Dirt Cheap Housing Advice

Here’s an email from one of our readers (abbreviated for ease of reading). I just had a few questions about building an earthbag home, and I hope you can get me pointed in the right direction. First off, I’m broke, so these questions pertain to me saving up for my future home. My dream home … Read more

A Sad but Educational Footnote

In 2005 there was much publicity and delight regarding a lovely earthbag clinic built in a small town in the Philippines. This was a project of Illac Diaz and several organizations there. You can see the finished building below. Since then it has been privately reported that the building has fallen into disrepair. Some photos … Read more

Low-cost Multipurpose Minibuilding Made With Earthbags

One of the most practical structures on a small farmstead is a multi-purpose garden structure that can serve as a storage shed or cool pantry above ground, or as a root cellar or storm shelter below ground. You can build this multipurpose structure for about $300 using earthbag construction (bags filled with earth and stacked … Read more

Eccentric Aesthetics

According to an article entitled “Eccentric Aesthetics: DIY Eco-Friendly Earthbag Homes” posted at dornob.com, the phrase “form follows function” has morphed in meaning over time and is, perhaps rightly, open to interpretation. One interesting extension of this idea is that the form of a building can follow the functions of its constituent parts – that … Read more

The Rocket & the Rabbithole

Sourabh Phadke in India has been quite productive lately in publicizing earthbag building in various ways.  He is involved with a school there, where they have been experimenting with many aspects of natural building and green living, from compost toilets to creatively using recycled plastic bottles to earthen plasters over earthbag walls. Much of this … Read more