For years Morgan Caraway had an ambition to build a pool below the natural spring on his property. He knew that filling the pool would be easy, because gravity would move the water. His dream finally came true in 2018, and here are the steps he and his wife, Mary Jane, took to build their … Read more
Hermits clamped their dwellings on to Meteora boulders in Greece. Meteora has been considered a holy place since the Paleolithic, several millennia before Christians were attracted by the area’s majestic boulders. Later, monasticism flourished since Byzantine times, during which at least 24 monasteries were founded and maintained. Today, only six of them are inhabited. Meteora … Read more
Recently Kimi Ishikawa posted this comment on the blog post about building their tire bale house in New Mexico: I hear people referring to tire bales as “thermal mass” and others referring to them as “insulation.” It can’t be both, right? Aren’t “thermal mass” and “insulation” mutually exclusive? I understand “thermal mass” to be a … Read more
The St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Clyde, New Zealand was built in 1877 with schist stone. It was the focus for the local community for nearly 150 years until falling numbers made it uneconomical to run and it was put up for sale. The property has a Historic Place heritage listing. People … Read more
The 9th International Hemp Building Symposium is to be held next Tuesday 15th- Wednesday 16th September 2020. It will still take place but in a different format as only online Virtual Tours of International Projects. The Symposium will feature a selection of Virtual Tours of Hemp building projects of 20 minutes duration each. The tours … Read more
With walls made from old tires packed with earth, as well as upcycled glass bottles and cans, Earthships have always been built with mainly found materials. The home provides its own energy (with photovoltaics, passive solar and geothermal tubes), water (rainwater and even dew-water capture) and grows food in the greenhouse (necessary for temperature regulation … Read more