Triple Dome Survival Shelter

This Triple Dome Survival Shelter provides much more space than my first earthbag survival shelter. This 915 sq. ft. shelter is for long term survival for a family. It is earthquake and fire resistant, bullet and nuclear fallout resistant. This earth sheltered design is built above grade to reduce risk of flooding. Features include buried … Read more

Scalable Earthbag Solutions

From newleafinitiative.org In March 2011, New Leaf sent a team of allies and supporters to Haiti to construct an Earthbag building for our partners GrassRoots United. Earthbag buildings are built primarily from polypropylene bags, dirt and rubble. For two weeks, New Leaf worked extensively with Haitian volunteers to train them in the building process and … Read more

More Hyperadobe Videos

I found five more hyperadobe videos on YouTube. Some of the walls are rough, some are incredibly straight. It’s interesting to watch the various techniques. They’re not in English unfortunately, but it’s still a great way to learn. Hyperadobe Part 1 Hyperadobe Part 2 Hyperadobe Part 3

Rubble Bag Houses

I’ve pulled together the recent posts on rubble bag houses, expanded and edited the info, and published a new blog post at Mother Earth News. It includes details on how to build and reinforce rubble walls. Concrete rubble from collapsed buildings is a huge problem in Haiti. It is blocking roads and hindering reconstruction. Instead … Read more

Rubble Bags

I’ve been scouring the Internet looking at photos and videos of concrete rubble in Haiti. As you probably know, much of the concrete there was reduced to rubble in the earthquake (largely due to poor quality construction). But what is less apparent is a great deal of the concrete was pulverized. There is a tremendous … Read more

Earthbag Houses in Petite Goave, Haiti

Today’s post is about another low cost housing project in Haiti. Lower walls are ‘earth logs’ made with soil-filled filter fabric. Fabric is placed inside wood forms, filled with local soil and pinned closed. Earthbags are stacked on top. “The Foundation of St. Peter has started building houses out of the rubble in Haiti. We … Read more