Manisha Lath Gupta and her family wanted to live in an environment where they grow their produce, and living with nature meant living in a home built using natural materials. Aanandaa house is built using sustainable materials like rammed earth, stone, lime, brick, and traditional roofing systems. These materials were sourced locally and they hired … Read more
A beautifully crafted home for sale in Bear Valley, California looks like it belongs in Sweden. That’s where the dwelling’s owner got his inspiration for the 1,350-square-foot, one-bedroom, two-bath retreat. The home also includes two sleeping nooks in the living room, plus a large loft. In 1967, the seller—the late Dr. Johan Viking Hultin—bought the … Read more
SunRay Kelley, the barefoot builder of fantastical handmade castles, yurts, temples, spirit lodges, tree houses, etc., died on July 16 in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. He was 71. I first met SunRay at one of the Natural Building Colloquia, and you can read an article I wrote about this at greenhomebuilding.com. Bonnie Howard, Mr. Kelley’s longtime partner, … Read more
Yu Sing, an Indonesian architect, relies on local materials when constructing homes and public spaces. “Natural houses are no longer the first choice for people’s homes,” Yu Sing said. “The state even calls them uninhabitable homes.” Yu Sing founded Studio Akanoma in 2008 to showcase the design of low-cost housing using natural materials. A year … Read more
permies.com has a wonderful thread going about tree houses that is worth exploring. I’ll post a few of the pictures they have on display to whet your appetite.
The Kasbah Taourirt is mostly made of rammed earth and mud brick. It is a fortified residence complex that overlooks Ouarzazate in south-central Morocco, which is often called “the door of the desert”. It is one of the best-preserved examples of this kind of earthen building, with three stories, balconies and big rectangular towers at … Read more