“Roots and Resilience – Innovators in Natural Building” – Liz Johndrow, April Magill, Lindsey Love
This conversation brings together three women with over two decades each in the world of natural construction—Liz, April, and Lindsey—to reflect on their journeys, share hard-won lessons, and inspire the next generation of builders.
Liz, a Vermont-based natural plaster specialist, brings deep experience from New England to Central America, working with communities to craft beautiful, durable finishes. April, a licensed architect in South Carolina, integrates natural materials into affordable housing designs, using architecture as a tool for equity and ecological responsibility. Lindsey, an architect who has maintained he skills as a hands-on natural builder, explores the spiritual and emotional relationships between people and the homes they inhabit.
Together, they’ll discuss the motivations that drew them to natural building, the barriers they’ve overcome as women in a male-dominated field, and what’s needed to grow a more inclusive, resilient future for the movement.
Liz Johndrow, based in Putney, VT, has been plastering alongside other natural building skills since 2005. She also has split her time with teaching skills in rural communities in Central America. You can learn more of her international work at www.terracollaborative.org
April Magill, AIA, is a leading voice in the advancement of alternative, climate-smart & healthy building methods and has been a pioneer in the southeast. She is an Architect, small business owner, Executive Director, and Adjunct Professor; April has been a keynote speaker and presenter to many organizations and universities over the past decade.
April has been a Charleston County resident since 2004 and has devoted her career to the advancement of sustainable architecture and affordable housing. After advancing her career at several Charleston architecture firms, in 2011 she took a leap of faith and founded Root Down Designs, a women-led architecture firm dedicated to sustainable architecture and affordable housing in the south where she serves as the Principal Architect. April pioneered several carbon-negative and alternative housing prototypes in Charleston, such as a Rammed-Earth home and Compressed Earth Blocks. She has worked with multiple building jurisdictions in helping clients obtain building permits for alternative materials and healthy housing. Working with financially-challenged clients and creating affordable building options has been a strong tenant of the Root Down team.
Lindsey Love has been working in the trades for over 20 years. Her architectural expertise is enhanced by her certification as a passive house tradesperson, her living future accreditation, and the certificate she holds in utilizing healthy materials. Her background in identifying emerging sustainable pathways and her understanding of the economic benefits, as well as challenges to these practices, qualifies her in her career as consultant.
Her passion is working with natural materials like straw, clay, hemp and lime. These less processed materials are what drew her to architecture and building. Not only are they sustainable, but they are biophilic – they automatically create connection with nature.
Speakers
April MagillApril attended Virginia Tech where she graduated with a BA in architecture. During her studies in Europe, she became inspired by the organic architecture of Gaudi and of the ancient world.
Her desire to be surrounded by old, well-kept architecture led her to live and create in Charleston, South Carolina. Over the past 13 years, she has worked for three of Charleston’s architectural firms, became a licensed architect & project manager, and in 2011 embarked on her own by starting Root Down Designs.
Recognizing that an architect can not exist only in the world of theory, she began to explore materials not just in books but also with her hands. As she continued to experiment with building materials in the Carolinas, she also began to travel the world in search of ancient earthen building techniques still in use today and learn the principles of permaculture.April is a leading voice in the advancements of Alternative, Natural, & Healthy building methods and has been a pioneer in the advancement of alternative building methods in the southeast. She has worked with multiple building jurisdictions in helping clients obtain building permits for alternative materials. She has successfully obtained permits for multiple rammed earth projects, compressed earth block, and hybrid methods. April’s conventional background allows her to excel in Project Management and she has led large teams through the conception of an idea through to the completion of a project, with the client’s budget always at the forefront of every project. April’s diversity of project types extend from back yard yoga huts to small homes to custom residential to large commercial Eco-Resorts. Whether the materials are conventional or alternative, April helps clients define their true project goals and deliver a project based on their individual needs.
April believes that education is a key component to Regenerative Architecture; April has led over 3 dozen community-building workshops and courses, is an Adjunct Professor for the American College of Building Arts, and is a keynote speaker and presenter to many organizations and universities. Her passion for engaging with communities and involving people in the process of building is essential to Affordable Housing, which is an issue April is very passionate about. She is a true visionary for resilient and healthy buildings for the future and for the future of a healthy planet. Most recently, April has co-founded a new 501c3 called the WE BUILD Foundation, meant to empower women-centered building teams and progress the use of alternative & healthy building materials.
- Lindsey Love
