Groundwork Cob
This is a lovely video showing some wonderful cob creations and interviewing folks who know how to do it and how significant building naturally really is. You can watch it at www.youtube.com
Kelly Hart
Restored Barn/House in Connecticut
This 18th century barn near Fairfield, Connecticut was converted into a 10-room residence in 1982, 200 years after it was first built. The property had a large red barn with two horse stalls, two hay lofts, and a stove to dry the onions that were grown in local fields. It also had two sliding barn … Read more
Chinese Hut Automatically Responds to the Weather
While this is far from being an example of natural building, it does demonstrate an interesting concept for habitat that automatically responds to weather. Professor Weiguo Xu of Tsinghua University and his team have built a tourist reception center in China that opens and closes in response to the weather.The structure is used as an … Read more
Teaching Adobe Building in High School
In an effort to preserve an ancient building technique, Vista Grande High School in Taos, New Mexico is working toward adobe certifications for students interested in learning this original Southwest building style. Shop teacher Keaton Karvas (at left in the above photo) is engaging the students in his class with the finer points of adobe … Read more
Biochar as a Building Material
I have been familiar with biochar as mainly an agricultural soil amendment that helps provide habitat for beneficial microbes and sequesters carbon in the ground. It hadn’t occurred to me that it could also be used as a building material, until a reader suggested that I check out this article at www.biochar-journal.org Biochar is a … Read more
Restoring Part of China’s Great Wall
Leading a repair team, Yang Long will spend around one year to restore an 800-meter-long section of the Great Wall in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. “Ningxia had long been at the junction of nomadic civilization and farming civilization in ancient times. In order to resist the invasion of nomadic peoples from the north, … Read more