Introduction

Natural Building Tour of Eco-Friendly Affordable Homes

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A growing number of people are disillusioned with conventional housing made of 2x4s and sheetrock (the way most homes in North America are built). These homes are filled with materials such as particleboard, plywood, plastic, linoleum, and synthetic carpet and paint that contain known carcinogens and allergens. These man-made materials offgas toxic chemicals such as … Read more

Why is there a Housing Crisis?

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The UN estimates 1.2 billion people lack adequate shelter and over one hundred million are homeless. Why is this happening when the solution is readily apparent and well proven? The answer lies in using locally available, natural building materials to construct affordable housing. Highly processed modern materials are not affordable for the masses and carry … Read more

Natural Building: How to Build an Affordable Eco-Friendly Home

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There are dozens of building methods and design techniques that enable virtually anyone to build their dream home at rock-bottom prices. The solution lies in natural building – using locally available, low-impact materials such as earth, stone, straw and small diameter wood, in conjunction with timeless vernacular building methods. Our grandparents didn’t need a quarter … Read more

Angel’s Dome in Mexico

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We’ve added another project to our Projects page: Angel’s Dome in Mexico. A lot can be learned by examining other projects. There are many ways to do things and people are constantly innovating. On this project you’ll observe how they used volcanic rock, built eyebrows over their windows with rebar and utilized barrels for window … Read more

Insulating Earthbag Walls with Tube Sandbags

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My earlier post about Earthbag Building in Cold Climates on January 17, 2009 piqued some interest. Since energy performance on most buildings can be improved with insulation, including those made of earth — adobe, earthbag, etc. — I decided to pursue this idea further. So here’s another method for insulating earthbag buildings using tube sandbags, … Read more