Several new earthbag planter projects have been added to our Projects webpage at EarthbagBuilding.com (our companion website). This seems like a popular option that has lots of potential. An Earthbag Raised Bed Garden from www.thefarm.org, Ecovillage Training Center, Summertown, TN provides their recipe, building techniques and photos for building planters/raised garden beds. Beth’s Earthbag Construction … Read more
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
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
Ferrocement is an excellent, well tested building system used throughout the world. This post explores two earthbag structures on our Projects pages that have ferrocement roofs. For small projects, simple curved shapes of ferrocement make a good roof. See EarthDome House. In this project they used rebar and mesh for the roof and recycled polystyrene … Read more