James and Suzanne McConnell, co-founders of The Foster Village, are creating a self sustaining earthbag eco-pueblo pilot program for foster teenagers near Ojo Caliente, NM. Children living full time in an eco-pueblo along with their visiting parents, when appropriate, will work side-by-side, interacting and caring for animals, gardening, building earthbag domes, milking goats, making cheese … Read more
It is very gratifying to witness how our website is helping to spread the word about the viability of earthbags as a significant construction method worldwide. In just one day I was alerted to the publishing of two new media available via the internet: one is a 6-page article, titled How Earthbag Homes Work, published … Read more
Mainly through the efforts of Illiac Diaz, a charismatic entrepenuer/actor/model/athlete, the Philippines has been home to some very innovative public works utilizing earthbags. Illiac discovered the benefits of this technology several years ago at Nader Khaili’s CalEarth Institute in Hesperia, California, and has been promoting earthbag building in the Philippines ever since. Diaz is the … Read more
Each year the Society for Environmental Graphic Design sponsors a contest to recognize the best in environmental graphic design. This year’s Juror’s Award went to Norman Lee and Charles Houser for their Billboard Earthbag Project. The designers say: “Because most conventional sandbags are fabricated from polypropylene, they are very vulnerable to UV rays and quickly … Read more
Owen Geiger and I have just found that a book published in 1990 in Germany, Building with Pumice, written by Klaus Grasser and Gernot Minke, describes experiments done in the 1970’s at the Research Laboratory for Experimental Building at Kassel Polytechnic College in Germany that have considerable bearing on the history of earthbag building. Most … Read more
Jorge Dominguez has been helping his friend Mark Hanson build the first permitted earthbag dome house in Hawaii. After several months working on this project, Jorge offered these impressions of building with earthbags and the potential market for this in the U.S. The accompanying photo was taken by Jorge during construction of the Hawaiian house. … Read more