From the Earth Up: Building with Adobe, Cob, & Daub

Witness the interplay of earth, water, and straw to create in-fill walls for a hand-crafted timber frame structure. Stone, clay, bamboo and straw are combined to create beautifully finished walls. Many hands come together, to gather stones, make adobes, mix cob, harvest bamboo to build natural walls that are durable and breathable. Multiple methods of … Read more

How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Home: An Earthbag Construction Manual

The folks at Good Earth Global prepared a guide titled How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Home: An Earthbag Construction Manual for Engineering for Change’s members and readers and it was published at engineeringforchange.org It starts out with this introduction: Earthbag technology has emerged as the building method best suited to rebuild rural Nepal after its … Read more

Lego-Like Hempcrete Blocks

These hempcrete blocks are a green building material made with a hemp-lime insulation mixture packed around a biocomposite structural frame. They can be stacked like bricks to build walls up to 30 feet high and they become the insulation and the structure of the building. All you need to do after the walls are built … Read more

A Unique Restoration Project in France

French cooperative Anatomies D’Architecture completed this restoration of a traditional brick house in Normandy. The project was defined by ambitious construction goals: 0% concrete, 0% plastic, and 100% natural materials sourced on-site within less than 100 km radius. The architects brought their vision to life by collaborating with farmers, loggers, sawmills, quarrymen, masons, historians, researchers, apprentices, … Read more

Regenerative Architecture on Sumu Island

On the island of Sumu Yakushima, Japan, designer Tsukasa Ono turned to regenerative architecture as his primary concept. An experimental housing cooperative jointly created by eight owners, this project in the woods was adapted to fit the surrounding landscape without cutting down large trees or leveling the ground; they raised the wooden buildings off from … Read more