Danielle Acres is finishing up her cob house and moving in. I highly recommend taking a look at her blog. It’s totally packed with quality color photos and building ideas. Plus, she’s a real sweetie. (I can say that and not get slapped around because I’m old enough to be her great granddad.) One of … Read more
From Patti Stouter: The cardiologist with the Haiti Christian Development Project who helped get the Bois Marchand earthbag house built near Gonaives, Haiti sent a link to some photos- 2 are the new earthbag buildings at a small village called Bognol. I helped to design the site and these buildings. Earthbag houses bring great excitement … Read more
Here’s Patti Stouter’s entry for the $300 House design competition. Rubble bags on lower walls provide a solid, flood resistant wall. Hyper-wattle provides lightweight insulating upper walls made of mesh tubes. Thin walls conserve space and materials, and take less labor. Her design is one of only a few in this competition that could actually … Read more
Some of the proposed housing solutions in the $300 House competition are utterly soulless and devoid of love. They look like boxes churned out by a factory with little or no thought to cooking, living, sleeping, privacy, windows or other basic necessities. At first I noted their use of energy intensive materials such as steel … Read more
I’ve added a third entry in ‘The $300 House Open Design Challenge’. CEBs are popular and practical, and some of you may be thinking of using them for columns, next to wood stoves, interior walls or as a design element. They would make a great center column in a roundhouse. Geopolymer CEBs turn to actual … Read more
I thought you’d like to see Gernot Minke’s gallery. He’s one of the most experienced and knowledgeable earth builders around. His book Earth Construction Handbook: The Building Material Earth in Modern Architecture is the most in-depth, practical book for those who want engineering details. It will set you back $101 at Amazon. Check your local … Read more