It’s going to be just like an old fashioned barn raisin’ at the Green Desert Eco Farm in Rockvale. But instead of using planks, hammers and nails, builders will use lots of feed bags, earth and barbed wire. Richard Hubler and his wife, Kerry, are preparing to build their first earthbag shelter, and they invite … Read more
My new earthbag book is currently being reviewed by builders, architects and engineers with expertise in earthbag construction. The book should be completed in 2-3 weeks and will include their comments and suggestions. Here’s what people are saying so far: “Thank you for sending out your book to be reviewed. I think it is so … Read more
Building with earth requires low energy input in processing and handling soil – only about 1% of the energy required to manufacture and process the same volume of cement concrete. This aspect was investigated by the Desert Architecture Unit which has discovered that the energy needed to manufacture and process one cubic metre of soil … Read more
Here’s a response I made to a reader over on the Mother Earth News Blog who said “This type of building for people is not going to readily take off.” Owen: It’s all a matter of perspective, because over 1/3 (some estimate ½) of the houses in the world fall into this category! This includes … Read more
Bit by bit, word of earthbag building is spreading. Even though no large industry or organization has thrown their might behind the effort, earthbag continues its grassroots growth. Occasionally we stop and ponder, in a focused way, what can be done to facilitate this growth. With that in mind, here’s a partial list of needs … Read more
Bill and Thea, via www.earthbaghouse.com are hosting the first Earthbag Open-House on January 8th in Austin, Texas. They have documented the building of this complex dome home and plan to create an earthbag building course as well as a blog that chronicles their work, with videos, photos and interviews with earth artists and builders. They … Read more