Open house day at Bio Veda Academy – 03/03/2018


Take a tour of Bioveda’s Urban Garden in South Africa. This whirlwind 46 minute home tour shows Bioveda’s earthbag and aircrete structures, their appropriate technology such as solar cookers and biogas, as well as an extensive system of earthbag planters, wetlands and water filtration. They reuse all their water seven times. There are some audio glitches, but the information presented is excellent so please overlook the minor flaws.

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Laurie Baker: Poor Man’s Architect

“A biography of inspiring British-origin Indian architect Laurie Baker who pioneered cost-effective energy efficient beautiful and simple architecture in India in mud brick and local materials… after meeting Gandhiji he decided to stay in India and build for the masses.

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Four Good Natural Homes Websites

The Revolution Takes Us Home

Modern cob photo by Debbie Trelor Photography
Modern cob photo by Debbie Trelor Photography

This incredible site is a seemingly endless blog of amazing house photos. It’s similar to the tiny cabin site we featured a while back.
“the house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.” – Gaston Bachelard

Source: The revolution takes us home

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Low Energy Buildings

Cross sectional drawing of St Lukes School. Source: Architype -- Ashden Award winner Architype is a UK based architectural practice which uses low energy building principles.
Cross sectional drawing of St Lukes School. Source: Architype -- Ashden Award winner Architype is a UK based architectural practice which uses low energy building principles.

Ashden.org is one of my all time favorite sites. You can spend days researching their extensive website for award winning designs. This is top quality information, folks.

“Low energy buildings use passive techniques, such as optimal solar gain, and advanced active systems, such as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, to create comfortable internal environments that have low energy demand and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Some low energy buildings use renewable energy generation to further reduce or eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions in use.

– Buildings account for about 45% of UK CO2 emissions.
– Good design can cut CO2 and energy bills by nearly two thirds.
– Incorporating renewable energy as well can give buildings that produce no net CO2 in use.

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Affordable Eco-homes Report

This just in from Kelly Hart: “Dr.Jenny Pickerill recently traveled around the world on a Winston Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship on a quest for information and insights on how folks in England (where she teaches at the University of Leicester) might better address needs for sustainable housing. One of her stops was in the rural … Read more