Cob on Wood Homeless Community in Oakland, California

A group of homeless people and activists have built their own unsanctioned community center from the ground up — creating a kitchen, shower, toilet, health clinic, and free store in Oakland, California. The grassroots project is expanding the limits of what a homeless encampment can look like. The community center, located in the heart of … Read more

Indigenous Canadian Forest Gardens

A new study led by Chelsey Armstrong, an ethnobotanist with Simon Fraser University, has shown that there are “forest gardens” surrounding now-vacant historical villages of Ts’msyen and Coast Salish nations in British Columbia. These forest gardens are the result of careful management by Indigenous communities and have persisted as islands of ecological diversity long after … Read more

A Wonderful Waterfront Bamboo Pavilion in China

The Huanglong Waterfront Bamboo Pavilion is located in the ancient village of Beijiao in the Guangdong Province of China. “Baijiao” in ancient times means “hundred interlaced rivers and dense water network”. Public space integrated with nature close to water is a place for people to enjoy, chat and entertain. The Bamboo Pavilion is located in … Read more

The Self-Heating Wautillarium Tiny Home

Alosha Lynoff, founder of Bio Veda, is now living in one of Russia’s colder places and has designed a unique self-heating tiny home that doesn’t use firewood or fossil fuels. The Wautillarium uses thermophilic bacteria and taps into the energy of the sun for a stable temperature year-round, with geothermal air ducts passively delivering warm … Read more

Two Week Natural Building Intensive

Learn skills, techniques, and design theory to create your own beautiful, durable, energy-efficient home from local and site-harvested materials. Most of each day will be spent practicing a wide range of hands-on natural building systems, some ancient and time-tested, others experimental. This workshop teaches a wide variety of techniques that you can choose depending on … Read more

Students Build Net Zero House in Colorado

Gabriella “Gabi” Abello and Hannah Blake met as freshman roommates at the University of Colorado Boulder.  When they toured the Solar Decathlon showcase in Denver in 2017 they wondered why wasn’t CU involved? Nearly four years later, they led the CU team to the top award in the 2021 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon … Read more