It’s going to be just like an old fashioned barn raisin’ at the Green Desert Eco Farm in Rockvale. But instead of using planks, hammers and nails, builders will use lots of feed bags, earth and barbed wire. Richard Hubler and his wife, Kerry, are preparing to build their first earthbag shelter, and they invite … Read more
I almost jumped out of my chair when I read about this ‘affordable housing’ project in Alaska. The estimated $220,000 cost for this home is “less than half of the cost of new homes recently built in the village.” It has 900 sq. ft. conditioned space, 1080 sq. ft. total. (That’s about $204/sq. ft.) I … Read more
My new earthbag book is currently being reviewed by builders, architects and engineers with expertise in earthbag construction. The book should be completed in 2-3 weeks and will include their comments and suggestions. Here’s what people are saying so far: “Thank you for sending out your book to be reviewed. I think it is so … Read more
Building with earth requires low energy input in processing and handling soil – only about 1% of the energy required to manufacture and process the same volume of cement concrete. This aspect was investigated by the Desert Architecture Unit which has discovered that the energy needed to manufacture and process one cubic metre of soil … Read more
Here’s an interesting video by Konbit Shelter showing how they make a cement stabilized soil mixture with a hand-operated mixer. Konbit Shelter home page Video credit: Sucka Pants
We have a guest post today by Owen Ingley of Plenitud Iniciativas, who has been experimenting with fibers in plaster. “Greetings from Puerto Rico. I just wanted to give you a quick update on something that we’ve tried recently. The last emails we sent to each other I was asking you about fibers for plasters … Read more