The Sky Den treehouse was built by William Hardie Designs with George Clarke, for his Amazing Spaces television program. This house is composed of three different shapes that each blend together for an indoor/outdoor experience.The square is the central point of the treehouse and the main living space, with glass doors opening onto a wide … Read more
I recently got this email from Steven Green: “I built a 10 meter earthbag roundhouse with the open air patio in Chaing Rai, Thailand. I bought the plans from Owen Geiger. In the cold season it is OK, a bit stuffy but warmer than outside. But now I’m suffering in the hot season. In the … Read more
On the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, in the small village of Peka Peka, there are a series of hillocks that have windows and small white towers that rise above the landscape like periscopes. It turns out that this is the underground home of Friedrich (“Fritz”) and Helen Eisenhofer. Fritz is an architect … Read more
Gabions are wire cages filled with stones and they can used to create walls and many other projects, as the graphic shown below illustrates. We have featured the use of gabions in other blog posts, such as DYI Gabion Walls, Gabion Band Stone Construction, Gabion Beams for Earthquake Resilience This graphic is courtesy of www.wirefence.co.uk
The East Wind Community is hidden deep in the Ozarks of southern Missouri and calls itself an “income-sharing, egalitarian community”. They have 1,145 acres of largely undeveloped highland forest. There are 27 buildings and structures, including four large dormitories, nine personal shelters, a kitchen and dining facility, an automobile shop, a nut butter manufacturing plant … Read more
Nearly 8,000 schools were destroyed in the 2015 earthquake in central Nepal, and more than 33,000 classrooms collapsed. Fortunately the quake struck on a Saturday when the schools were closed. The earthquake gave Nepali architects reason to consider stronger structures that also addressed seasonal variation in temperature, natural lighting and airiness. The Dwarpaleswor Secondary School … Read more