earthbag

Bongnol Village Update

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This is the largest, most successful earthbag project in Haiti so far. They’re doing a great job in an extremely difficult situation. “At this village in Bongnol, Haiti, Haiti Christian Development Project has completed 10 of 14 planned earthbag houses for earthquake refugees at the cost of $2200 each. Men of the community were hired … Read more

Straw Bale Shelter Video

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The blog post the other day about Temporary Shelters made with straw bales was a big hit and so I located this old instructional video and got it uploaded to my YouTube channel. I’ve already received more positive comments than most any of my other videos. This video has an incredible story. It was almost … Read more

Flying Concrete Ferrocement Houses

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Ferrocement is resource efficient because it uses minimal rebar and concrete to produce ‘thin shell’ structures. The resulting curved members are somewhat similar to trees and plants. This is the opposite of straight concrete walls that rely on massive thickness to gain strength (and cost way more money). One of the best sites for learning … Read more

The Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit: Timbrel Vaults

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Timbrel vaults offer another low cost, sustainable roof building method. This method is suitable for do-it-yourself owner builders if you do the research. Suggestions include: use a simple design with a reinforced concrete bond beam and modest spans. Look into using low-fired, lightweight brick like the type used in Mexico and SE Asia. “The ‘Sustainable … Read more

Domehouse Fly-through

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“The small size (app. 600 sq. ft.) and super-efficient design fully lends itself to an inexpensive and minimal off grid solar wind inversion (4K or less) system, which could eliminate one fourth of our cumulative energy consumption if adopted by everyone. No one would need to be “ON THE GRID”…!” Source: Elevated Earth Technologies