One key to affordable natural building is to use low cost, locally available materials. Look especially for what others don’t want – things like ‘problem soils’, dredgings, ‘wastes’. This brick making video was the inspiration for this blog post. It explains how a company in the Philippines uses abundant, locally available materials to make brick. … Read more
Here’s Patti Stouter’s entry for the $300 House design competition. Rubble bags on lower walls provide a solid, flood resistant wall. Hyper-wattle provides lightweight insulating upper walls made of mesh tubes. Thin walls conserve space and materials, and take less labor. Her design is one of only a few in this competition that could actually … Read more
We’ve been discussing the Eternally Solar earthbag building system at length. Engineering tests show their walls exceed building code requirements even when filled with sand. Their bags are also used to form lintels and bond beams. As exciting and practical as this is, there’s a wide range of other options. Their earthbags can be filled … Read more
Previous blog posts have explained how earthbag homes are similar to rammed earth (see Ancient Rammed Earth Structures) and compressed earth (see Impact Testing Megablocks with Black Powder Cannon). And in comparison to adobe, which is also quite durable, earthbags gain additional durability from: – Tamping (greater density, less air space, clay platelets bonded together) … Read more
Kelly Hart and Patti Stouter fielded some questions from Stanford University students. “I am a graduate student in the Construction Engineering & Management program at Stanford University. For one of my courses this quarter, two of my classmates and I are developing a non-profit social venture business plan. We have decided to explore earthbag construction … Read more
I’ve added a third entry in ‘The $300 House Open Design Challenge’. CEBs are popular and practical, and some of you may be thinking of using them for columns, next to wood stoves, interior walls or as a design element. They would make a great center column in a roundhouse. Geopolymer CEBs turn to actual … Read more