Over the last few years, there’s been a visible shift in how people think about homes. Rising construction costs, extreme weather, and a growing awareness of how resource-heavy conventional buildings are have pushed more people to look at alternatives. As a result, mud homes, once dismissed as rural or outdated, are being revisited with a different lens. Known to regulate temperature better, use locally available materials, and leave a smaller environmental footprint, natural building has got the attention of architects, students, and even people looking to move out of the grind of the city. In India, various indigenous communities have their own natural building practices. But making that knowledge accessible, are spaces like Geeli Mitti that are actively teaching and practising these approaches.

Geeli Mitti is a social enterprise based in Pangot near Nainital, working with natural building and permaculture. It operates as a learning space where people can understand how to build homes, grow food, and design systems that work with the land. The work is rooted in practical knowledge of materials, irrigation and soil. Their focus stays on making these ideas usable for people across different contexts, whether they’re working on a farm, a house, or just trying to change how they live.

The campus itself functions as a working example of what they teach. Built within a forested conservation area, the space uses materials like mud, lime, and stone to construct homes and common areas. Techniques such as cob, adobe, and rammed earth are used across the site, with each structure responding to the local climate and terrain. Alongside construction, permaculture is treated as an interconnected system that connects food, water, waste, and energy. The idea is to look at how each part supports the other instead of treating them as separate concerns.

Geeli Mitti runs workshops and longer courses on natural building and permaculture, including certified permaculture design courses. These programmes are immersive, with participants living on-site and learning through a mix of theory and hands-on work. A typical day involves building walls, preparing natural plasters, working on the farm, and mapping land systems. People come in from different backgrounds — some are architects or designers, others are residents looking for alternative, more sustainable homes. 

Outside the campus, the organisation also works on community-based projects. Through its foundation, it runs programmes around skill-building, ecological restoration, and livelihood support. This includes work on water conservation, afforestation, and land regeneration in collaboration with local communities and institutions. There’s also an eco-stay and tourism component, where visitors can spend time on the land, take guided walks, or join shorter learning experiences.

In April 2026, Geeli Mitti is hosting a three-week intensive natural building workshop at its Pangot campus, covering soil testing, foundations, and construction techniques like cob, adobe, and earthbags, along with basics of permaculture design. There’s also a shorter three-day workshop running alongside it for those looking to get a basic introduction before committing to a longer course. Both formats are structured around on-site learning, where participants work through different stages of building over the course of the programme.

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