“As a little girl, and a young woman, I always dreamed of building my own house someday but I never had a specific desire for it. I knew that the right house would come along at the right time and with the right partner, and we’d build something that fit our needs, together.
affordable
Tiny Houses Infographic
“Less Is More: The Tiny House Movement
The tiny house trend is on the rise with more and more individuals, couples, and families choosing to trade in space for simplicity. And from college grads to retirees the appeal of a miniature home spans the ages. Shrinking square footage not only cuts down on chores — it’s a lifestyle change all about living with less and decreasing environmental impact over time.”
Volunteer on Earthbag Build in Nepal
“We would like to tell you about our very exciting Earthbag build project in Nepal. We are a New Zealand registered charity providing quality early childhood and school support projects in rural Nepal. Our projects have been so successful that we now want to offer training to as many teachers as possible. Therefore, we are constructing an earthbag building Teacher Training Centre in our project area, 3 hours north of Kathmandu in 2014/15. Fundraising is well under way for the project and we hope to be able to start on schedule.
Yurok Native Reservation Earthbag Build
“UEB’s first 1,225sqft structure built with the semi-automatic 3d printer, the Earth Home Builder. 9 days of bag laying of 21″ bag. Fastest layer of 40′ length was laid in 11m16s! The crew was trained on site and ranged from ages 9 to 50+! Even with mechanization, anyone can still be a part!
Mud House Design 2014 Competition
Reinventing the African Mud Hut Together
Nka Foundation invites entries for Mud House Design 2014, an international architecture competition open to recent graduates and students of architecture, design and others from around the world who think earth architecture can be beautiful. The challenge is to design a single-family unit of about 30 x 40 feet (approximately 10 x 12 metres) to be built by maximum use of earth and local labor in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
This is the design problem: In Ghana, as in other countries in West Africa, stereotypes about buildings made of earth persist because of poor construction. From the cities to the low-income villages, use of concrete – despite its dependence on imported resources – is considered indispensable for building. Yet an excellent, cheap and local alternative called laterite, red earth, is available everywhere in Ghana. The long-term goal is to enable the Ghanaian population and lots of other places, to overcome the stigma that mud architecture is architecture for the very poor.
Nka Foundation Announces Jury Members for MUD HOUSE DESIGN 2014 competition for Ghana. The jury consists of pre-selection jurors and grand jurors. The Pre-Selection Jury will review all design entries and select the overall Top 20 Designs and presented them to the Grand Jury, who will then select the winning designs. The Jury session runs from September 15 – September 30, 2014. Those interested in participating in the competition can still register on https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mud-house-design-competition-tickets-10697036123 till August 15, 2014.
Stone Houses on Tumblr
Tumblr is another good site for browsing images of natural homes. Here’s their page on stone houses.