Ecological Properties of Natural Slate

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Natural slate, which can be used for both roofing and facades, is a material with one the lowest contribution to emissions and environmental impact. Life-Cycle Assessment can be used to assess and quantify possible environmental impacts associated with a product or process, which compiles the inputs, outputs and overall potential environmental effects of a product … Read more

A Couple’s Hand Cranked Utopia

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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

Students Design Tiny Homes for the Homeless

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Students from the University at Buffalo, New York,  have embarked on the construction of three tiny homes to help combat homelessness. This initiative forms part of a design-build program within the school called the Small Built Works Project. The students are designing prototypes for tiny houses, which are then developed into permit-ready construction documents for … Read more

Rammed Earth in Nepal

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The 2015 quake that saw the collapse of predominantly brick, mud, and mortar buildings in Nepal, fed the public perception that concrete structures are more durable. But civil engineers and architects say technologies like rammed earth would be environmentally more sustainable and earthquake-resilient. Nepal’s domestic cement production more than tripled from 3 million tons to … Read more