Stephanie and Joel share their 14-year journey of building a home from reclaimed materials, living off-grid with solar power, and growing a lot of their own food, from fruits and veggies to milk, meat, and honey. They built their home on shared land using materials they salvaged from the dump, wood from a building they … Read more
A Cob Construction Appendix has recently been approved for inclusion in the International Residential Building codes in the United States and a number of other countries. The new code requires builders to test their cob mixes for shrinkage, compressive strength, and, in some cases, modulus of rupture. The shrinkage test is the most straightforward and … Read more
Trees for the Future has released a report that shares the short and long-term effects of agroforestry systems on hunger, poverty, and landscape restoration. The report confirms that their Forest Garden Approach effectively achieves the triple bottom line of food security, economic resilience, and environmental impact. “Farming and agricultural land use are key factors in the … Read more
The story of earth architecture continues to be told through structures that have stood the test of time. Earth construction techniques have been pioneered by many ancient civilizations. What appears to be a feeble structure made of raw earth is actually very durable. Earth architecture is considered one of the first methods developed by humans … Read more
The oldest preserved house in Scotland (and indeed in all the United Kingdom) is on Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The house is an ancient Neolithic farmstead called Knap of Howar, which was occupied before the pyramids of Giza. The Knap of Howar seems to have been occupied from 3700 BC to 2800 BC – making it … Read more
Nubia Way was built in the 1990s by Fusions Jameen, London’s first black housing co-operative in Downham, Lewisham. Constructed using the principles of Walter Segal, self-builders were offered long-term discounted rents in return for building the homes. Through interviews with the original self-builders, historians, architects and economists, this new documentary from the Architecture Foundation celebrates … Read more