Sand is one of those natural materials that we take for granted; it seems so abundant that we could never run out of it. Both natural building and conventional building rely on sand for many aspects of construction. It is an essential component of adobe, cob, rammed earth, earthen plaster, stucco and concrete. It is … Read more
December 5th was World Soil Day and for 2019 the theme chosen is ‘Stop soil erosion, Save our future’. Soil is fundamental to our very existence on earth and deforestation is one of the main ways the soil is destroyed. The World Soil Day came about because the United Nations wanted people to be more … Read more
I just received this email from Marlene Wulf, a long-time blog reader: I’ve been reading and enjoying the Natural Building Blog for years now and have been dabbling in natural building (earthbag, cob, rammed earth, etc.) for even longer. And I have a friend, Pack McKibben, who has been renovating his double-wide mobile home since … Read more
Western Solar has completed three innovative housing projects using a special low-energy design that was pioneered at Wales’ first solar village in Glanrhyd, Pembrokeshire, in 2017. There are a range of projects to develop new solutions to the climate crisis and the urgent need for affordable public housing. The houses use locally grown timber frames … Read more
Chinmay Pareek from Brzee Studio in India sent me some photos of his latest project: an earthbag house in Jaipur that is surrounded by big concrete bungalows and high rises in the main city. In addition to earthbags, they are using exposed stone walls, wattle and daub walls with murals as partitions, and a bamboo … Read more
A German architectural firm, Mono Architekten, designed this uniquely natural building extension to an existing concrete school in Germany, with a cluster of curving larch-clad forms topped with sloping green roofs. The extension houses an after-school care center for the Waldorf School, and the design was intended to mirror the ideals of Waldorf-Steiner schools, which … Read more