Codes

Couple Builds Dome to Escape Mortgage Trap

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Dismayed by the costs of home ownership in Australia, a West Australian couple is building their castle out of earth bags to escape the mortgage trap. Kate and Scott Ryan-Taylor made the decision to build with earthbags after realizing the conventional path to home ownership was too costly. The couple estimate their home will cost … Read more

A Nice Small Earthship in Australia

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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

Help Support a Cob Building Code

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I just got this email from Michael G. Smith, the expert on cob construction at www.greenhomebuilding.com : You may or may not know about the Cob Research Institute (CRI), a non-profit corporation founded in 2008 to remove legal barriers to cob construction. One of our goals has been to write a code for cob and to … Read more

HouseZero: a Remodeled 1920’s Home

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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

A 3D Printed House for $4000?

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There has been a lot of publicity about 3D printed housing lately, and it is not surprising because the notion seems almost unbelievable. What is not to like about being able to almost instantaneously  convert practically any plan into reality for very little money? This article from fastcompany.com describes such housing that is being developed for masses of poor people in El Salvador and other third world countries. They claim that this can be done for under $4000 per house!

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Earthbag Canteen Project in Kathmandu, Nepal

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Earthbag Canteen Project in Kathmandu, Nepal now under construction by Good Earth Global.
Earthbag Canteen Project in Kathmandu, Nepal now under construction by Good Earth Global.

Yesterday we got a comment by an earthbag builder who was harassed and given the ‘run-around’ by building code officials while building his earthbag home. Here’s part of my response to what Phil had to endure.

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