Rochelle and Joel Payne of Auckland, New Zealand, a PhD student and former aircraft engineer, are building a rammed-earth house which is part of the the Living Building Challenge. The house will be highly insulated to Passive House standards; it will also generate its own power. All waste water will be disposed of right there, … Read more
This is a full tour of a cozy cob micro cabin built by Marie France Roy, a professional snowboarder from Canada. She wanted to build a home with natural and reclaimed materials so the main floor is built with cob – a mix of sand, clay, and straw – and the upper floor is built … Read more
Chinmay Pareek from Brzee Studio in India sent me some photos of his latest project: an earthbag house in Jaipur that is surrounded by big concrete bungalows and high rises in the main city. In addition to earthbags, they are using exposed stone walls, wattle and daub walls with murals as partitions, and a bamboo … Read more
Intrepid earthbag researcher and advocate Patti Stouter sent me this remarkable photo taken in Nepal. She says, “I just got this photo from someone who helped build about 500 earthbag houses in Nepal after the quakes. This heavy truck had an accident and rolled off an adjacent mountain road and onto the roof of this … Read more
Rebecca Tasker, with a crew of apprentices, is building two straw bale houses near Escondido, California. So the building project is also a teaching site. “Using straw fits in with permaculture. People like sustainability,” Tasker said. “When you talk of energy used for building materials, that energy was already used in growing the food that … Read more
On a remote, rural mountain near Zhejiang, China, a new eco-resort in was made from local materials and designed designed by kooo architects. This Retreat Village is a cluster of luxury suites that blends into its surroundings. Rammed earth walls are complemented by bamboo, red bricks, stone and carbonized wood. Other locally produced and recycled … Read more