Recently, Joe Trumpey and a group of students put the finishing touches on the first straw bale building on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. Besides the straw, many recycled materials were used for the structure. The wood used in the building was sourced from campus trees that were dead or dying. “It’s very … Read more
Hüseyin Afacan and his wife, Ayşe Afacan, both in their 70s, have been living a remote life on the island of Çiçek for over 15 years. Away from modern life, the couple restored a ruined Greek house and started raising chickens, ducks and sheep and adopted a dog. They meet their electricity needs with wind … Read more
Hive Earth is a construction company based in Accra, Ghana. They build affordable and eco-friendly housing, using locally sourced materials such as clay, laterite and granite chippings which are abundantly available in West Africa. They use some cement or lime as a binder. There is need for about 2 million new houses in Ghana per year, … Read more
Community Rebuilds is an innovative affordable housing program based in Moab. They partner low income wage earners living in the community with emerging professional builders who want to learn to build energy efficient houses. What they have been creating is really very lovely, as you can see in the photos below. You can read the … Read more
The Beacon Food Forest in Seattle, Washington is thriving after a decade of service to the community. It is primarily run by volunteers, along with two part-time staff, who coordinate maintaining the garden and community outreach events. They distributed over a ton of food harvested on the grounds last year, and they plan to double … Read more
This is an article that Owen Geiger wrote about a decade ago that is still pertinent today: Community Organizing: – Encourage solutions that are based on local needs and resources. Emphasize local control, community building, collaboration, self-empowerment, and sustainable grassroots solutions. – Involve the whole community in the design and building process: men, women, children, … Read more