I received an email from Susan Johnson titled “Owen my friend” and she has given me permission to post it here: I met Owen so long ago. In the early 70’s, Owen built his first house. He began coming to Colorado from Nebraska to spend the summers. He was hanging out in Breckenridge back when … Read more
Old churches offer both spiritual and historic value. I’ve visited several in the American Southwest that are worth commenting about. The first is the San Francisco de Asis Church in Taos, New Mexico, which was started by the Franciscans in the late 1700s and completed in 1816. This adobe building is now a National Historic … Read more
The reason I am posting this at the Natural Building Blog is that the old abandoned school that this couple visited is still standing so proudly. It is a perfect example of how well built stone masonry can withstand the ravages of time. The story written below was penned by Daryl Austin about a wonderful … Read more
When Tas Careaga first saw this 16th-century church it was advertised for sale as a “land plot with built-in ruins”. Abandoned for decades, it was being sold by the local bishopric for very little, but the new owner was required to rebuild it. Careaga and friends spent 3 months just clearing the structure of debris … Read more
Jiaohe is an ancient ruined city and fortress, located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. The city served as the capital of the Anterior Jushi Kingdom from 108 BC to 450 AD and was a center of trade on the silk road. At its peak, Jiaohe had a population of 7,000 inhabitants, and … Read more
Adobe is one of the few materials whose production, lifespan, and disposal results in net-zero carbon emissions. In this article we will highlight the use of adobe in Araukaria Arquitectura’s project El Encuentro on the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia which has a humid, rainy climate. Adobe block walls, unlike rammed earth, can be built rather … Read more