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“David Hoffman is not your typical outlaw. For one, every conversation veers toward the inevitable topics of conservation and sustainability. He can’t understand why people need things like septic tanks – or why they use perfectly good drinking water to wash their cars.
“Probably a lot of Portlanders, myself included, are wondering if they will ever be able to buy a house in Portland. Or if they buy one, will they be able to afford to keep it. Well I would like to offer once again a simple solution which is to build your house yourself, with help from your community. If you help me build my house, I will help you build yours. Doesn’t that sound like a good deal for everyone? Rather than go into the details of exactly how one could build a very advanced and efficient dwelling with little more than sand and clay from the building site, here I will stick to general comments about what I see going on now.
Breaking news: an engineer in Florida has just gained approval for the first permitted earthbag dome in Florida. They charged only $800 and are eager to do more green building in the future. They modified my Enviro Dome design to meet Florida state building codes.
April Magill, a licensed architect in South Carolina, is willing to stamp construction plans for natural buildings as well as for conventional buildings. I believe April is the first architect to offer this service – to stamp plans for multiple types of natural buildings, not just one or two types. Imagine the changes that would happen if someone did this for each state. This one act of courage and love by April Magill could usher in profound changes very quickly. With this realization, I immediately wrote her and asked for an interview.
This could be the end for owner builders in NZ. “How these changes affect you. New legislation came into effect 1 March 2012 which introduced the concept of restricted building work. If residential building work is structural and/or affects the weathertightness of the building, then it may be restricted building work. This means you must … Read more
Sara: John, you know I’ve been reading about earthbag building and natural building lately. Well, I’d like to build our new home this way. John: [long pause while thinking] Are you sure? I really like those trailer houses we’ve looked at. Sara: Come on John, trailer houses are shoddily built and you know it. And … Read more