Near a remote beach on the coast of Nicaragua, about 12 kilometers from the border of Costa Rica, EDYA KALEV, from '92, leads a group of women, while they put on gentle, targeted pressure on hands, feet and spine.
The retreat participants take a deep breath and leave out occasional relaxed sighs when they release tensions with specialized balls and rollers that Kalev brought with them from their studio in New York.
A master instructor of the melting method, a self-managed massage technique that is used for pain relief, has been leading such exercises for decades. But her experience last February at Evolutions Training in Nicaragua stands up – both because of the idyllic environment and due to some random Washu connections.
The withdrawal took place in an increasing, unique bus structure in which monkeys climbed freely on network walls. Above the large oval platform, on which classes took place, light flocked from the openings on two striking bamboo pillars.
“It feels like they are part of the environment, not from it,” says Kalev. “You really have the feeling that you can breathe there and that you are not baked.”
This sensation that Kalev was soon learning was design.
“I love to hear that this feeling has been triggered because our intention is to create healthier rooms,” says Wyly Brown, assistant professor at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Brown created the platform 2023 with the design partner Michelle Fleming, founder of the orthopedic yoga therapy and owner of the Evolution Training Retreat Center.
Brown and Fleming examined bamboo construction techniques around the world together, including in Bali, Costa Rica and the USA with the retreat in Nicaragua, they worked in cooperation with local craftsmen to experiment with sustainable, healthy construction techniques.
“The way I do a lot of my practice is what is called” research by design “,” explains Brown. “I design real structures and test one aspect. It is research that becomes a practical structure instead of being thrown away.”
Brown's students have been involved both abroad and in St. Louis, which led to another unexpected Washu connection in Nicaragua. During the retreat in February, Kalev Orion Streyer met from '24, who was one of Brown's research assistants as Washu student. Strayer had traveled to Evolutions training to work as a bamboo design intern for for six weeks.
“I am grateful to Wyly Brown for the possibilities that he has given me over the years,” says Streyer. “Not only because he is an incredible designer and mentor, but also because of the irrepressible enthusiasm that he brings to everyone. You have to be there to see how the construction team lights up when he goes on site.”
“It was such a beautiful intersection of interests that seemed to have Washu in the middle,” says Kalev. “It seemed like fate.”
“It was such a beautiful interface of interests that seemed to have Washu in the middle. It seemed like fate.”
EDYA KALEV, from '92
The location also proved to be the ideal environment for practicing the melting method. Kalev discovered the gentle, restorative technology when she finally felt pain -free during her first class more than 20 years ago after she had dealt with a weak thigh injury for months. A yoga teacher of training already redirected her focus on melt.
“It is portable and easy to do,” says Kalev. “It feels great. I have students who tell me that they feel better now than 10 years ago, 20 years ago because they are able to make a little melting and absorb it in their daily routine.”
In class, Kalev often remembers her studies in art history. It spends a large part of her time visualizing certain movements or parts of the body and then verbalizing this visualization, she says. The observation and analysis of works of art proved to be effective, albeit unexpected training grounds for their career.
Melting techniques also combine well with fleming work in orthopedic yoga therapy. Fleming invited Kalev to lead the withdrawal; The two met for the first time many years earlier when Fleming Kalev's first yoga class taught. Nowadays, your two selected special areas focus on connections between the fascia tissue of the body and the nervous system as well as the concept of being grounded. The friends plan to combine in February 2026 for another retreat for women and a fascia camp.
“When I teach, I ask people all the time to feel grounded and feel supported,” says Fleming. “I have the feeling that we need it so much in our lives. The building here gives us astonishing ways to play externally with the view of architecture so that we can find the right direction of our own internal architecture.”
While he creates plans for another structure in Nicaragua, Brown emphasizes the universal value of beautiful, sustainably built architecture. He believes that construction projects in the United States can and should use healthy materials such as bamboo and can better combine with their natural environment. A new company, the collective of regenerative architecture, will concentrate on education and experiments and integrate indigenous building knowledge with digital tools and the latest construction techniques.
“In the United States, we spend 90% of our lives indoors,” says Brown, “and many of the materials from which we expand are very toxic for us.
“Our intention is to create healthier rooms. Health is about individual care, care between you and your community as well as your care and connection with the landscape and the planet. And that doesn't just happen in the tropics. We can do that here.”
Brown is a co -founder of a private architecture company, Leupold Brown Goldbach Architects, who focuses on sustainable building practices. Its portfolio ranges from museums and stadiums to apartment buildings. After joining the Washu faculty, his research led him to a deep appreciation of bamboo as a building material.
“You somehow go down the rabbit hole,” says Brown “you recognize how amazing this material is – how fast it grows, how strong it is, how easy it is to harvest and all these other collateral advantages such as the production of oxygen and sequesting carbon. So I further examined and it has become the central body of my research at Washu.”
It is a passion that he passed on to his students, including stroyer. During his internship in Nicaragua in February, he designed architectural additions such as furniture and terraces. He also learned the power of the partnership when exercising a sustainable design.
“Our intention is to create healthier rooms … and that's not just in the tropics. It's something we could do here.”
Wyly brown
“One of my most worthwhile tasks was to explain cooperation with the construction team – literally with a saw, to explain drawings or to find out material costs,” says Stroyer. “I have learned that the input of all for the success is of crucial importance: from the owner to the architect to carpenters to pool cleaners, which is actually a genius and is of central importance for every project (call to Juan Lopez). If anything stays with me forever, they are.”
The Brown and Fleming partnership goes beyond their common design practice – the two are married in November on the bamboo platform in Nicaragua. Perhaps even more Washu connections will be made among those present.
“Our experience really shows the wide range of Washu training,” says Kalev about the random connections in the retreat in February. “You can get all these people for all these backgrounds, and somehow they come together in this unique way where we can build on the strengths of the other.”
Brown nods in accordance with. “You may be at a very high level in your own area, and then you will meet someone and find out that he has gone here or taught here or taught a different relationship with the university,” he says. “Wherever you drift in a state of excellence, you will find someone from Washu.”