Narayan Acharya builds eco-friendly buildings in Nepal through his startup named Sustainable Future. His company has already constructed over 50 buildings. “We use rammed earth technology to construct the buildings. These techniques were used by our ancestors to build their houses,” Acharya says, “We just improvised the techniques used by them for the better output … Read more
This article and documentary film are about building an underground complex that is far from being a natural building project. But I am posting this because I think that there are worthwhile things that can be learned. Sheltered: Underground and Off the Grid is a full-length documentary that chronicles the building of the largest underground … Read more
As many of you know I maintain an “Ask the Experts” opportunity at www.greenhomebuilding.com for people to post specific questions that they might have regarding various aspects of natural building and sustainable architecture. I have been doing this for about two decades and some of the experts have been helping me with this for about … Read more
Below is an excerpt from Home Work: Hand Built Shelter (Shelter Publications, 2004) by Lloyd Kahn. This book features more than 1,500 photos that illustrate various innovative architectural styles and natural building materials such as cob, papercrete, bamboo, adobe, strawbale, timber framing and earthbags. If you love fine, fun or funky buildings, you will enjoy … Read more
Michael G. Smith has been the expert on cob and light straw/clay use at greenhomebuilding.com for nearly two decades, and has answered innumerable questions on these topics, most of which are posted on the website. In response to a question about using light straw/clay for a particular application, he wrote: Another possible solution, that I … Read more
Nepal’s Bayalpata Hospital won an international award in the Health Category at the Global Architecture Festival held in Amsterdam. The hospital in is a public-private partnership and is built almost entirely using rammed earth. ‘This is an example of when architecture provides more than a building. Although modest in scale and architectural expression is delivers … Read more