The ancient Arabian city of AlUla had been uninhabited since the 1980s, abandoned when a new town center was established nearby. Here, hundreds of mud-brick houses, huddled around a tenth-century fortress. The old town is now being restored as a cultural district. A void, formed from the remnants of two former houses, was known locally … Read more
At 76, Graham Liney is the quintessential jack-of-trades. He has bred potatoes, run restaurants, travelled the world, worked in television, and built his own house in Australia. He came to Australia in 1969 as an art student from England, and three years later he stumbled across Willow Vale Mill, a 1830s flour mill in New … Read more
I recently got this email: Hello, My name is Kent Robertson, and I’m reaching out to express interest in potential apprenticeship or work opportunities with your operation. I’m drawn to earthen construction and land-based work because I value building skills that are practical, durable, and rooted in stewardship of the land. I’m especially interested in … Read more
Microalgae‑based architecture is gaining attention as a sustainable design solution for a variety of uses, and the concept could soon become a reality in Western Australia. Amin Mirabbasi, a PhD student at Murdoch University’s Algae Innovation Hub in Australia, has spent three years designing microalgae filled photobioreactors, which can be incorporated into a variety of … Read more
Barn raising has long served as a cultural way to extol virtues of mutual aid and premodern communitarianism, a symbolic reference for an event where neighbors come together to build together. But instead of an origin story of American pastoralism or a romanticized view of country life, barn raising is more instructive as a collective … Read more
Ashish Shah and his wife, Nipa, always wanted to build a farmhouse in the countryside. The couple and their two daughters lived in Mumbai. Nipa owns a brand that produces and markets organic, farm-sourced food, so they sought to set up a farm within a two-hour drive from Mumbai. Eventually, they came across a two-acre … Read more