Ecological Resort in Indonesia

I recently heard from Clive Riddington, who has been developing an ecological resort on an island named ‘Gili Trawangan’ which now is one of Indonesia’s top destinations for tourism outside of Bali. The project is a collaboration between him, as a contractor, and his wife, Rina Asmi’s, re-claimed timber business ‘The Old Tree Company’ and a group of ecologically minded investors, ‘Asia Prospects‘.

This island is unique in the fact that it is only 7 km walk around its perimeter, has a population of approximately 2000 and does not allow any motorized transport; the only mode of transport is by horse and cart or bicycle.

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Hyperadobe with EarthenHand

This is one of the best videos I’ve seen in illustrating how to go about building a project. In just a few short minutes it manages to show the construction process from foundation to roof, using lots of animated portions to speed it up. There are several particularly worthwhile aspects of this 800 square foot … Read more

For the Love of Earthbags

The driving factor behind this project is the belief that simple design is high design, particularly when working in the developing world. For the Love of Earthbags (F.L.O.E.) is an interactive design project that aims to prove that it’s possible to approach high-design in a manner that is tasteful, modern, and groundbreaking by using only … Read more

Soil Screening Machines

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuoCf8X12Qs&w=420&h=315] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-VREBnm-W0&w=560&h=315] These screening machines are primarily for production earthbag builders and other natural builders who want to mechanize the building process for maximum efficiency. They are useful for screening soil for earthen plaster, earthen floors, straw/clay and, of course, soil for earthbags. One advantage is the ability to utilize soil from the … Read more

Filling Mesh Tubing with Papercrete

A blog post entitled “Earthbag, Superadobe, Hiperdobe, Why Not Hiperpapercrete?” caught my eye. The author makes a very good case for filling mesh tubing with damp papercrete. Here is how he explains it: “I have recently been reading up about earthbag/superadobe construction. One of the new techniques that some earthbaggers are very excited about utilizes … Read more