Affordable Off-Grid Tiny House

This tiny home uses lots of salvaged or reclaimed materials. Old fence boards have been turned into cladding and cabinetry and old windows discarded on a farm have been given new life. The home is designed to be completely off grid, with solar power and rain-water collection giving him the freedom to park this home … Read more

Forest Garden and Restoration Agriculture

www.capeandislands.org has a nice article about forest gardening and restoration agriculture, specifically on the US East Coast, but it is pertinent to anywhere. There are many reasons to consider this approach to providing edible produce, as it can generate high yields while restoring the land, with little input over time.

The Art of SunRay Kelley

I have met SunRay Kelley at several of the Natural Building Colloquia, and at the 2015 event at the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, New Mexico, during one of the early morning circles, Sunray pointed up the hill to a group of trees and explained that he would be building a tree house there and … Read more

Natural Building with Balecob

The current issue of Mother Earth News has this article written by Kyle Chandler-Isacksen with Conrad Rogue; photos by House Alive. What is shown here are excerpts; you can read the entire article at the above link. Balecob is an infill technique that uses straw bales and cob to quickly create highly insulating, roof-supporting, and … Read more

Examples of Brazilian Vernacular Architecture

The www.archdaily.com featured this informative article about Brazilian vernacular architecture. The regional expressions of a country’s culture are vital in helping us understand the relation between context and specific conditions of social manifestations. These nuances and singularities inside the realm of construction are translated into what can be called vernacular architecture. Although it has always existed, … Read more

Earthbag Houses in Ecuador

I just got a nice update on what Ed Konderla has been up to in Ecuador, first building an earthbag house and then a guest house: The location is in the Andes Mountains, Southern Ecuador…  very seismically active which necessitated a robust construction technique. The earthbag construction has been the way to go for me. … Read more