Last year the folks at Vide Terra in Italy built an earthbag dome and decided to experiment with a thatched roof without a wood frame. Reed, bracken, cane thatching and experimental broom thatching, were directly attached to the dome. They used an unusual plant for thatching that is very invasive, local and abundant in all … Read more
The following blog post was written by Michael G. Smith originally for motherearthnews.com and I have shamelessly posted it here to further spread his wise words.A group of about two dozen people gather on a wooded hillside in Northern California. They are women, men, and children, ranging in age from three to 72. They come … Read more
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
Intrepid earthbag researcher and advocate Patti Stouter sent me this remarkable photo taken in Nepal. She says, “I just got this photo from someone who helped build about 500 earthbag houses in Nepal after the quakes. This heavy truck had an accident and rolled off an adjacent mountain road and onto the roof of this … Read more
Researchers at southern Ben-Gurion University in Israel have developed some new formulations of hempcrete that are less energy intensive to make. Hempcrete is usually made with hemp hurds and lime, which requires a fair amount to heat to produce. The researchers have found that they can replace some of the lime with natural minerals (such … Read more
Leading a repair team, Yang Long will spend around one year to restore an 800-meter-long section of the Great Wall in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. “Ningxia had long been at the junction of nomadic civilization and farming civilization in ancient times. In order to resist the invasion of nomadic peoples from the north, … Read more