I tried to describe my dream ecovillage the other day in Tiny House Ecovillage in a Fruit Orchard. That story was just fantasy, of course, but Jay Schafer of Tumbleweed House Company is planning the real deal – a tiny house ecovillage in northern California. Here are a few tidbits from his new website Four Lights Houses.
natural building
A Practice Earthbag Building Project
“If you are considering the cheapest simplest way of building your own home with natural materials, earthbag construction could be the best way to go. For the most part you will be filling bags with dirt and stacking them. In the August/September 2009 Mother Earth News, they ran an article on this small earthbag project which needs no building permit and would be great practice in the earthbag technique or even cob, rammed earth with tires or adobe.
Tiny House Ecovillage in a Fruit Orchard
Close yours eyes and imagine a dream ecovillage near the base of the mountains where the weather is not too harsh. The sheltered climate and flat river bottom land is ideal for orchards and gardening. A small group of ecology-minded natural builders has cooperatively bought an old family farm with a good sized fruit orchard.
Casa Biyuka
Don’t miss this stunner custom home. The site is in Spanish and so you’ll have to sort out the details. They’re using bamboo, tile, ferrocement, stone, roof water catchment, etc. to create a one of a kind amazing build.
Slipform Stone Masonry
One could argue with the “fast and easy” description of slipform stone masonry at the beginning of the video. He’s probably saying it’s faster than traditional masonry, which is true. Actually, most natural building methods, including stone construction, are quite labor intensive. The payoff though is a house that’s fire and rot resistant, super durable and super beautiful. Note the centuries-old stone houses in recent blog posts. One option is to use stone on the foundation and other faster and easier to use materials for the rest of the wall.
Medieval Spanish Ghost Town Becomes Self-sufficient Ecovillage
“It’s a utopian fantasy- discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals-, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages (most dating back to the Middle Ages), some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that.