A Nice Small Earthship in Australia

This small home was built by Martin and Zoe, as a challenge to create Australia’s first council approved Earthship. Together (and with a lot of volunteer labor) they have worked within the system to create a truly impressive small home. This Earthship is filled with off-the-grid technology, including solar power, rain-water collection, grey water filtration … Read more

HouseZero: a Remodeled 1920’s Home

A Harvard program to retrofit a campus building and create a living laboratory for energy-efficient architecture officially aims to develop techniques and technologies to make the built world more sustainable. The renovated building was designed by the school’s Center for Green Building and Cities with strict performance targets in mind: nearly zero energy for heating … Read more

Heating with the Sun

Using the sun to heat your house has got to be the most economical and ecologically benign way to keep comfortable when the temperatures drop. There are a number of common strategies for doing this. My favorite method is passive solar design, where there are no “active” fans or pumps to contend with. Most passive … Read more