Craft plaster artisans. Lime, clay, Tadelakt, Venetian, marmorino, smooth or textured, polished, bespoke and beautifull.
06/10/2025
Congratulations to for being voted the Best Date Spot in San Diego this year (on top of being voted Best Restaurant in 2024). Our clay and lime plaster is a tiny piece of what makes this place so cozy and romantic, but we’re happy to be involved
12/22/2024
Happy Solstice!
09/27/2024
Carved lime plaster fireplace surround
05/22/2024
It was a joy to install craft plaster in this spacious, beautifully designed bathroom.
06/18/2023
"Our winery [completed in 1996] has the distinction of being the first commercial straw bale building in California. It has held up beautifully for more than 25 years," he said. "And despite our fears, no bugs, no mice, no critters of any sort, no mold, no rot, and so far, the Big Bad Wolf has not come a-calling!"
They call him a renegade. In 1981, he left a University of Michigan professorship in Ann Arbor to work a $6-per-hour job as a cellar...
05/05/2023
When you’re Earthaus shirt provides the perfect camouflage for the plaster job
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About Simple Construct, natural builders and designers
We are an award-winning Design-Build firm specializing in high-performance natural homes with a focus on carbon-positive green building practices, strawbale building, energy efficiency, natural finishes, clay & lime plaster, and sustainable materials for new & existing homes in San Diego County, CA.
At its core, Simple Construct is a partnership between Rebecca Tasker and Mike Long, who met in art school in Brighton, England and have been working together, in one way or another, for over 22 years. Their backgrounds in art (sculpture and installation art) led them to careers in art management in Boston, MA. Mike ran a large art supply store and Rebecca ran a non-profit contemporary art gallery. After being too cold for six years, they moved to San Diego, CA. The move created an opportunity to redirect their careers back toward the hands-on making of things.
For Rebecca, this led to an entry-level job in construction, helping to build a spec home in Mission Bay. After too many trips to the landfill, Rebecca began to research more sustainable ways to build and found strawbale building. With the opportunities provided by Alan Schmidt of Distinctive Builders, Rebecca began building with bales. When Mike saw how much fun she was having, he decided to join her. Building with bales led them to learn about natural plasters, which they became passionate about. Through the use of natural plasters, they reconnected with their art backgrounds.
Through attending international, national, and local conferences and workshops and becoming more involved with the growing strawbale community in San Diego, they have expanded their knowledge of strawbale building and natural plasters.
Milestones:
2007 - Simple Construct was formed.
2010 - earned a general contractors’ license.
2011 - Rebecca joined the Advisory Board of the California Straw Building Association (CASBA) and took over as editor of their Journal.
2013 - Rebecca earned the Building Performance Institute‘s “Building Analyst” and “Envelope Professional” certifications in building science.
2014 - Simple Constuct began to design strawbale buildings.
2015 - hired their first employees.
2017 - recieved CASBA’s “Traveling Straw Dog Award” in recognition of the furthering of straw building in California.
2018 - a home they designed and built became the first residence in Southern California to receive “Net Zero Energy Building” certification through the Living Building Challenge. It is one of only two certified projects in Southern California and one of only 27 in the world (it also has the distinction of being the last building to be included in the NZEB program before it was changed to “Zero Energy” [ZE], a streamlined version of the certification aimed at recognizing zero energy use buildings more quickly and easily).
2018 - nominated for “Excellence in Energy Leedership” award by San Diego Gas and Electric
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Why “Simple Construct”?
sim·ple (sem’pel) adj. 1. Easy to understand, deal with, use, etc.: a simple matter; simple tools. 2. Not elaborate or artificial: a simple style. 3. Unaffected; unassuming; modest: a simple manner. 4. Free of deceit or guile; sincere; unconditional: a frank, simple answer. 5. Not grand or sophisticated; unpretentious: a simple way of life.
con·struct (kon’strkt) noun 1. An image, idea, or theory, especially a complex one formed from a number of simpler elements. 2. Something constructed.