Are Tire Bales Insulation or Mass?

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Recently Kimi Ishikawa posted this comment on the blog post about building their tire bale house in New Mexico: I hear people referring to tire bales as “thermal mass” and others referring to them as “insulation.” It can’t be both, right? Aren’t “thermal mass” and “insulation” mutually exclusive? I understand “thermal mass” to be a … Read more

Open Air Theater Cafe in Thailand

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This bamboo construction has served as the setting for experimental music artists from all over the world at an annual festival in Thailand. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the stage has been transformed into a ‘theater cafe’ by weaving fishing nets through the bamboo roof of the original construction. The back of the stage now … Read more

Sheltered: Underground and Off the Grid

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This article and documentary film are about building an underground complex that is far from being a natural building project. But I am posting this because I think that there are worthwhile things that can be learned. Sheltered: Underground and Off the Grid is a full-length documentary that chronicles the building of the largest underground … Read more

Earth Building Online Academy

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I just found out about the Earth Building Academy and their online courses. They have been teaching for 20 years and recently ran a free online pizza oven course and had confirmation that online courses really work. They currently are offering a 3 month series of online classes that starts on Monday, January 18th and … Read more