The following is an article written by Jeanne Chaussee in the March 21, 2009 issue of the ‘Guadalajara Reporter’, is about a project in Mexico that I am involved with. CHAPALA – Members of the Chapala Green Group have started a project teaching young people at the Niños y Jovenes Children’s Shelter in San Juan … Read more
How would you build earthbag walls up to 12 feet above ground on pier footings? A reader asked me this recently. Hmm. Moving tons of earth up that high would be difficult, and that got me thinking of alternatives. One solution I came up with uses an insulation blowing machine and hand-held bag sewing machine … Read more
Recent Brandon University Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies graduate, Jennifer Brinkworth, has built an “Eco-Dome” as part of her practicum project at the Riverbank Discovery Centre. An Eco-Dome is a dome-shaped shelter or home built out of soil-cement or lime stabilized earth. These dome-shaped homes have generated a lot of interest in disaster and emergency … Read more
This is probably the most common question of all: How much do earthbag houses cost? It’s sort of like asking how much does a car cost? Well, it depends on the size, features, construction details and how much work you are willing to do. The short answer is it can cost as much or as … Read more
When Erik moved into his new house in Portland, Oregon he was faced by a sterile-looking commercial swimming pool that didn’t fit his aesthetics. He would rather have had a nice organic pond there instead. So Erik decided to convert the pool into a pond by re-contouring it with earthbags, and his results are quite … Read more
Superior Sandbag System, an erosion control firm in Orange County, CA, have a new tube filling machine that fills continuous polypropylene tubing. So far it’s been used for erosion control, but it could be utilized to mass produce affordable housing. Steve Villa and Steve Williams, the owners of Superior Sandbag Systems, invented the process and … Read more