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Green Magic Homes

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I stumbled upon an interesting approach to creating underground housing. The manufacturer of the system calls them Green Magic Homes. Basically the structures are composed of prefabricated sections of molded composite material that are connected together to create a variety of shapes. They are waterproof and will not rot, so they are quite durable. Once the sections are erected, which can happen very quickly, they can be coated on the outside with foam insulation (generally needed in most climates). The idea is to cover the whole house with earth to protect it and to take advantage of the thermal benefit of going underground. Unfortunately, the system can only support about 7 inches of soil, so if you want more than that it may be necessary to add additional reinforced concrete.

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A Unique Fire Pit

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Clay DiMeno has been up to his usual tricks, building a unique fire pit at his Texas property. Here you can see him adding faux stone plaster to the arch. Both the bench and the ring around the fire pit were fashioned with earthbags. In this photo you can see how he has begun to … Read more

An Earthbag Meditation Dome in Taiwan

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I recently got an email from Sunny Tsai, a Chinese professor of architecture (now retired) with an update on a lovely meditation dome he and some 1400 Buddhist volunteers have just completed in Taiwan. He says that “To reach my idea of carbon reduction and sustainability, I avoided using all kinds of industrial materials and … Read more

DIY Superinsulated Vaults

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Slumtube pallet vaults are designed and built to European standards for structural soundness, and have plenty of space for thick insulation.
Slumtube pallet vaults are designed and built to European standards for structural soundness, and have plenty of space for thick insulation.

As we reported the other day, Brian Waite’s straw bale vault kit in England is an excellent option. However, many owner-builders might prefer to build their own vaulted home from scratch using locally sourced, low cost materials so as to make any size and shape they want.

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A Cautionary Tale

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Sometimes people send us emails asking specific questions about their personal projects, and we usually try to help them as best we can. Not long ago we got the following email with several photos attached:

earthbag dome

I came up with the idea of building my own dome here in south Morocco where I live. I got some refurbished polypropylene bags and decided to do a 5m diameter dome to provide a shelter for horse food and equipment.

I decided to use the soil from our garden which is very close to sea sand. Since this was an unstabilized soil, I decided to tie the bags very firmly at the top to prevent any sand from slipping out, and also damped the sand so it could be tamped better. I dug a trench down to half a meter that I leveled with double bags filled up with small rocks, and then started the courses of bags, with two barbed wire between each course. We went up to half a meter straight, and then started to corbel the bags inwards. We have been working for two weeks now in a team of four, and it’s getting quite high. I wasn’t planning on doing a loft, since there would be no use of it for me. I’m getting a bit worried as we are working at higher levels that the whole thing might collapse, so I thought I should give it a try asking your advice. It feels quite strong while working on it, but when tamping, you can really feel the strikes wherever you are placed up on the wall.

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Nubian Vaults in Africa

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The Nubian vault is an African technique for the construction of timberless vaulted roofs. The AVN (Association la Voute Nubienne), through its Program ’Earth roofs in the Sahel’, helps provide families in sub-Saharan Africa with comfortable, sustainable, affordable, homes. In a recent Newsletter from this organization, I was impressed by the statistics they provided regarding … Read more