Eco Friendly Shelters: Earth Lodge 2.0

Today’s post is from Eco Friendly Shelters, builders of earthbag shelters. I love the look and the concept. This project is a response to ever-increasing housing costs and regulations that prohibit ordinary Americans from being prepared for any disaster or emergency. The absence of a permanent foundation truly attracted us in a first place. All … Read more

American Clay Plasters

For those who are curious about how to finish interior earthbag walls, take a look at this video by American Clay. Their website explains how “earthen plasters allow you to infuse your office with the texture, color and character of the natural world. Transform your home from a place you live into a place with … Read more

World Shelters — Bags of Shelter

Today’s post is from the World Shelters website at Appropedia.org. Bags of Shelter is an earthbag shelter designed for World Shelters to use as transitional shelter for people in Haiti affected by the January 2010 earthquake. World Shelters is a non-profit organization dedicated to producing housing for disaster relief and general humanitarian needs. A four … Read more

Bottle Wall Details

I just found these great tips by students at Humboldt State University on the Appropedia website. This is the best system I’ve seen. Thanks for sharing! Bottle bricks were made by using a tile saw to cut bottles harvested from the waste stream. The tile saw was set to cut the bottom 3inches of the … Read more

Sustainable Building

Sometimes we’re in a hurry and don’t always take time to think carefully about what we’re reading. This post links key sustainable building concepts to Wikipedia to facilitate further research. There have been lots of articles lately on sustainable building, also called green building and natural building, but what is it really? Sustainable building is … Read more

Witch’s Rock Surf Camp in Costa Rica

Today’s post is quoted from the Zephyr Eco website. Zephyr Eco is a project dedicated to self education and providing solutions for sustainable living. These include sustainable construction, organic farming, and free trade relationships. I have built many structures over the years. It started when I was about 25 or so, and my father and … Read more