About Us - Solid Earth
Verena Maeder
Verena is co-owner of SOLID EARTH LTD since 2002 and is an earth building artisan with 17 years experience in the construction of earthbuildings in Switzerland, Germany and New Zealand.
Verena has trained as an organic architect in Switzerland, where she has done a lot of research on earth building and has written a paper on the health aspects of earth as a building material. She is specialized in earth wall finishing and plastering with earth.
Since 2007 Verena is the chair woman of the Earthbuilding Association NZ.
Carlo Wiegand
Carlo is co-owner of SOLID EARTH LTD since 2002 and has got 13 years of earth building experience. In NZ he has been involved in the construction of a number of mud brick houses.
Carlo has trained as an environmental scientist and has worked on and done research about building ecology in Switzerland.
Consultants to SOLID EARTH LTD
Bella & Richard Walker
Bella and Richard are designers of earth buildings and have held many earth building workshops in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand during the past 23 years. Their former home in Todd Valley was the first adobe house with load bearing walls to receive a building permit in New Zealand in recent times and helped initiate a revival in earth building in New Zealand.
Richard is a consulting registered engineer with 35 years experience in the design and construction supervision of large and small scale projects in both New Zealand and overseas. He prepared the draft for the New Zealand Standard for earth buildings not requiring specific design and has done the engineering design for approximately 100 new earth houses in New Zealand including those in adobe, cob, rammed earth and wattle and daub.
Bella and Richard were awarded the Elizabeth Drupsteen Memorial Award in 1997 for their outstanding contribution in promoting earth building.