Craig and Connie Cook to sailed into early retirement aboard an Earthship. “We would still be working,” Craig said. “We left at 55 because we have no bills.” A lack of utility bills for their home, coupled with a lack of ongoing maintenance costs, allowed the Cooks to build a home for $70,000, and minimize … Read more
Research shows that, even in cloudy areas, a large chunk of our heating needs could be met with a few well-positioned (and well-managed) skylights. “I’ve been interested in passive solar heating for quite a number of years, but we live in a cloudy climate. And there has been a lot of skepticism about how well … Read more
Emanuele Almagioni wanted to build a home in a cold and windy, but very sunny, town high in the Italian Alps that would use the sun to provide all of its heating needs. With winter low temperatures reaching -25°C (-13°F) the home had to be tight enough to hold the heat but exposed enough to … Read more
A recent study in pre-Hispanic northern Peru shows the use of adobe brick building as early as 5,000 years ago. The research shows how the adobe blocks were formed from compacted clay deposits created by El Niño flooding events. Adobe architecture was applied across the pre-Colombian Andes in the building of “early sacred monumental pyramidal … Read more
A tower, assembled from 10,000 bricks, has been made from mushrooms. “This is a hybrid of what I call an ancient technology of mushrooms and a totally new technology of computation and engineering,” says architect David Benjamin. The 40ft (12m) structure he is referring to currently sits in a courtyard at MoMA PS1, an art … Read more
Co-founder of the Natural Building Collective, Peter McIntosh has shared this progress of a building at the Helderberg Nature Reserve in Cape Town, South Africa. This building will be a multi-purpose center for the City of Cape Town and Cape Nature. They have used tires, rammed earth, eco-bricks and natural plasters to build the center. … Read more