“Rising Earth Natural Building represents the professional activities of ecological designer, building contractor, and community facilitator Michael McDonough. Primary work is sustainable design/build with elemental materials (stone, earth, wood, straw) in residential and public contexts.
Michael is particularly interested in building projects that have social and ecological missions, and engage numerous people both during and after construction. He aims to spread natural building through his efforts organizing and instructing natural building workshops, and facilitating public natural building projects.”
Rising Earth Natural Building
Very nice! Scale this up a bit and you’d have a real nice little home.
I love the idea of having a home that was built with natural materials. How can I build one in the Durham area? Are there contractors with this knowledge?
Thanks, Linda
There are links to several Directories of Green Products and Professionals near the bottom of the home page at www.greenhomebuilding.com where you might find a local contractor.
This photo popped up in my newsfeed this morning. After mnths of pondering diff ideas, with none seeming to be quite right, this is EXACTLY what I want! My carpenter/land partner is doing up this design but extending the back and figuring out a loft above for a bed. Love the idea of having a greenhouse as part of the house, open concept. My space faces SW/oceanfront on a gulf island, off the coast of B.C.
Will be happy to share photos once build is complete. Thanks to the person who created this and shared the photo :)
Glad you enjoyed it. I found the photo by searching Google Images for “natural building”.
Just for clarity, humans and plants have different needs. A south facing window wall with shelves/planters for plants is wonderful. But you don’t want to live in a greenhouse.
Scale it up? Why?
For a great many of us, the size is more than sufficient.
Smaller = Cheaper to build, Cheaper to maintain, More resources available to use higher quality finishes, Faster to build, More easily maintained, Easier to live in because it makes a person downsize the crap out of their life.
I’m not saying the size is appropriate for everyone, but for many of us, making it bigger would harm the design.
Better to scale it to FIT someone’s true needs.
Tiny houses are great. That’s why we have dozens of articles about tiny homes. This one however looks too small in my opinion for most people. It looks like the size of a garden shed. Not sure of the actual dimensions. If it works for you then great.