Houses That Can Save the World

Many of our houses are defined by a pattern of consumption, from the raw materials to build them, to the fuel required to sustain them, and the waste generated by them. Despite an improvement in building energy efficiency, 2021 saw carbon emissions from building and construction hit an all-time high. Suppose that a house could … Read more

Catalan Vault Building in Barcelona

Jordi Domenech is a second generation master mason from Catalunya specializing in the catalan vault method and has built these structures for over 50 years. He is one of the world’s leading builders and teachers on this technique, having constructed hundreds of works, and teaches workshops on traditional masonry techniques. The Catalan vault – also … Read more

What’s a Colloquium?

I remember that when I attended the Natural Building Colloquium in Kingston, NM in the fall of 2015 there was a fellow named Matt Anderson going around filming and interviewing people. He was part of Earth Lodge Studio, and the result of all this filming was a documentary entitled “What’s a Colloquium?: An Oral History … Read more

Legendary Permaculturalist Jerome Osentowski’s Future Uncertain

Jerome Osentowski, the founder of the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute is known the world over as a gardening guru. But now he is facing a challenge from a pest he never anticipated: zoning. Around Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, the legend is well-known: An eccentric old man living on Basalt Mountain had grown bananas at … Read more