I’m gradually converting my basic hand-drawn plans to AutoCAD and SketchUp, starting with the most popular designs at Earthbag House Plans. I think you’ll agree there is much improvement. And it isn’t just visual effects. Plans are being tweaked based on reader input. The Enviro Dome, for instance, now has a small (optional) pool in … Read more
A couple in Alberta, Canada have built what appears to be a very nice little dome sauna with earthbags. They say that they have only spent about $125 (mostly on bag material), with the rest of the materials either dug from their property or gleaned from dumps, etc. The bags were first covered with a … Read more
Wooden shakes are a sustainable roofing material because they can be made by hand using a froe and locally available wood. You can make shakes from many kinds of wood, but the best shakes come from old trees with tight growth rings. Install shakes over roofing felt, and fasten with galvanized roofing nails. Steep roofs … Read more
Jorge Dominguez has been building earthbag houses in Hawaii for some time, and he recently emailed me some of his thoughts about this way of building as it relates to durability, financing, and insurance. I think that he has touched on some very important issues that I would like to share with you. “I was … Read more
I recently wrote an article about living walls for GreenHomeBuilding.com, and in doing the research for this I came upon an interesting approach to creating a kind of living wall or retaining wall using geotextile materials. Basically, loosely woven bags filled with a growing medium can be stacked to form walls that then support plant … Read more
Kikuma Watanabe is an associate professor of architecture at Kochi University of Technology in Japan and is responsible for the design of several wonderful earthbag projects around the world. He collaborated with Akio Inoue (a Japanese professor of philosophy) on designing an eco-village near Lake Victoria in Uganda, and they have helped the Africans build … Read more