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
The Lammas Ecovillage is a collective of smallholdings and eco-dwellings in Wales. Residents explore alternative models for living on the land, broadly in line with the Welsh Government’s ‘One Planet Development’ policy. The smallholdings combine traditional farming and building techniques with the latest innovations in environmental design, green technology and permaculture. Construction of “The Hub” … Read more
Mother Earth News published a nice article written by Joe Silins about his journey as a natural builder and building his small straw bale guest house. The first paragraph reads: “Building my own straw bale guest house was the culmination of one journey and the beginning of another. After graduating from college in 2005 with … Read more
The San Isidro Permanent Education Project at Rancho El Pardo is located 3 km from the town of Tlaxco, Mexico, in a beautiful pine-oak forest that 40 years ago was an eroded area. They demonstrate construction of cob, straw-clay, straw bales, ecological toilets and much more. These photos show part of their campus. You can … Read more
Kathleen Draper, a climate change activist has constructed a 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom straw bale home that she said will help reduce global warming and keep her comfortable in the harshest New York winter. “I call it my ‘dwelling on drawdown’ project,” she said, referring to the future point at which the atmosphere’s greenhouse gas levels stop … Read more
Shortly after moving to British Columbia, Amanda Follett Hosgood bought seven acres of raw land just outside Smithers. She started by building a garage with a tiny suite above, where she lived alone with her two huskies until meeting her husband a couple years later. She had always always planned to build a proper house … Read more