Eco Homes from the Earth: 7 Ways to DIY. Wouldn’t it be nice to own your own green dream home, made with recycled and natural materials and packed with custom features?
Whether you’re an experienced builder or have never picked up a power tool in your life, you can build a natural eco-friendly home with user-friendly, low-cost materials like cob, cordwood, straw and the dirt and wood from your own land. These 7 natural building techniques produce beautiful homes with a small ecological footprint and tons of personality. Earthships and Hobbit Houses (images via dominicspics, ECOnscious, Earthship Biotecture) [youtube=L9jdIm7grCY] Solar Oval Cob Plan. Small Cob Series No permit required - passive solar - small cob buildings SOLAR OVAL ONE is a compact passive solar design with a loft which can be an outbuilding for many possible uses.
It has many valuable and green/sustainable features: Building with cob allows the use of local sustainable materials. In many areas the earth at your site can be used and only water, sand and straw will need to be brought to your site to make your cob. The cob is mixed right where you are building and stacked up on an impervious foundation. Sun-Inspired Passive Solar House Plans. Forest View 2 features abundance of arches inside and out just like the older, original Forest View, but this client wanted the master bedroom on the cool northeast side of the house.
They also desired the sunroom to be on the southeast corner. The shallow porch on the south creates a nice place for sitting without blocking winter sun and the arched columns make the south view even more attractive than the front of the house! The dominant feature of the house is still the central great room with high ceilings surrounded by arches. When you enter this room from the foyer or family entry side, your eyes are immediately drawn to the south French doors with large arched windows above. Hempcrete Could Change The Way We Build Everything. When it comes to new and sustainable housing ideas, it seems to always be about creating a more efficient home in terms of insulation, lighting, electricity, etc.
Mainstream belief on the subject would have you believe that top corporations and government projects are working with the best possible technology to bring forth solutions that work and are going to be great for the environment. If that was truly the case, I can guarantee you that the whole world would be using Hempcrete right now. Haven’t heard of it? Grain Bin Cabin Plan. This 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom 692 sf cabin will keep you warm in winter and cool in summer.
It also has the potential to provide as many as 12 "berths" for use as a hunting cabin or such. Each berth could have its indiviual heat or A/C duct for greater efficiency. The basis of the design components is to put a grain bin inside a grain bin and insulate the space between them with foam. Plans for Passive Solar Homes. AirDrop House: Sustainable housing solution for flood-hit areas. Conceived by architect Andrew Maynard and his team, the AirDrop House is a sustainable housing solution for flood-hit areas.
The tiny houses made from dried sponge-like material could be dropped onto the affected areas by standard military aircrafts. The instant floating abodes expand up to a seven meters diameter from original one-meter diameter as soon as it contacts water. It slowly soaks up water and swells into a self-sustaining temporary house. The floating houses come with embedded seeds that sprout over time to create a green roof – a food-producing covering. Sustainable Design - Buildipedia.com™ Upgrade your home’s insulation and air-seal gaps and cracks sooner rather than later.
This is one home improvement that will pay for itself relatively quickly and then continue to generate savings for as long as you live in your home. Even if a full upgrade is not in your budget this year, you can tackle several low- or no-cost improvements right now. Alchemy - Home of the weeHouse - Hempcrete Could Change The Way We Build Everything. Modern,contemporary,architecture,green,home-design. All designs Copyright 2009, Leap Adaptive.
Designing a (Wooden) Earthquake-Proof Home. On July 14, all eyes in Japan's Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center turned to the seven-story wood condominium in the center of an enormous room.
Deep rumblings and the sound of massive pistons pumping filled the room as the condo began to shake. It moved up and down, left and right, back and forth. Less than a minute later, the violent movement stopped and the surrounding engineers erupted in cheers. Modern,contemporary,architecture,green,home-design. How to Build an Underground House Starting at $50.
Kalypso Garage/Storage Loft Plan. The second floor of this versatile garage plan can be readily converted into an apartment.
With some modifications, it could also make a nice home. 357 sq. ft. interior, plus 357 sq.ft. 2nd story, total 714 sq. ft. interior; footprint: 20' x 24' not including decks or benches. My main goal has been to reduce the cost of housing, while also making the designs sustainable, easy to build and livable. The easiest way to cut costs is to build small, so almost every plan I design is less than 1,000 interior square feet. I've tried to return to the sizes prevalent 50-100 years ago, when an 800 sq. ft. bungalow was perfectly satisfactory.
People didn't feel deprived or poor in these houses. Cost: How much do earthbag houses cost? Building StrawBale Houses. Strawbale houses are cheap, easy to build and can be put up in a relatively short period of time. Strawbale houses are usually made by stacking rows of straw bales with a moisture barrier between the bales and the supporting platform.
Building with bales of straw has become very popular and can be seen in many areas of the Southwestern United States. 2011 Solar Decathlon: Florida International University - Buildipedia.com™ PerFORM[D]ance House Teams participating in the 2011 Solar Decathlon strive to create high-tech, low-energy houses, but one team has created a home that also "dances. " Florida International University's perFORM[D]ance House features movable facades that allow it to adapt to the needs of its occupants and environmental conditions. This flexible concept fosters connections between indoors and outdoors while mitigating Florida's hot, humid, and hurricane-prone climate. Florida International University (FIU) originally participated in the Solar Decathlon in 2005 and won first place in the Energy Balance Competition for their Engawa House, named for a Japanese term describing the unity between the interior and exterior of a structure.
The 2011 team expanded on this idea, explained Andy Madonna, Team FIU Project Manager and M. 15 houseplants to improve indoor air quality. HARRISON architects. Acces to Fine Homebuilding Articles. Free Plans. Several free plans by Owen Geiger are now available: Preview the Economizer House Plan here.Economizer House Plan PDF Solar Pit House PDF Preview the Solar Pit House plan here. esert Shelters PDF Preview Desert Shelters by searching this phrase in the built-in search in the right hand column.
Craftsman Bamboo/Plastic Bottle House PDF (Honorable Mention in Shelters for All housing competition) Preview the Craftsman plan here. oot Cellar Plan Earthbag House for Haiti View download complete complete plans at Teach Democracy.org. Sustainable Web Hosting - 10 Sensational Homes Built from Straw. Written by Ryan Hollitz | 19 December 2009 Posted in Blog - Green Building New building materials could really make your house green from the ground up! Dream Green Home Plans. Sheddish. » The StrawBale.com Green Building Resource Center. Looking for local builders, plasterers, architects, contractors, and designers who specialize in straw bale and other natural building techniques? Search our resource center by clicking one of the links on the right or below. If you don’t find what you are looking for please click on one of the Google Ads, which are located on each page. Want to be listed in our strawbale.com Green Building Resource Center? We will give you a basic listing in the resource center absolutely freeClick here for more details.
Green Building Trade and Supply Locator Straw Bale Builders or ContractorsPlasterers and plastering resources Architects or DesignersGreen building resources and suppliers Structural EngineeringInsurance. Building A Straw Bale Home. Take a look at the picture on the right. Laying out the Building Lines For Your Natural Building « Natural Living School. Roundhouse Studio Plan. THIS NEW GREEN HOUSE" Sun-Inspired Passive Solar House Plans. Santa Fe IV Plan. Santa Fe IV Sven Alstrom, Designer South Elevation. * Hemp Bricks are harder than concrete for homes and buildings! Lofted Forest Home: Organic Curves & Natural Materials. Recycled Wine Bottle Torch.
Eco Nest 1200 Plan. Article Index Page. Articles about projects that save you money.