Society presents a false dichotomy for how to house ourselves: either go deeply in debt for 20-30 years for a mortgage-financed conventional home or be trapped in an endless cycle of renting. But there are lots of other options.
natural building
The Bay Eco-village, from straw to resilience
“The continent hosts so many pioneers who are looking for other living ways. We are out to meet some of them in Quebec. Starting with the inhabitants of the Bay eco-village, who invented a straw building technique which is heard of in Europe event and beyond, too: the GREB technique. Behind those initials there is the « Bay Ecological Research Group » which, for 25 years now, has been experimenting a post-petrol way of life!
Natural Building Blog — Number 2 on Google
Just for fun I did a search for the phrase “natural building” on Google, which is the world’s #1 search engine by far. The Wiki entry came up number one (as is often the case). Our Natural Building Blog is listed number two. Obviously we’ve come a long way over the last few years.
Tiny House Homestead (“The Upcycled Micro Home”)
“Derek “Deek” Diedricksen (www.Relaxshacks.com, author of “Microshelters”), talks to Jess Sullivan, who alongside her partner Dan, built a gorgeous tiny house on a farm in Rhode Island. Jess and Dan’s tiny house is off-grid, with an array of solar panels, a water purifier, and employs a wealth of salvaged building materials, and clever upcycling.”
Rice Hull Bag Workshop in Thailand
“Announcing the 2nd Rice-Husk-Bag Workshop! This will take place in northern Thailand, November 2015. We will learn how to build walls with bags filled with rice husks (hulls), benches with earthbags, put in doors and windows, cover the walls with a mud, sand and rice husk plaster, and add decorative bottle designs.
Buttressed Earthbag Corners With Rope Ties
Patti Stouter of Build Simple.org has another great idea for reinforcing earthbag walls at low cost in earthquake zones. For context, please see the blog post from last week called Low Cost Village Housing for Nepal and note how the corner is built.