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I met Sayward Ayre, a vivacious, white-haired world traveler, at a natural building seminar earlier this month. She was one of dozens of enthusiastic builders who gathered in a dark, church basement聽to聽hear聽Bruce King, founder of the Ecological Building Network, engineer,聽and all-around alternative building guru, lead a lively, technical seminar.

But Ayre stood out in the crowd. Her eyes lit up as she told me about her hopes of building a retirement community with structures聽made out of cob, which is a聽mixture of natural materials including earth, clay and sand. And now she鈥檚 looking to find other people to help plan the project.

After visiting family and friends in assisted-living facilities in New Hampshire, Florida, Maine and Portland,聽Ayre started developing plans to build a retirement community that would break sharply from the norm.

鈥淭hey all seem so square, so formal 鈥� so traditional,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 really make me feel good about being there; it鈥檚 more like you鈥檝e gone off to a civilized place to die.鈥�

Ayre, who used to work in the Washington State Energy Office, now envisions building a retirement community that showcases natural building methods, water-recycling and all sorts of alternative energy production.

But first she鈥檚 looking to create a planning board or group to figure out how to approach the project. She鈥檚 gotten some responses already but is looking for more,聽email her at: 聽[email protected]