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
We live in interesting and somewhat precarious times. No one can say for certain that they are immune from economic collapse, civil disturbance or even war. With the world’s escalating financial, environmental and political problems lately, anything is possible. All the many benefits of earthbags are reported on our EarthbagBuilding.com website – low cost, simplicity … Read more
It is very gratifying to witness how our website is helping to spread the word about the viability of earthbags as a significant construction method worldwide. In just one day I was alerted to the publishing of two new media available via the internet: one is a 6-page article, titled How Earthbag Homes Work, published … Read more
Owen Geiger and I have just found that a book published in 1990 in Germany, Building with Pumice, written by Klaus Grasser and Gernot Minke, describes experiments done in the 1970’s at the Research Laboratory for Experimental Building at Kassel Polytechnic College in Germany that have considerable bearing on the history of earthbag building. Most … Read more
The Father of Earthbag Building, Nader Khalili, died peacefully, surrounded by his family, a couple of days ago. He was 71 years old. Here is part of a letter sent out by his family to former students: “The flames that ignited him in life and the quest that brought each of you to Cal-Earth to … Read more