Building Week — Collaborating to Bring Dreams to Life
Gatherings to Drive Building Innovation
Nailing It One Moment at a Time…
Life’s best challenge is to find meaning, while sorting human needs. We each have an instinctive desire to contribute something back to this world.
But the system most have been educated to live in is a rat race; a struggle linked to a backwards society that is ever increasingly going into debt, bureaucracy & technocracy.
Complexities seem to be increasing, & what we need is a way to slow down, simplify & rectify our position/finances/lifestyles - to set a new pace…
This article is about Building Week, & why the event was created. We set out to educate people about how to make a small building in one week. This small building movement started as an effort create affordable structures that can increase the capacity of ordinary people to step into living extraordinary lives.
Some of our Building Week creations have become offices, retreats, creative studios, & sleepouts. We haven’t yet built a home in a week, but it’s highly possible. The Amish have proved many times over that a house can be built in a few day !!
The underlying goal of Building Week is to increase one’s capacity to live without having to focus on paying a bank or for a rental. The mission is to remove a person’s obligations to owe money - living is debt with no reward is subtly oppressive, if not downright soul crushing. It’s not cool to be spending much of what we have just for shelter & or a place to belong.
Building Week is a courageous effort to create small buildings; where the people can slow down enough to actually do what they are here on earth for. Those who attend Building Week are invited to learn about how how to create small buildings; to learn more than just skills, but the pattern that can be applied to make buildings using industrial waste.
At Building Week visions take shape through hands, hearts & humble materials. Building Week is where ideas come to life & belief becomes something you can stand inside of.
Visionary Structures
The vision is to build structures while building the capacity of everyone involved. One group or family can have a building, but everyone else who comes to Building Week then knows how to create more buildings. It’s like we learn learn to cook fish while creating a feast…
Organisers gather materials — timber, nails, windows, roofing, etc. The project is planned within budget & gains community support. Building materials are bought new & used; with wisdom to ensure that the structure will be sound & safe. But this is not a high end build, it’s a culture of creativity designed to prototype for a brighter future..
Building Week doesn’t aim to create perfect buildings, it aims to build empowered people; collaborative, courageous, creative opportunistic confident characters.
“Building Week is about learning to innovate. Use what you have to create what you need.” Stevey Chernishov
7 Steps
Building Week is like a workshop:
Invitation. People are called to come — builders, dreamers & visionaries.
Gathering. Materials are sourced, found, & brought into one place.
Preparation. A venue is created & the intention is sent out.
Scheduling. A vision is set — a plan is developed.
Inspiration. Everyone gathers & dreaming turns into doing: VISUALISATION + DESIGN + ACTION
Creation. Tools are picked up, hands go to work.
Collaboration. Skills are shared, ideas become reality, & together each challenge is created.
Together, what would take months can be done in one week. Small buildings go up!
Building Week is about building belief, building people & building capacity. It’s a living metaphor for thriving: CHECK OUT THIS EXAMPLE BUILDING WEEK INVITATION -
You don’t need every resource before you begin. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need faith — the willingness to start with what you have & trust that solutions will appear along the way.
What’s being built is a living example of this biblical principle:
“All things are possible for those who love God & are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 & Mark 9:23
This is about coming together in alignment with intention, & taking action.
Collective intelligence & solutions:
Experts working with newcomers. Mentorship blends with experimentation. Teamwork, shared vision, & creative problem-solving are modelled…
Dream, Design, Do It!
Building Week teaches a timeless truth:
You can plan it, you can build it.
Faith + imagination + courage + vision + collaboration = miracle solution
“People come to Building Week see that all things are possible for those who love and have purpose.” Stevey Chernishov
Each small building becomes a spark — inspiring others to dream, to act, to build something that matters. As these gatherings multiply, they lay the foundations for a movement of creative resilience:
So — what will you build?
You already have what it takes.