Mark Young has been living a self-sufficient lifestyle on a remote off-grid island in British Columbia for the past 21 years. He has built 9 experimental buildings on his 20-acre property using local and natural materials like wood, stone and cob, including: a cabin for himself, utility buildings for his solar power systems, a sauna … Read more
At a recent symposium, Bakar Labs for Energy and Materials convened experts from industry, academia and government to discuss the true carbon cost of construction. A common thread throughout the symposium was that humanity can rise to the challenge of creating sustainable buildings. Bruce King — founder of BuildWell.site, a nonprofit drawing awareness to … Read more
In 2021, Mathieu Munsch walked away from the “normal” script— rent, bills, loans, a regular job— and headed for a sloping meadow in northeast France to build something radically simple: a small home made from the earth under his feet, wood from nearby, and straw bales from local farmers. He kept it to 50 m² … Read more
Mr. Giovane has enclosed an entire condominium in Brazil with a dry-stacked stone wall. He has worked with this method for decades. It took him about six months of work, but he stayed on site for almost a year because of the rainy weather. These walls are made without the use of any binding material, … Read more
Anna Heringer’s book Form Follows Love: Building by Intuition – from Bangladesh to Europe and beyond is a different approach to architecture where human relationships, local materials and knowledge, inform the creative process. Photographs depict buildings animated by everyday life, where human presence and social interaction take center stage, and the architecture gently recedes into … Read more
“Preserving dry stone walls in buildings is an opportunity to promote Cyprus as a model of sustainable development, strengthen the local economy through the creation of new jobs and keep the island’s cultural heritage alive,” interior ministry secretary Ellikos Elia said. “The technique embodies ingenuity, endurance and harmony with the natural environment.” “In Cyprus, dry … Read more