PAHS Earthbag House

Earthen Hand Natural Building recently has created an 800 sf earthbag house on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS) design features were used in this building, giving it the ability to heat and cool itself passively using the earth beneath the building and the walls themselves as a battery of … Read more

ECHO Asia’s Earthbag Seed Bank

This small structure is the ECHO Asia Seed Bank’s earthbag house that is nearing completion.  ECHO promotes community-based seed sharing and saving. It is also part of their mission to recommend appropriate ways for communities and organizations in the developing world to better store seeds. James (ECHO Asia intern) and Lue (Assistant Seed Bank Director) … Read more

Production Earthbag Building using Rice Hulls

Mike, in Texas, has been asking some interesting questions about wrapping a post and beam frame with tubes of rice hulls. He thinks this is probably the fastest way to build an earthbag house. He may very well be right. Conversations and blog posts like this one are my favorite. Here’s part of my email … Read more

Yogi Farm Roundhouses

“We are a tribal, egalitarian community focused on living in harmony with the Earth, practicing yoga and meditation, sharing a raw vegan lifestyle, and creating a permaculture farm with lush and abundant food forests in a warm tropical environment. We are in the process of acquiring a piece of land in the Puna District of … Read more

HNC Earthbag House

“The Haitian National Congress (HNC) asked me to conduct training next May for bright and eager Haitian adult citizens who want to become entrepreneurs, nudge their country more toward functional democracy, learn problem solving skills and learn free enterprise practices that will increase their personal income. These trainees will then return to each of Haiti’s … Read more

Energy Performance of Straw Bale Buildings

“Earlier this year, my colleagues Ace McArleton of New Frameworks Natural Building, Ben Graham of Natural Design/Build, and I conducted extensive blower-door testing, infrared thermography, and a series of moisture tests (probe, pin, and scan) on seven different buildings we had built in part or whole over the past seven years in Vermont and New … Read more