A group of homeless people and activists have built their own unsanctioned community center from the ground up — creating a kitchen, shower, toilet, health clinic, and free store in Oakland, California. The grassroots project is expanding the limits of what a homeless encampment can look like. The community center, located in the heart of … Read more
Learn skills, techniques, and design theory to create your own beautiful, durable, energy-efficient home from local and site-harvested materials. Most of each day will be spent practicing a wide range of hands-on natural building systems, some ancient and time-tested, others experimental. This workshop teaches a wide variety of techniques that you can choose depending on … Read more
Casa Covida blends rammed earth, mud, clay and other natural materials with 3D printing. These materials are local and easy to source. California-based Emerging Objects is a visionary studio that is exploring ways to use 3D printing using soil mixed with straw, sand, and other organic materials. The name Casa Covida refers to both the … Read more
The walls in Gregory Ferembach’s public housing building are lined with one of nature’s best insulation materials: hemp. “We’re never cold in winter,” Ferembach said in French. “The kids walk around barefoot all the time, or even in their underwear.” It helps that their apartment is on a middle floor, and their building is sandwiched … Read more
Building with adobe — a material created by mixing clay-rich soil with straw, sand, and other organic materials — has been in use since 8300 BC. It is popular in arid and semiarid places where wood is scarce. The word “Adobe” derives from the Arabic “al ṭūb” meaning “the bricks.” Adobe buildings are low energy, … Read more
Mother Earth News published a nice article written by Joe Silins about his journey as a natural builder and building his small straw bale guest house. The first paragraph reads: “Building my own straw bale guest house was the culmination of one journey and the beginning of another. After graduating from college in 2005 with … Read more