The Natural Homes Map: Straw Bale, Cob, Earthbags & Other Natural Materials. Natural Building Network. Green Home Building.com: Natural Building Techniques. This program offers a wealth of information about construction details and other considerations. It covers adobe block construction, piled adobe (similar to cob), rammed earth, both load-bearing and post and beam strawbale, earthships, earth-sheltering, cordwood, thin-shelled concrete domes, papercrete, earthbags, hybrid structures, and recycling various containers for housing. $29.95 The books shown below are arranged according to when they were published, with the most recent ones at the top. If you click on one of the images you will be taken to a page at Amazon.com where you can find out more about the book. If you end up buying one of them, greenhomebuilding.com will receive a small commission that will help cover the cost of maintaining this website.
Thanks for your patronage. This is a 2 bedroom, 1 story, 1725 sf (to the outside) house that is designed around the traditional hogan concept of Southwestern native Americans. Home Site Map STORE For Email contact go to About Us. Earth Hands & Houses - Strawbale, Earthbag & Natural Building Courses. Locating Your Natural Building Site | Natural Living School. In natural building there are several things to consider when preparing for a new structure.
The most important is the location of the building. In an ideal world, you would find a site that is south facing, with an amazing view, close to tall deciduous trees for shade in the summer but allow plenty of light in the winter, when they lose their leaves. The site would have access to water, electricity, and plenty of raw material like clay, rock, trees, and sand if your lucky. Clay from the site with a south facing view Since we don’t live in an ideal world, its alway good to be willing to compromise. In our case, we were lucky enough to have a south facing site. There are deciduous trees on the site, but none near the actual building site to provide any shade during the hottest times of the day. Deciduous trees on the site The land has plenty of raw material, like clay, rocks, and trees. Blessing the site for 2012 natural building project Like this: Like Loading... Swale & Berm In Natural Building | Natural Living School.
Its been a long time since we posted on the site. Sorry about that. Between the Holidays and moving, we have been also trying to work on our new house. Lots of work , we needed a loft for sleeping, a bathroom, a kitchen, hot water heater, and some storage. So far we have 3 out of 5, more to do. We also don’t have internet, so we have been using our cell phone as our internet. Makes it a bit hard to post. So lets recap; you have laid out your building lines and you have removed the top soil, now you are ready to start digging out your swale and building up your berm around your building site. The first thing you will need to do is look at the lay of the land.
What we do is look at the contour of the site. The other way to help water flow into the swale instead of towards your building is to create a berm. The other part to consider when creating your swale and berm is the roof line. Stay tune, next is the Ruble Trench Foundation, favored by Frank Lloyd Wright. Like this: Like Loading... Laying Out The Building Lines For Your Natural Building | Natural Living School. Site Preparation After you select your site, and have a plan and design for your building, then you are ready for site preparation.
The first thing to do is make sure you clear the site where the building will be located. This means removal of trees, shrubs, large rocks, stumps, or anything that may be in the way of the construction. If there is a lot of plant life, you may choose to transplant it, or if it’s just grasses you may just mow it down or weed whack it. If you are planning on having a living roof, you could use the top soil and the plants on your roof, as long as they don’t require lots of space for deep roots. Laying Out The Building Lines For the purpose of keeping things simple, lets look at two options. For a round structure; First, pound a stake deep in the ground where you want the center of your building to be. The trench for a round Sauna we worked on in Aurora Or. Then remove the top soil and set aside for future use. Batter Board Diagram for your Natural Building. Kleiwerks - Building With Clay, Cob, Slipstraw, Earth Plaster, Bamboo, Stone.
“Alternative” Natural Building Materials | Autonopedia. Self-build.co.uk: Sustainable Homes. Photo: Marieke McBean Self builders are an adventurous, determined bunch, so it’s no surprise that they’ve long been at the vanguard when it comes to adopting green measures into their homes. Building a new house gives you the perfect opportunity to not only put your own stamp onto the place you live, but also to insulate yourself against spiralling energy bills. In doing so, you’ll enjoy a comfortable, tailor-made home with low running costs. So what’s involved in building green?
What the regulations say As the government gears up towards hitting its carbon emission targets, so Building Regulations are becoming ever more stringent in the drive to make the UK’s housing stock more efficient. Approved Document L (conservation of fuel and power) of the regulations sets out the minimum standards all new housing has to hit. The CSH is a set of criteria against which a building’s eco credentials can be measured. Key considerations So what are key areas to focus on when planning a sustainable home?
Natural Building Colloquium. An Overview of Natural Building Techniques JOSEPH F. KENNEDY Introduction Over the past several decades, numerous vernacular building methods have been investigated and, in some cases, revived and improved upon by a new breed of visionary designer-builder. These techniques are often grouped under the label "natural building," a building philosophy that relies on materials and techniques which are ecologically sound, culturally sensitive, reliant on local resources and skills, and are within economic reach of local inhabitants, many of whom cannot currently afford shelter. Natural building has emerged as a response to an increasing concern for our built environment.
While interest in natural building has surged in the Industrialized West, many ancient roots have been lost in traditional areas in favor of capital- and energy-intensive industrial building methods. Adobe Adobes are sun-dried mud bricks stacked with a mud mortar to create thick-walled structures. Bamboo Cob Cordwood Earthbags.