Hidden amongst the spectacular mountain ranges of the Kahurangi National park of New Zealand, this beautiful off-the-grid cabin sits in paradise.
natural building
Organica Straw Bale House
We are a group of craftsmen enthusiastic about natural materials. Our goal is to use local resources to build healthy housing. We revive traditional building crafts and combine them with modern knowledge of natural construction. We can build a new building and renovate an old house.
Sand Scarcity
Email from a reader: Hello, my name is Molly and I am writing you because I would like to suggest a content piece for the Natural Building Blog. Building natural homes instead of using concrete is extremely important because we are running out of sand. The demand for sand has grown by 360% in the past 30 years and continues to do so, mostly due to the construction industry. By now, sand is the 2nd most extracted resource on Earth, over 40 billion tons are extracted every single year globally.
Earthbag/ Rice Hull Tiny Boulder House/Survival Shelter
This boulder house combines numerous really good ideas – earthbags, lower cost lightweight insulating material such as rice hulls, option of mixing the hulls with a stabilizer such as lime or cement for greater moisture protection, a bamboo or sapling frame to support the bags, and durable plaster to give the structure long lasting protection.
Wat Huai Thaeng Rice Hull/Clay Bricks
From Phillip, one of our readers: We went to see this temple in N. Thailand. One structure was made of adobe and rice hulls bricks. The whole village helped in the project. It had 2 floors. Ground floor was dining hall. Second floor was apartment for senior monks. We also saw a toilet built separetly. … Read more
How I Built a Pallet Greenhouse with a Rain Gutter Grow System
Rustic By Nature built a pallet greenhouse in Alaska with a rain gutter grow system for watering. It’s very low cost, simple and easy to build.