I just found out about the Earth Building Academy and their online courses. They have been teaching for 20 years and recently ran a free online pizza oven course and had confirmation that online courses really work. They currently are offering a 3 month series of online classes that starts on Monday, January 18th and … Read more
The wildly successful Swedish company, Ikea, is seeking to move ecologically optimized tiny houses to the mainstream. These tiny houses, or trailers around 200 square feet, bear the company’s trademark airy and minimalist style and retail for around $50,000.With Ikea’s emphasis on recycled and reusable materials, the company seems likely to accelerate some important shifts … Read more
This lovely building complex in Mekarwangi village, Indonesia, is a workshop and residence designed by RAW architecture. It was created with local craftsmen and materials (mostly bamboo) to create three organic-shaped buildings that fit into the landscape. They used recycled plastic, sympodial bamboo, and local stone for the foundations. The artisan workshop is a raised … Read more
The Saga of Macramé Park is a film made by Ben Van Meter in the early 1970’s in Bolinas, California. It shows how a wonderful and artful playground was built by my older sister, Alexandra Jacopetti Hart, with lots of help from friends and apprentices. They collected driftwood logs on the nearby beach and used … Read more
I just found this YouTube channel called Survival Shelter Ideas that has some amazing videos like the one posted below. The channel itself has very little information about who is actually doing the work, but it appears to be an Asian couple in their 30’s (although she looks much younger in this video. Their interests … Read more
Ten years ago when Tim Kroeker’s last child finally graduated high school, he and his wife decided it was now or never to follow through on their many years-long dream of building a house…an alternative house…in “the country”. They had investigated a number of construction methods…straw bale, cordwood masonry, rammed earth, Earthship, log, etc. …and … Read more