Marlena and Eugene built their homestead in Blanco, Texas using salvaged windows, doors, wood flooring, tile, a bathtub, a lot of plywood, and some lumber. After over a decade of building, they now have a completely off-grid home, workshop, garden, and rental cabin. They bought all six of their 500- to 700-gallon rainwater barrels for … Read more
With walls made from old tires packed with earth, as well as upcycled glass bottles and cans, Earthships have always been built with mainly found materials. The home provides its own energy (with photovoltaics, passive solar and geothermal tubes), water (rainwater and even dew-water capture) and grows food in the greenhouse (necessary for temperature regulation … Read more
Community First! Village is a beautiful 51-acre master-planned tiny home village providing affordable housing in a supportive community for the disabled, previously chronically homeless in Central Texas. It’s currently home to 200 individuals in tiny homes & RVs. As a way to invite the outside community in, they offer volunteer opportunities, events, and a bed … Read more
Geoff Lawton explains how to create a food forest that will benefit both you and the planet. Forests are ecosystems with a diversity of plants, animals, and fungi. They were designed by nature to have perfect balance. A food forest is a version of this in which the different, balanced components produce food. When we … Read more
Welcome to the Jungle House was designed by one of Australia’s champions of sustainable architecture, Clinton Cole. It generates its own electricity, warms and cools itself, provides its own water and food – including fish, vegetables, eggs and honey – powers its own car, is smothered in greenery and is in the middle of inner-city … Read more
On the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, in the small village of Peka Peka, there are a series of hillocks that have windows and small white towers that rise above the landscape like periscopes. It turns out that this is the underground home of Friedrich (“Fritz”) and Helen Eisenhofer. Fritz is an architect … Read more