Barbara Jones is a passionate advocate of building with natural materials and has been a leading exponent of straw-bale construction since the mid-1990s – designing affordable, straw-bale houses. She has designed, built, or trained people to work on more than 300 projects using the material. She co-founded The School of Natural Building and trains a … Read more
Students at Hasselt University in Belgium built a pavilion and an outdoor earth oven as communal gathering spaces. The structures are located in the garden of an abandoned vicarage. The design process prioritized natural and reclaimed materials. It serves as a model for architecture that integrates environmental considerations with social engagement. The design team collaborated … Read more
Ronald Rael’s Adobe Oasis was created for the exhibition Desert X and rises from California’s Coachella Valley as a cluster of ribbed, earthen passageways, bridging indigenous construction practices with digital fabrication. Layered in rhythmic ribbons of red adobe, the walls mimic the texture of the surrounding palm trees. This work is both land art and … Read more
Sandy Lawrence used rammed earth to form the walls of a home on the side of a rocky hill overlooking Napa Valley in California. Three caves on Lawrence’s property provided some of the materials. The house was designed by San Francisco-based architect Michael Baushke and built by late Napa-based architect David Easton, who was a … Read more
For centuries, Morocco’s Aït-Ben-Haddou has been a thriving nexus of commerce, culture, and architectural ingenuity. As a bridge between Marrakech and Timbuktu, it serves as a refuge for traders and a fortress against the desert’s harsh elements. Its sun-baked walls stand as a monument to adaptation and survival, sculpted from the very land it inhabits. … Read more
Architects in Bulgaria are turning to the wisdom of the past and blending it with modern techniques to build homes that offer refuge from scorching heatwaves. They say ecological and local building materials like straw and clay allow for better ventilation and insulation. Kamen Pramatarov is an architect who built and lives in a small … Read more