“Now more than ever before people all over the planet are seeking new sustainable models for living. EcoVillages and ecological communities have been emerging as a viable alternative where people can live together in cooperation and harmony with the natural world. ‘A New We’ explores 10 such communities in Europe and opens doors to further exploration and discovery on the new ‘Global EcoVillage & Sustainable Community Network’! Please join the conversation and participate in the ‘A New We’ initiative which aims towards evolving the EcoVillage model into the 21st century! “
natural building
Area in Wisconsin with Few or No Codes
The following comment left by a reader got me thinking about publishing a few blog posts about areas in the US with few or no building codes that allow do-it-yourself alternative building with earthbags, straw bales and local wood, and homesteading. As we’ve said many times here, building in areas with codes can skyrocket the construction costs ten-fold, which essentially wipes out the savings of using alternative materials. That probably explains why our blog page Counties with Few or No Building Codes has always been our most popular page.
Free Natural Building Internship
People often ask us about natural building employment, training and career advice. The following advert is an example of how students can gain natural building skills on the cheap.
DIY Gothic Arch Shaped Greenhouse
This video shows step by step directions for building a gothic shaped or bowed roof greenhouse with laminated wood like the UM passive solar greenhouse that we reported on the other day. This model supposedly meets Florida’s 160 mph wind code, and can easily be built by most do-it-yourselfers.
Boiling Point Cooking Stoves
The free online document linked below has several interesting low tech/low cost stove designs from around the world, including some commercial scale stoves for feeding lots of people.
Greenhouse Homemade with Cattle Panels
It would be easy to strengthen this greenhouse design with rebar. The same basic idea could be used to build low cost ferrocement housing, shop space, etc. by adding rebar, small mesh and cement plaster.