When Gary Zuker bought an undeveloped piece of land outside of Austin,Texas he knew the only way he could afford a home there was to build it himself. With no building experience, he immersed himself in architecture books at the University of Texas (where he works as a computer engineer). He fell in love with … Read more
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
Good Earth Gobal’s latest crowdfunding campaign was successful, and together with the New Zealand non-profit organization Golden Bay Friends of Nepal they were able to come up with the entire budget for a house for the widow Dipa and her daughters. They completed the Earthbag house with an attached kitchen, and are now waiting for … Read more
You can watch the video at www.youtube.com
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