New Soil Testing Guide

Patti Stouter has expanded and updated her soil testing guide Soil Tests for Earthbag. We’ve added the report to our EarthbagStructures.com and EarthbagBuilding.com websites, where you can find indepth information on every aspect of building with bags. Using the right soil is very important. After all, earthbag building uses soil as the primary building material, … Read more

Tiny Green House Design

I’ve been caught up in the tiny house movement lately, in large part because of Michael Janzen’s excellent Tiny House Design and Tiny House Living websites. These sites really are a gold mine of information. This line of thought has helped inspire me to think of smaller, simpler house designs. What do we really need … Read more

More Earthbag Projects Planned for Patagonia, Vietnam and Japan

[The following excerpt is from Paul Coleman’s Environmental Booty blog] The design is of four domes and a courtyard and when people see it I am sure they will be reminded of a fairytale world. It will fit in with the view and will disappear among the surrounds. Most of the materials will have to … Read more

The Orange Tree Atelye (or Workshop)

Here’s another project taking off to help Haiti. Text quoted from their website. We are an interdisciplinary research and design team from the University of Cincinnati. We were formed to provide a long term growth plan for the Good Shepherd Orphanage in Carrefour, Haiti. However, our ambitions do not stop there. We hope to use … Read more

Imitation Stone Walls and Fake Rocks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR7MhJ5h_c8 You can make textured walls, benches and other objects that look just like stone. This video and the article below show you the basics. I prefer the beauty of natural stone, but this is an option worth considering for special situations. Here’s one example. You could plaster your walls to simulate the color and … Read more