Earthen Building Techniques used for DIY Eco-dwellings in Portland

A brief rant by local Natural Builder, Scott Howard, discussing social justice, natural building, permaculture, cob, and the building codes.
A brief rant by local Natural Builder, Scott Howard, discussing social justice, natural building, permaculture, cob, and the building codes.

“Probably a lot of Portlanders, myself included, are wondering if they will ever be able to buy a house in Portland. Or if they buy one, will they be able to afford to keep it. Well I would like to offer once again a simple solution which is to build your house yourself, with help from your community. If you help me build my house, I will help you build yours. Doesn’t that sound like a good deal for everyone? Rather than go into the details of exactly how one could build a very advanced and efficient dwelling with little more than sand and clay from the building site, here I will stick to general comments about what I see going on now.

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More Natural Building and Permaculture Videos

COHABITAT, The movie

This video is about Cohabitat, which is a group of professionals networking together to spread natural building information and action, from what I understand. The video mainly showcases strawbale building in Poland and Switzerland. Thought I’d share the video with you. – Luke

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Working Example of Permaculture

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoZREdjcz20&w=560&h=315] Here’s a real nice example of integrating fruit trees, vegetables, aquaculture, composting, worms and beekeeping. This guy is getting hundreds or a thousand or more pieces of fruit off each small tree in a desert region near Joshua Tree where he was told “fruit trees won’t grow”.

Greening the Desert

Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East from Permaculture Research Institute on Vimeo. “When there’s no soil, no water, no shade, and where the sun beats down on you to the tune of over 50°C (122°F), the word ‘poverty’ begins to take on a whole new meaning. It is distinct and surreal. It’s a … Read more

Kindria

From time to time we’ll profile a sustainable community or ecovillage. The one presented today is not made with earthbags, because bags were not available in their area. Nevertheless, the project is still very interesting and well worth studying. I think the world needs many more projects like this. “My dream is of a small … Read more