Awareness Ranch uses the ideas of permaculture design to grow food and create buildings. Following the adage of “think globally and act locally” they aim to provide a working model of sustainable agriculture and construction which can be replicated or adapted to many settings. By cultivating an awareness of our interconnected world, they believe we … Read more
A cellar with a paved floor beneath a home is an almost unheard of feature for the Neolithic period. Members of the Funnel Beaker Culture (around 4000 BCE) created the cellar on the island of Falster in southeast Denmark, where workers stumbled on the remains of ancient homes while extending a railway in the area. … Read more
I am a big fan of masonry heaters. For additional heat during the cold season using wood as a fuel, these are extraordinarily efficient and produce almost no emissions, with minimal effort. Plus they can be used for cooking, like this beehive dome masonry heater. You can find out much about this heater and how … Read more
Peter Wade-Martins has visited all 649 of Norfolk’s surviving medieval churches to study the stone types used in their construction. As a result, he has identified the use of conglomerate, grey quartzite, millstone grit, and tile, much of it reused from ruinous Roman buildings. There were few stone churches in that region of England until … Read more
Emma and Edo were once a hotel stage show dance team, until they quit to live out their dream of rescuing animals (Emma) and farming (Edo) on the island of Tenerife. They bought cheap land and began to transform the rocky, dusty soil into a lush homestead. In the beginning, it was just the two … Read more
An Australian biotechnology company known as Mirreco has recently shared its plans to 3D print hemp homes. They have developed a way to produce hemp panels which can be used in both residential and commercial building projects. They say that these 3D printed panels are structurally sound, easy to produce, and provide superior thermal performance. … Read more