Earthbag Tiny House/Survival Shelter

“Kelly Hart has built all kinds of alternative housing including earthbag. This little shelter was built to test the temperature fluctuations in the New Mexico desert and to see if with such a small structure the usual strands of barbed wire were necessary between the layers of earthbags.”

Read more

Building Earthbag Tornado Shelters for Profit

Earthbag dome tornado shelter. The living roof is optional.
Earthbag dome tornado shelter. The living roof is optional.

In a previous blog post about Earthbag Tornado Shelters I suggested building them for profit. Four years later the same advice is still valid. The marketing process should be even easier now since earthbag buildings are much more common. One key selling point is the cost. Most commercially available tornado shelters cost at least several thousand dollars. The materials cost for earthbag tornado shelters is around $300. That means almost pure profit for the builder.

Read more

IDV: Developing Permanent Shelter Solutions for Nepal

International Disaster Volunteers (IDV) is building permanent earthbag homes in Nepal
International Disaster Volunteers (IDV) is building permanent earthbag homes in Nepal

“The Nepal earthquakes destroyed almost 605,000 homes, and damaged 288,856 more. While there is an urgent, ongoing need to provide immediate shelter in Nepal this solution is still a temporary one.

Read more

Low Cost Village Housing for Nepal

Buttressed earthbag corners are low cost and add significant strength to buildings.
Buttressed earthbag corners are low cost and add significant strength to buildings.

The greatest need for housing in Nepal is in poor rural villages. Not only can they not afford cement and steel, it’s not practical to carry these heavy materials 1-2 days over mountain passes. We need to identify the most practical low cost earthbag building methods and create a document showing best practices.

Read more

Earthbag Shelter Nepal

Earthbag shelter for Nepal
Earthbag shelter for Nepal

I came across this project proposal for Nepal. Very little information is available, although it looks very interesting. I encourage the designer to build a prototype and report the results.

“Earthbag shelter Nepal: Sharing platform for ideas and plans relating to construction of earthbag shelters in Nepal”

Read more

How We Built A Low Cost Tornado Shelter

How We Built A Low Cost [Earthbag] Tornado Shelter by Pamela Swackhammer
How We Built A Low Cost [Earthbag] Tornado Shelter by Pamela Swackhammer

Yea, another earthbag book. Kelly and I just published our new books (see links on right side of page if you missed them). There’s this new book on building earthbag tornado shelters. Plus there’s another earthbag book coming out any day that we’ll blog about soon.

Read more