenous techniques, observe experimentations and completed projects and know about pioneer natural builders from around the world. More than this, participants can connect with other like-minded people through Thannal and learn from their own life experiences about why they have chosen for a natural building.
Workshops are open to everyone regardless of the profession they belong to. Anyone interested can attend the course and learn about the simple methods. We encourage families and kids being a part of this course as it integrates everyone in nature and shows a path to how buildings can be made causing less harm to the environment.
We have workshop for precise objectives with variations in the schedule so as to suite the demands of distinct groups and for clear-cut understanding of the fundamentals of the specific subject.
TEN Day
Extensive 10-day Combo Natural Building Workshop
Detailed course in Natural Building including Foundation, Wall Systems, Flooring, Roofing & Finishes. Includes Site Visits to our projects and old mud houses.
Location: Tiruvanamalai, Tamil Nadu.
Flexible Duration
Awakening workshop for Students
This course is exclusively for groups of students from colleges, institutions, or universities, offering a hands-on experience in Natural Building with a focus on rural studies.
Location: Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India
Explore Our Natural building Workshops videos
Hands-on Workshop
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Natural building is for everyone. Thannal has been sharing this knowledge for over a decade, and the desire to learn and live naturally continues to grow. We hope those who learn with us keep spreading it further.
A cow-shelter (மாட்டுக்கொட்டாய், गौशाला) built in 10 days by 16 students from across India—farmers, homemakers, and designers—at our Tiruvannamalai campus. Using cob, adobe, wattle & daub, plasters, and thatch, they showed that natural building is joyful and open to all.
“Exploring Natural Building” — a 10-day Thannal workshop with CEPT University in Tiruvannamalai. Featuring our new songs “FIRE” and “SHADE (THANNAL)” as background score.
Thannal is proud to host the second Araish Lime Plaster Workshop with master masons from Sardarshahar, Rajasthan. This traditional plastering art, once seen on Haveli frescos, is fading—and we hope to keep it alive through the hands of our workshop participants.
Documentation of One Day Natural Plasters Workshop held at Thannal
Revival workshop on Rajasthani Lime Plastering held in Sardarshahar, Rajasthan, May 2018 — featuring Thappi, Lohi, and Araish (Arayash) plaster techniques, led by skilled lime artisans.
From the Stone Age to the Iron Age—now begins the Mud Age.
Thannal, a natural building awareness group in India, supports the growth of villages and natural builders across the country.
Meet native Tamil Nadu farmers learning to build with adobe, cob, earth-bags, wattle & daub, and natural plasters—no prior experience needed. Having spent their lives growing food without chemicals, they now explore building homes without cement. In the process, they also share natural farming with local farmers—a step toward village regeneration and returning to their roots.
Completed Workshops
Over 75 + hands-on training programmes were conducted and 5000+ people trained
