Report from Nepal

Earthbag school in Agara, Nepal under construction in November 2015.
Earthbag school in Agara, Nepal under construction in November 2015.

“It’s very inspiring to see so many Nepali people being very eager to learn about Earthbag technology. We have posted an announcement about our upcoming earthbag training workshops and one of the questions was:
– “What is your plan after completing the training? What are you planning to build using the EarthBag technology?”

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Natural Building Blog 8th Year Anniversary

It’s that time of year again. We happy to announced our 8th year anniversary and now ranked #2 on Google. (Wiki is number one, ha ha.) We missed our anniversary last year, probably because I was traveling.

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Survival Tactics: Dirt Cheap Bullet-Proof Earthbag Shelters


“Environmentalist’s best kept secret and the concrete industry’s worst nightmare… … the earthbag method means that you can build a small retreat to withstand bullets, floods, hurricanes, storms and fires much better than a conventional house.”

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Massive Earthbag Retaining Walls

Massive earthbag retaining walls like this are quite common
Massive earthbag retaining walls like this are quite common

I have to laugh when people keep asking me if earthbag building is strong. Earthbags (sand bags) have centuries of use by militaries worldwide, because they’re bomb, blast and bullet resistant. Millions of sand bags are used each year for flood control to stop raging rivers. As well, earthbag building is earthquake and hurricane resistant.

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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.

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Standardized Earthbag Detail Drawings for Nepal

This is an invitation to all Nepali architects and engineers to help create standardized detail drawings to optimize and expedite earthbag building. The goal is to create open source detail drawings for foundations, buttresses, typical wall sections and elevations, recommended reinforcement methods, windows, doors, etc. This would greatly speed the acceptance of earthbag building in Nepal (and probably other countries).

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