The walls in Gregory Ferembach’s public housing building are lined with one of nature’s best insulation materials: hemp. “We’re never cold in winter,” Ferembach said in French. “The kids walk around barefoot all the time, or even in their underwear.” It helps that their apartment is on a middle floor, and their building is sandwiched … Read more
The Stoltz Bluff Eco-Retreat is a monolithic cob house that’s completely off-grid. It has a 1-kilowatt solar power system and a backup generator for electricity, a propane radiant in-floor heating system and a Rumford fireplace for heat, and a constructed wetland for natural wastewater treatment. Many cob homes are built with a timber frame structure, … Read more
The ‘The Hill’ in Middleton Springs, Vermont is fantasy architecture on 12 lovely green acres. This unique 1100 sq. ft. home was a design/build project completed in 2018. This earth-sheltered, Hobbit-like home is filled with antiques and special touches that will transport you away. It combines old-world charm with modern conveniences. The cottage has a … Read more
The following email from Andrew explains an idea he has for a way to arrange earthbags into a fairly rigid, reinforced configuration. It seems interesting enough for me to post here and solicit comments from you dear readers. What do you think about this concept? Having read the article you posted on Machu Picchu, I … Read more
I found this half hour video both encouraging and inspiring. The incredible story of how degraded gorse-infested farmland has been regenerated back into beautiful New Zealand native forest over the course of 30 years. This documentary is about Hinewai Nature Reserve, on New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula, and its kaitiaki/manager of 30 years, botanist Hugh Wilson. … Read more
The ancient city of Machu Picchu, perched among the peaks of southern Peru, flourished for just over a hundred years between the mid-15th and mid-16th centuries. It is famous for its intricate, masterful stone masonry. But often invisible to the untrained eye is masterful drainage infrastructure and slope stabilization. Ruth Wright, a historian, travel writer, … Read more