“We all grew up with the Three Little Pigs,” Greg Bossie says. “So people have a lot of misconceptions about the viability of straw as a building component.” But no one’s huffing, puffing, and blowing houses down that are constructed or renovated by Rare Forms, a unique construction company that Bossie founded in 2020. “We … Read more
This hand-crafted mud brick home is built with care and authenticity on over seven acres of mixed bushland and open pasture. Constructed using a post-and-beam method, the structure features stringybark posts cut from a single Tasmanian tree, paired with hand-shaped salvaged wharf timbers. Mud bricks were made on-site from the property’s own earth, making it … Read more
The Ugly Truckling is a house truck that was hand built by a woman named Kai in British Columbia over the course of many years. She is a carpenter and an artist, so she did all of the design and woodworking while her husband, Ben, worked on the systems for electricity and gas. Kai and … Read more
Grant Johnson moved to Utah in his 20s, purchased a piece of land that would become an inholding of a National Monument, and spent the next 40 years creating an off-grid homestead with a 5,000 square foot cave house. You can watch the video at www.youtube.com
A group of researchers at RMIT University in Australia has been looking at discarded cardboard and wondering if it could do something useful. Their experiments led to a mix of cardboard, soil, and water that behaves like a building material, not packaging. Early trials point to real potential, especially for builders who are trying to … Read more
The Rijnvliet housing development in the Netherlands has around 1,000 fruit trees and 220 species of edible flora. The development has 1,000 homes surrounded by parks, rivers and forestry with the aim of including as much food producing plants as possible. “The idea of an edible neighborhood originated from the residents themselves”, says the landscape … Read more