“Biomaterials” are materials made using biological matter, and some engineers and designers are turning to them for their “visual richness”, alongside their eco-credentials. A growing number of people around the world are exploring ways living organisms and their products can be integrated into our built environment – from algae-based bricks to straw or fungi wall … Read more
Ex-rocket scientist, Kristina Barile, from Harvard and MIT now builds natural living structures and permaculture farms in Panama. She is an expert in building mud homes who offers workshops and videos to help people embrace natural building technologies and live off the grid. On her Instagram account, Kristina posted a video explaining the difference between … Read more
Ellen Snortland and her husband have now lost a home to fire, another to flooding and another to a mudslide — and they’re tired of fighting the elements. “We are going to have to deal with extreme weather for the rest of our lives. To pretend otherwise is really folly,” she said. “I don’t see … Read more
Eleven graduate students in the Historic Preservation program at the Pratt Institute of New York spent their Spring Break shoveling soil, straw, and sand into wheelbarrows, mixing buckets of lime plaster, and applying limewash on historic walls as part of an Adobe Preservation Workshop in Mesilla, NM. They were assisted by Adobe in Action, a … Read more
After buying an old, rundown stone house in Italy, architect couple Maddalena Cerruti and Vincent Baisnée set about transforming it into the ultimate sustainable home. Renovating the building from scratch, room by room, they used natural and locally sourced materials to turn the crumbling structure into a property that respects their health, the environment and the building’s … Read more
Inspired by desert dunes and ocean waves, this earthen home in Kazakhstan is a self-built eco dream, seemingly straight out of a fantasy novel, but this surrealist cob house is far from fiction. “When people first encounter our house, they struggle to believe it’s a residence,” says Dilyara Mazhitova. “Most assume it’s a public space … Read more