I like this. Tiny houses with character made of lots of recycled materials.
“On a standard-sized lot in Portland, Oregon, self-taught builders Jeff and Brad built two tiny cottages using mostly salvaged materials. Each home is 364 square feet and with gabled roofs and front porches match the Victorian and Craftsman homes of the neighborhood, until you look closely.”
“Natural building expert Michael G. Smith from the Emerald Earth Institute shows us the first layer of an earthen floor (clay soil, sand, chopped straw and road base, or crushed rock): just one layer of the 3 layers they eventually use. He also shows us a finished floor that has been treated with 4 to 6 coats of linseed oil and is water resistant and completely mop friendly.”
“Kevin follows the progress made by estate manager Ed Waghorn and his wife Rowena, a couple who live an almost self-sufficient life with their four children on a smallholding in Herefordshire. They have been creating a timber-framed house using recycled materials.”
This is a very nice, dirt cheap house. The adobe looking finished walls are particularly nice. Skip the video ahead to 3:05 if you want to see what the walls will eventually look like once finished.
Amazing home tour of a permaculture institute in Argentina — one of the biggest hot spots of natural building in the world with over 250 houses. They show an endless stream of innovative ideas such as cob bricks with corn cob insulation. This is a must see for all natural builders.
“We’re designing an ultra-low-cost toilet around removable containers that make it easy to collect and transport wastes safely from the community. We know from many conversations with residents of Shada that a good toilet is a symbol of cleanliness and modernity. Beyond being odorless, hygienic, and vector-free, our toilet needs to be elegant, modern, and pleasant to use. And it needs to be cheap. To that end, our toilet combines a 20-L bucket, a liquid container, and a western-style toilet seat into a sealed, portable, urine-diverting toilet.