I’m back home now (yeah!), but wanted to share more of what we saw while touring earthbag projects near Kathmandu. Carisimo, a German-based NGO, have built 30 earthbag houses in this village using young foreign volunteers and local families. This is the largest earthbag housing project in Nepal that we know of.
DIY
The Owner Builder Magazine: Rebuilding Nepal
Lynda at The Owner Builder Magazine kindly sent us this excellent article written by Mark Clayton. Full text is available through their magazine or by downloading it from Earthbag Building.com.
The Case for Catenary Roofs
Excerpt from the “Journal of the National Institute of Building Sciences,” February 2016:
“The Swiss civil engineer and contractor Heinz Isler (1926-2009) is regarded as one of the pioneers of shell structures. He gained renown for his experimental, physical methods of form-finding and the resulting expressive shell structures produced in thin-walled concrete, and first triggered his lifelong fascination and professional work with such structures by draping a saturated bed sheet in freezing weather to form a catenary shell before inverting it. He proved that, what gravity forms when inverted, is resistant to the forces of gravity.
Building a Tiny House – Welcome to my Future Home!
“Here’s my tiny house build project, I started it a few years ago and it’s coming along nicely. This video is to introduce you to my new channel. I have a second channel, The Homestead Craftsman, but wanted to put together this channel that will be dedicated to my tiny house project. If you would like to subscribe and follow along, feel free, I’d love to have you. I’d like to have a lot of interaction with subscribers so feel free to let me know what you think with thumbs ups and comments with your opinions. I’ll also probably do a monthly video where I post my progress and answer questions and respond to comments. “
Burdei Homes
“The first order of business for any pioneer family was to make sure that they had shelter. In the Ukraine, some of the very first houses were simple huts that were made from sod and logs. The name for this structure was “burdei.”
Homestead Outlaws
“When we looked around at all the things we do on a regular basis, we realize that many things are illegal in other places around the country. Living an Off Grid life in America can get you in hot water with legal authorities if you’re not careful. Here is a list of things we do that may make you an Outlaw.”