Excerpt from the “Journal of the National Institute of Building Sciences,” February 2016:
“The Swiss civil engineer and contractor Heinz Isler (1926-2009) is regarded as one of the pioneers of shell structures. He gained renown for his experimental, physical methods of form-finding and the resulting expressive shell structures produced in thin-walled concrete, and first triggered his lifelong fascination and professional work with such structures by draping a saturated bed sheet in freezing weather to form a catenary shell before inverting it. He proved that, what gravity forms when inverted, is resistant to the forces of gravity.
Roofs
Low Cost Bamboo Truss System
Most of our readers know the world’s forests are being rapidly depleted. Sustainable alternatives are desperately needed. Low cost bamboo is a promising alternative building material because it’s rapidly renewable and widely available. Bamboo is especially well suited for Nepal that is in dire need of scalable solutions that can help rebuild the country. Ms. Neelima Basnet, a Nepali freelance architect, helped implement Joao Boto Caeiro’s bamboo truss method in Chapagaun near Kathmandu. Now there are 22 finished houses.
Green Magic Homes
I stumbled upon an interesting approach to creating underground housing. The manufacturer of the system calls them Green Magic Homes. Basically the structures are composed of prefabricated sections of molded composite material that are connected together to create a variety of shapes. They are waterproof and will not rot, so they are quite durable. Once the sections are erected, which can happen very quickly, they can be coated on the outside with foam insulation (generally needed in most climates). The idea is to cover the whole house with earth to protect it and to take advantage of the thermal benefit of going underground. Unfortunately, the system can only support about 7 inches of soil, so if you want more than that it may be necessary to add additional reinforced concrete.
Transforming an Airstream Trailer
Our final stop on the tour of Asher Gelbart’s off-grid homestead was a work in progress of incorporating an old Airstream trailer into a larger architectural project. Asher is holding up a model of this concept, which would not only feature a spiral roof covering most of it, but also earthbag domes.
The roof structure was mostly intact, and some earthbag retaining walls were established, but much work still needed to be done to manifest this vision.
Making Ferrocement Roof Channels
“A team of folks in africa make some 7.3m long ferrocement roof channels for placement on top of a CSEB (cement stabized compressed earth brick) house.”
The Eco-Home Design Guide
Christopher Day is a veteran of the world of architecture in Britain. In his new book, The Eco-Home Design Guide: Principles and practice for new-build and retrofit, he has condensed his considerable experience of both designing and hands-on building into a set of guiding principles for how to go about your own ecological building project.
The book is well organized into primary divisions that deal with the major issues that confront anyone who undertakes such a journey. These what, where, how and when issues are each examined in turn, so that by the time you complete the book, you should have a good understanding of all of the issues that need to be addressed. Each chapter is summarized at the end with a listing of the key points covered and a chart of the main choices that need to be made. With this approach, you can quickly thumb through the book to review the basic information presented.