Wendy’s Vaulted House in India

The site is private land of 8 acres with a dense forest of coconut, mango, Nutmeg, Teak, etc. They didn’t want to cut down any trees so the building was positioned with this in mind. They wanted no steel or concrete so they designed a timbrel, catenary-based vault structure. Twin Vault structures were made with … Read more

Alternative Building in Cochise County

Cochise County in Arizona allows people to build their own homes at a reduced cost of building permits with fewer inspections as long as the property’s zoning designation is at a minimum RU-4, one home per four acres. Program participants must comply with all Cochise County Building Safety Code and zoning requirements. It is intended … Read more

House Gods: Sustainable Buildings and Renegade Builders

Jim Kristofic’s initial intention with his new book House Gods was to expose Navajos to the possibilities of sustainable building techniques and at the same time lessen the footprint of buildings on the environment. Jim was raised on the reservation at Ganado, Arizona. “There are not a lot of passive solar buildings on the reservation … Read more

Houses That Can Save the World

Many of our houses are defined by a pattern of consumption, from the raw materials to build them, to the fuel required to sustain them, and the waste generated by them. Despite an improvement in building energy efficiency, 2021 saw carbon emissions from building and construction hit an all-time high. Suppose that a house could … Read more

What’s a Colloquium?

I remember that when I attended the Natural Building Colloquium in Kingston, NM in the fall of 2015 there was a fellow named Matt Anderson going around filming and interviewing people. He was part of Earth Lodge Studio, and the result of all this filming was a documentary entitled “What’s a Colloquium?: An Oral History … Read more