Testimonials
“I thought I was coming to learn sharpening and joinery, but I got a blood transfusion of cultural vitamins and minerals sorely missing from our standard North American building diet. Robert is a lineage holder of time-tested European building techniques enlightened by Japanese craftmanship. He opens the door to that cultural heritage with artfulness and loving responsibility. To study with Robert is to be educated and empowered by a living master.”
Jared Marchildon, June 2023 Graduate
“Robert is a master craftsman and a master teacher. To find these two qualities in a single individual is very rare…”
Morgan Strickland
March 2023 Graduate
“The level of instruction is so precise that a beginner would succeed. The level of instruction is so precise that an experienced builder will learn more than they thought they needed.”
Julie Smith
March 2023 Graduate
A Timber Framer's Prayer
By Peter Ransom
Let the bevel of my chisels edge, honed with the patience and grit of polished stone,
Glint with a razor edge of pure intention, forged in layers of tempered steel.
Let my mind resist unbending, the rustling winds of whim and fear,
Root my hands with the steadiness of the towering Fir from which this wood was hewn.
Let me read its untold story, written on the fragrant paper curls,
Scrolls of wisdom gently peeling from my chisel and plane.
Let me be the sacred instrument that finds each note buried in the lines,
Ringing with the secret forest song of a hundred or a thousand years.
Let me place in ageless beauty the lonely timber taken from its forest home,
In community with other timbers to live and never die again.
Let me stand on firm foundation post and beam now bound as one,
Barely sloping joints and wedges holding snug as trunk and bough.
Let my senses awaken fully and my entire presence move
To the sacred symphony of our eternal story, notes from the heart of a humble tree.
Peter Ransom, Meditative Craft Graduate, March 2023
“Now that we are reaching our golden years, my cousins and I have embarked on a grand journey that will likely take us to our graves. Since the cost of housing in America has become so out of reach for the upcoming generations of our large extended family, we have decided to build as many houses for them as we can.
In our efforts to streamline the project, each of us has taken on a specific task. Mine is to find the 'best' kind of house to build.
For the past seven years I have traveled the world and taken numerous courses on how to build the most sensible,strong, economically viable, aesthetically pleasing house. At last, I think I have found it.
The Econest house, the design for which has been refined for decades by Robert Laporte, his wife [and architect], Paula, and countless artists, scientists, and craftsmen the world over, is the kind of house that fits the needs of our project.
Econest houses, built using modular Japanese influenced timber frame infrastructures, with strict adherence to the 'healthy house' philosophy, represent an ideal approach; one that extends the concept of 'housing' from simple shelter to one of an organic, inclusive relationship between Human and Earth. This type of house is the very thing my cousins and I have searched for, for years.
I have taken one of Robert Laporte's Econest building courses in Oregon. I plan to build an Econest home for myself. And together with my cousins, a whole bunch of others for the young ones.
Cheers,
Mick McGuinness, May 2024 Graduate
