Some natural builders may be interested in building houses for profit. One suggestion is to find out what people want in your area. And so we’re going to look at a few houses here. This is what people are buying. These houses are made with brick, concrete and tile, but you could build the same … Read more
Many gardeners are familiar with Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening system: raised garden beds of any size divided into square foot (300mm) grids. It’s a very popular gardening system and he has sold over one million books. With this method you can grow five times more plants in a given space with less maintenance. You’ll … Read more
Scott Howard of Earthen Hand Natural Building does it again! This earthbag cabin in Portland, Oregon was “built mostly during a workshop series in summer 2009. We had a lot of fun with building this house.” Click the link to see more pics. I think roundhouses are the simplest earthbag structures to build, and I … Read more
From time to time we answer reader’s questions. Chase: After much research, I am really interested in pursuing a career in natural building, in earthbags, and many other means. I’m not entirely sure where to start, especially since I’m just starting and don’t know much about construction or buying land, but I can’t resist the … Read more
I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding with Paul in Chiang Dao, a district north of Chiang Mai, Thailand. We’ve been discussing how to build an earthbag house with bags filled with rice hulls. Rice hulls are super cheap, fire resistant, superinsulating, and super lightweight and easy to work with. Rice hulls are the by-product of … Read more
Gayle Fleming at EcoGayle’s Blog recommended an article in the New York Times that addresses the effectiveness of passive homes: Can We Build in a Brighter Shade of Green? The New York Times article chronicles the experiences of Barbara and Steven Landau, who are building a 2,000 sq. ft. house to the passive-house standard in … Read more