Foundations

The Carriage House

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About 15 years ago I built the “Carriage House” using a prefabricated steel vault as a supporting structure for earthbags filled with scoria as insulation. It is a two story affair, with the lower one being a garage/shop and the upper one an office and storage space. I located a new 34′ X 16′ steel … Read more

Weaving Studio Plan

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In the early 1970’s I was commissioned to design and build a small weaving studio on property located along the coast in Bolinas, California. The client was a weaving apprentice with my sister, who was living on rented property with her family. There was room on that property to place a small studio separated from the main house, and that is where she wanted me to build the studio. Obviously it would be foolish to place a permanent structure on rented property, so I suggested that I design it in such a way that it could fairly easily be dismantled and moved elsewhere if necessary. She liked the idea, so that is what I did.

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Rebuilding Nepal, One Earthbag at a Time

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rebuildingnepalRebuilding Nepal, One Earthbag at a Time is a short Kindle book assembled by a team of eight volunteers who went to Palchok in the Trishuli Valley to rebuild a school in the fall of 2015. Because of the remote location they needed to plan for every aspect of the project, and this book is primarily advice for others who might try to do something similar. Besides actually building the school, they wanted to introduce the earthbag technique to the villagers so they could continue rebuilding this way. The team had raised enough funds from friends and family to accomplish this goal. They were there for only two weeks, but they got that small school built! Graeme Howell was the mastermind behind this endeavor.

The first chapter introduces what they consider to be the essential building process and suggests how to make this happen efficiently. Because of the number of volunteers, including folks from the village, they wanted to keep everybody busy and make sure there weren’t bottlenecks in the process. For this reason they had people filling and sewing bags right away, even before the foundation trench was prepared. Likewise, they had people screening soil for the eventual plaster.

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Hands-On Workshops at the NBC

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In addition to the tree house and rocket stove projects already described, there were quite a few other hands-on demonstration projects happening at the Natural Building Colloquium (NBC), and I’ll describe a few of these.

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A simple straw bale wall was erected on a prepared concrete foundation; this was directed by Bill Steen with the assistance of Matts Myhrman and many others. This L-shaped wall would immediately serve as a kind of performance stage and could eventually be enclosed for a building.

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The Mud Home: Earthbag Foundations

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Gravel bag foundations save thousands of dollars, use no concrete and don’t wick water up in the wall.
Gravel bag foundations save thousands of dollars, use no concrete and don’t wick water up in the wall.

“There will be many who refuse to believe this will work. What no concrete? Will be their never-ending refrain.

Concrete foundations have been around for less than a hundred years. Buildings have been built for millennia. In the eastern Mediterranean it’s common to see structures still standing over 2000 years after they were built, without a drop of concrete.

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Wiki Natural House Foundation Design

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The low cost Wiki Natural House foundation is designed to meet UK building codes.
The low cost Wiki Natural House foundation is designed to meet UK building codes.

Yesterday’s blog post was about the foam glass insulation we plan to use on the Wiki Natural House. Today we’re giving a sneak peak (first draft) of the foundation design. The primary design considerations are low cost, owner-builder friendly, minimal cement, must withstand cold and wet climate (insulation is key), must align with thick straw bale walls and meet UK building codes. That’s a pretty tall order. Many of my designs are for rural areas with few or no codes. In this case, we have to put a little more effort into workable solutions.

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