Filmed in Valparaiso, Indiana in the late 1930’s, William Urschel demonstrates his “Wall Building” machine in this video. According to his patent application in 1944, this invention is a machine operable to mold a solidifiable material into the form of a strip and deposit the same as a course or layer in the formation of … Read more
In 1978 the Howards were urban professionals. Wanting a simpler, more meaningful life on a smaller budget, the family-of-4 lived on $18K/year, reducing costs to $10K/year after moving to their “intentional” Colorado homestead. They moved into an abandoned double-wide trailer on their 35 acre property and began raising chickens and goats for milk, as well … Read more
This event has multiple purposes: collaboration, experimentation and innovation to move permaculture technology forward experiences for people new to permaculture technology building homesteading skills The Jamboree Format: Attendees can wander among all FIFTEEN of the tracks and participate or observe as much or as little as they like. The instructors will see a project to … Read more
Terran’s 3D printing system emulates traditional adobe hand-building techniques to produce walls that are soundproof and fireproof. Using reinforcement learning, they are training custom-designed unmanned aerial drones to emulate traditional earthen building techniques. By leveraging the world’s most abundant building materials—clay, aggregate, and straw—Terran walls save 50% on construction costs versus conventional stick-built walls. Terran’s … Read more
This video is a journey following the sustainable harvesting and milling of trees, the forging of timber-frame chisels and the cutting of the joinery to build a timber-frame. This structure will soon be filled with earthen walls of adobe bricks, cob and wattle & daub. See www.caneloproject.com. You can watch the video at www.youtube.com
Earlier this month I participated in a webinar titled Designing Highly-Sustainable Buildings featuring the Sketchup software team, along with Sefaira, a plugin that calculates various aspects of energy use pertaining to the design. A representative from an architectural firm that uses the software explained how they go about their designing, which is mostly for commercial … Read more