The "Water Village" is the first of two emergency shelter villages at CalEarth. In July of 2001, a visit from the United Nations headed by the Director of the UNDP Emergency Response Division with his team from New York, participated in a CalEarth workshop for these emergency shelters. They each slept in one to experience their quality. Their very positive response was recorded by the Reuters World News Agency. 

Each dome in the village has a slightly different design to show the versatility of SuperAdobe, but also the simplicity. These small domes can each be built in about one day with 5-7 builders with only basic on-site training. They can be stabilized and plastered or just left unstabilized for temporary shelter in a disaster situation. The domes, pond landscaping and even the courtyard floor are all made of stabilized earth from the site. The Village is a living research tool, where the effects of sun, wind, water, freeze, heat and traffic are all monitored over the years. Workshop participants sleep in these small domes during their stay at CalEarth. In our "Core A" Dome Building and Core Curriculum 4 day workshops students learn to build these small shelters.