The Great Carbon Reckoning

When Kate Simonen, a professor who leads the Carbon Leadership Forum at the University of Washington, was a young architect experimenting with alternative approaches to conventional concrete. She called up her structural engineer on an educational-building project and asked if they could swap out some of the cement in their mix for fly ash. He … Read more

Testing and Code Approval for Monolithic Cob

Quail Springs Permaculture group in Maricopa, California has announced a collaboration with Cal Poly San Louis Obispo to do earthquake testing on cob walls. Cal Poly has offered to support this public benefit project with deeply discounted access to earthquake testing equipment and expertise ($10,000 rather then the usual $70,000!) Testing is needed to get basic … Read more

Earthbag Training and Testing at Santa Clara University, CA

Engineering students at Santa Clara University are evaluating how to make rebar inserted into earthbag walls to be stronger.
Engineering students at Santa Clara University are evaluating how to make rebar inserted into earthbag walls to be stronger.

Patti Stouter of Build Simple, Inc. has been testing earthbags and writing technical reports for the last several years in an effort to improve strength of earthbag buildings in seismic areas. She asked me to forward the following announcement.

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