Meet Our Family
Finding Our Way Together, in Every Curve
We strive and thrive in sustainability and work with nature instead of against it. We live everyday life as individuals spread across the map but come together within a community and as a family to create common goals and turn others' visions into a sustainable and empowering future. Most of our paths began with complex thoughts and questions but were rooted in one very similar mission, how to create a more sustainable future and quit depleting our natural resources. To bring back empowerment to the individual, the family, and the community. To create a shared path and to find our way back to a more ancient and primitive new tomorrow.
Through Traveling Tholos we have been able to create a space that helps the dreamer to navigate the road through red tape, the overwhelming how-to's, and the journey back to their well-deserved wild. We offer guidance, insight, design assistance, full-build teams, teaching/training, technical/project support, and an array of other customized needs for your dusty dreams. Together we are Traveling Tholos (Traveling Domes)!
Our Story
Michelle and Brandon met at Cal-Earth back in 2017 and began realizing their shared passion and drive for building with more sustainable mediums. They have both been long-time senior instructors, teaching workshops, and long-term programs for the institute. Michelle is also the current Program Director. Their realizations soon manifested into consulting work, designs (staying up by a fire all night dreaming up the endless possibilities), and private builds...truth be told long before the idea of Traveling Tholos was seeded. As the pair began co-creating on builds for private clients...Traveling Tholos was born from necessity and synchronicity. As time went by Michelle and Brandon realized they needed more...more help...more community...more family. This is when they began seeking others who came to Cal-Earth to seek the same answers to impossible questions.
This is how the entire "Family Crew" was born. As each one of our complex thoughts and questions evolved, this is where the real alchemy began...it aligned us all together and our separate paths fused at one very special place...that is The Cal-Earth Institute of Earth Art and Architecture. Starting all of our journeys at different times but allowing us to be on time with one another and the future of Traveling Tholos. One by one...each individual became a part of a family and a community was created.
The Family
Michelle Toland (The Fortune-Teller)
Owner, Executive Director, Technical Director, Project Director, Designs, & Admins
Coming Soon...
Brandon Evans (The Ring Master)
Technical Director, Project Director & Designs
Coming soon...
Brett Erzinger (The Trapeze Artist)
Senior Team Lead
Born and raised in San Diego, California with a B.A. in Art from UCLA. Currently, I am based in New York City where I have worked for internationally exhibited artists. Looking back, there were certain things I wanted but didn’t know how to articulate at the time: achieving luminosity through glazing techniques, custom color matching/mixing, and hardscaping, … I wanted an apprenticeship that combined different trades and unexpectedly found this year's later through Cal-Earth. There, I had Michelle Toland and Brandon Evans as instructors, and I have been fortunate to work beside them. They are magicians and I’m honored to be part of this traveling circus. To the next build!
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Marcelo Christiani (The Human Cannonball)
Bio-architect, Permaculture Designer, and SuperAdobe Builder
After working as an architectural drafter and designer for a while I decided that it was time for me to move my focus to a more sustainable world; where we can use the resources that we have available in the area. So back in 2019, I went to Cal-Earth (Architecture School of Earth in California) for a 1-day workshop, to specialize in SuperAdobe which is a form of earthbag construction. Later in 2021 after an internship there, I started working as a Solo SuperAdobe builder to gain confidence in this technique. This took me to the next step where I opened my own business called “The Earthy Dome” and after building several projects in Southern California I was able to be part of the first fully permitted super adobe structure in Michigan; featured on the news and magazines in the whole state.
“Working with earth made me feel connected with myself and grounded.
It was the best inspiration for me and my career, driving me to start teaching and sharing the knowledge.”
Tannis Zimmer (The Snake Charmer)
Senior Lead Builder
Tannis Zimmer started her Superadobe journey at The Cal-Earth Institute in 2013 with a week-long course in Superadobe basics going on to try her hand at her first 12' diameter single dome project for a small herd of goats in Rainier, WA. After a few years' pause, she went back to Cal-Earth in 2019 for the long-term apprenticeship program and participated in multiple Superadobe, natural plaster, and rammed earth projects around California. In the fall of 2021, she returned to the Cal-Earth campus and assisted on a Superadobe pergola hybrid project under the direction of Michelle Toland and Brandon Evans. She had the opportunity to volunteer on a project with Michelle and Brandon again in the summer of 2023 in Luther, MI on a triple dome with vaulted corridors where she learned a great deal about what is possible with Superadobe.
Tannis also works as a Remedial Massage Therapist and is a dancer and drummer. Earth building allows her to explore using her hands in endlessly creative ways in direct communion with Mother Earth toward a more sustainable future.
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Gabe Manzano (The Digital Magician)
Lead Consultant
Currently living in the Bay Area and working as an architectural designer, Gabe continues to pay homage to Superadobe, his first architectural muse, as taught at the Cal-Earth Institute. Since Gabe’s first introduction to Superadobe in the Fall of 2016, and largely due to the invigorating spirits of empowerment, satisfaction, and community that was gained there, he became impassioned and devoted to the natural building arts. He then proceeded to take each of the course offerings that Cal-Earth offered and then became a part-time instructor. Wanting to broaden his budding skill set, Gabe went on to pursue conventional building expertise and went to work for a general contractor where he helped build custom luxury homes throughout the Southern California Coast. While working as a builder he would study drafting, building code, and construction management. Committing to his passions in building and construction, Gabe attended Cal Poly Pomona to earn a Master’s in Architecture. Combining his strong foundation as a builder with years of hands-on experience, Gabe is also a technical consultant and provides innovative design services with professional-level documentation. Specializing in healthcare architecture, he is currently working toward earning architectural licensure in the State of California. He is the co-founder of Studio Resol where he works with his partner Brianna Padilla, designing and building custom furniture. Gabe enjoys contributing to Superadobe projects, allowing opportunities to connect and serve former Cal-Earth colleagues, and always keeping superadobe near his heart.
Jasmine Tautuaa (The Seer )
Social Media Guru and Photographer
Jasmine has always struggled with what her true passion was, but she knew that helping others around her was always her true calling. She has worked as an exotic animal keeper, wildlife educator, and a dog trainer. All of those served her a great deal of knowledge and compassion. Meeting Michelle and hearing about her work made her feel empowered and compelled to want to follow that same path. Jasmine loves the magic that she and the crew co-create, she knew that she wanted to be a part of the magic-making. It's amazing to be able to build these sustainable structures and also work in alliance with nature, it's inspiring, to say the least.
Seppo Simpson (The Strongman)
Senior Builder
Seppo began his Earth-building journey when he first started meditating on his dream life and in his dream life he saw images of himself surrounded by his wife, children, and community all living in dome homes. Seppo believes that society is the way it is but we are an essential part of that society. Hence, we are responsible for taking matters into our own hands and ourselves into the future we desire. Seppo looks upon dome homes as beautiful spaces for humans. A place for people to gather in community to build and grow together. A place for solitude and growth in meditation.
A way to feel more connected to the Earth. Seppo shared, "Never, in my life have I ever been pushed so hard and this style of building really reveals what we humans are truly made of and we are capable of so much...especially TOGETHER."
More Family To Come...
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More Family To Come...
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More Family To Come...
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More Family To Come...
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