The Alice Lynch House in Los Angeles was built in 1922 and is a rare example of the true adobe building technique, made with traditional stacked sun-dried mud blocks. The house was built using Mexican craftsmen skilled in the old methods. This is a two-story, roughly 2,500-square-foot home organized in a U-shape around a central courtyard. … Read more
“After my senior year of high school, I was living in Tanzania and noticed traditional building techniques were being replaced by foreign techniques that didn’t fit into the environment,” Ayodele Washington says. “So I learned about the traditional architecture of the Maasai house, which is basically a mud hut. They have been used for hundreds … Read more
Jikyeong bought a deralict property that had been stripped back by a previous owner and renovation work had stalled before it had really begun. Many of the surrounding dry-stone walls had started to collapse. Jikyeong says, “Ever since moving to England in 2000, I had dreamed of owning a traditional Yorkshire stone house, There is … Read more
Gale Marsland fell in love with Arizona’s desert climate and eventually built an off-grid home with her husband using sustainable design, passive solar principles, and traditional Southwestern building techniques. Living without utility power, they relied on photovoltaic solar panels, batteries, propane, and innovative cooling systems, gradually upgrading their technology as renewable energy became more efficient … Read more
Roberts Gray Architects of New Zealand has completed a coastal home wrapping two contrasting courtyards with rammed earth. Named Double Courtyard House, it sits atop a sand dune that is hugged by a pine forest on one side and faces expansive coastal views on the other. One courtyard is shaded and the other exposed – … Read more
The local town store will always carry special significance for the owner of this imaginatively reborn house. What was once a 19th-century hub in Victoria, Australia is now the place she calls home. Historically, this was a very busy gold mining area with about 6000 people living in the town. But a fire went through … Read more