Free journals published by the California Straw Building Association are available on their website as PDF downloads. Only issues from 2007-2012 are available at this time. I’m not sure if the journal is still published. The issues I looked at are quite good. To give you an idea of the content, the first article in the list is titled ‘Straw Bale House Designed by CASBA Members Arkin Tilt Architects Wins Fine Homebuilding Magazine’s “Best New Home” of 2012’.
Owen Geiger
Safido Interlocking Brick Machine
Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs), also called earth blocks or CSEBs is one of the most popular natural building methods in part because bricks are well accepted and understood by builders, and because the walls go up fairly quickly. Thin walls take up minimal space in urban areas where lots are small and expensive. Interlocking bricks add stability. And, of course, the main material is clay which is dirt cheap.
Kasita: tiny prefab home-as-a-service for post-land urbanism
“Professor Jeff Wilson wants to create the “iPhone for housing”. He thinks we need to shed our preconceptions of housing as dependent on land and instead consider his plug-and-play shelter.
Earthbag Technical Report in NEA Engineer’s Journal
I’m happy to announce the publication of our earthbag technical report in Nepal. Kateryna Zemskova of Good Earth Nepal.org played a big part in making this happen. Good Earth Nepal also won the NEA design award in January.
How a New Source of Water is Helping Reduce Conflict
“We are standing above the new Sorek desalination plant, the largest reverse-osmosis desalination facility in the world, and we are staring at Israel’s salvation. Just a few years ago, in the depths of its worst drought in at least 900 years, Israel was running out of water. Now it has a surplus. That remarkable turnaround was accomplished through national campaigns to conserve and reuse Israel’s meager water resources, but the biggest impact came from a new wave of desalination plants.
PureBond Non-Toxic Plywood
One main benefit of building with natural materials is maintaining a safe, healthy environment in your home. This eliminates the health risks of sick building syndrome caused by many modern synthetic materials. “The non-toxic soy-based glues in PureBond plywood mimics the glues that mussels use to cling to rocks (biomimicry). PureBond plywood has no added formaldehyde, eliminating the concern about off-gassing dangerous fumes during fabrication or when installed in your home.