Patti Stouter and I have just completed a proposal for Emergency Earthbag Shelters. The basic premise is many times tarps alone do not provide sufficient shelter for humanitarian relief operations, while tents may not be available or cost effective. What is often needed is a simple family shelter solution that is easy to transport and … Read more
It’s our one year anniversary and we’re happy to say we continue to receive and publish new projects, photos and articles weekly. Because we publish all the latest news, our growth here at EarthbagBuilding.com mirrors the growth of building with earthbags worldwide. For example, right now we have 31 articles on everything from construction details, … Read more
Earthbag Building in the Humid Tropics: Simple Instructions by Patti Stouter is a 27-page, step-by-step PDF guide to building with earthbags in these demanding climates. It is well thought out, quite informative, and useful as a basic introduction to the concept of building with earthbags. She begins with a general introduction, and then moves on … Read more
Sandbags have a long history of use in flood control. United Bags, Inc., for example, has supplied sandbags to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the public for 117 years. Sandbags play a critical role in building and fortifying dikes and levees to protect our communities. The bags are low cost and easily transported … Read more
In an effort to track down the history of earthbag building, I’ve been reading up on the history of burlap bags – the forerunner to polypropylene bags. This post is based on information at NYP Corporation, a wholesaler of burlap bags. (See “Jute to Burlap.”) For centuries, the people of India used jute, the plant … Read more
There is an ongoing debate over the origins of earthbag building — who ‘invented’ it and when. It is an important point that gets into sticky questions about patent rights of building with earthbags. Some accounts of military sandbag structures go back over 100 years. I haven’t seen pictures of these, but a recent Google … Read more