Comuna Tola Chica

The superadobe (earthbag) community center at Comuna Tola Chica
The superadobe (earthbag) community center at Comuna Tola Chica

“Comuna Tola Chica is a community of about 64 families and a total of about 400 people, and is one of the most organized and active comunas in the country, also known as the ‘greenest’ of Ecuador.

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Crystal Waters Ecovillage

“An introduction to Crystal Waters covering permaculture design, innovative housing design, intentional community living and land restoration. Crystal Waters is situated in rural south east Queensland Australia. Filmed in 2001-2002. This video is the first of several related videos covering Crystal Waters.”

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Spiral Straw Bale Home in Denmark

Poula-Line’s spiral home with spiral reciprocal roof is both unique and beautiful.
Poula-Line’s spiral home with spiral reciprocal roof is both unique and beautiful.

“Poula-Line built her straw bale home in Fri & Fro (Free and Happy) ecoVillage in Egebjerg, Denmark. It’s one of a collection of unique straw bale homes in the village. Her home was inspired by a conch shell she found on a beach in Malaysia. Poula, just like Rachel, lived in a small straw bale cabin on her land while she built her home.”

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Free Heat for Your Home: Homemade Briquettes and Logs


Many people don’t have easy access to firewood or the tools and ability to cut, split, haul and stack it. Buying firewood may be out of your budget. Here we’ll present some virtually free ways of making fuel briquettes and logs at home with simple devices. To make briquettes/pellets/bricks/logs, you can use free materials such as newspapers, junk mail, cardboard, wood chips, wood shavings, sawdust, leaves, pine needles, manure, rice hulls, straw, corn stover and other biomass fibers. The basic process usually involves soaking the materials and then compacting them with a press into blocks.

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