Food forests are gaining popularity in many urban areas, including Los Angeles. These are edible gardens made up of many different species, and grown with minimal intervention. A food forest mimics a forest edge that is planted with edible perennial plants. They include tall trees, small trees, shrubs, herbs, and ground cover. Sometimes vines grow … Read more
“It’s an earth-sheltered home. Not necessarily built into the ground, but it’s earth-covered on the roof and on a couple of sides,” explains Jennifer Rios, the listing agent for a house in Madison, WI. “It’s in a kind of older neighborhood, with typical mid-century homes and older.” “We went into it not really knowing what … Read more
This natural building blog occasionally features information about solutions to global pollution problems and this post is about a building block that is made entirely out of recycled plastic. The small community where I live in New Mexico stopped recycling plastic about a year ago, so now it has all been going to the land … Read more
80% of Singapore’s residents live in public housing and it’s a tropical country where convenience and air conditioning are a way of life. So there is a great opportunity for the government to influence new, more ecological development. They are promising 42,000 new homes across five residential districts, and the eco-town of Tengah will be … Read more
The Sunflower House is located in Le Marche, Italy, known for its rolling farmland and yellow fields of sunflowers, which is the inspiration for the design is this house. The idea is to harness the power of the sun, so it’s roof and each floor rotate on sensors for maximum sun exposure or for optimal … Read more
In remote Pilbara, Western Australia, a new zig-zag structure is visible from the sky. What you can’t see are the 12 residences tucked beneath the rocky red soil. Architect Luigi Rosselli says that this project is the longest rammed earth wall in Australia, and possibly the entire Southern Hemisphere. “The Great Wall of WA” was … Read more