#natural-building

This video keeps getting lost. It was created waaaay before the actual construction documented in this series of posts, as the final project of one of our classmates from the Earthship Academy. Then it

After my Odyssee on the Terracerías I decided a bit of a break was well deserved. Also, Wednesday was coming up, which meant I needed to be connected to teach my class. So I checked into a hostel where

Born into a world of box shaped homes and standardized everything I have been searching for a more organic life. And now that I am spending my afternoons building my own homestead, it sis the organic shape

Building a home with our home with our own hands is a lot or work. Now this is so obvious I almost feel silly saying so. But, when I dreamed of building our own house - all those years ago - I had no idea

The project sounds simple. A 6.5 by 6.5 foot workshop made with natural materials. We were sure it would be completed by now. Yet, here I am, plugging away on this bottle wall. I’m not here to complain.

At last the time has arrived! After months and months of moving rocks by hand and earth by buckets we have finally begun to build a structure on our land....

Three years ago I began building this bench out of entirely natural materials. Clay from the land itself, straw from a nearby feed store, and a bit of sand from here and there. Little did I know ...

This is not the only way to build with Earth. This is simply how I do it. Remember, these are my natural building diaries. And thus will be accounts of my trials, errors, and hopefully success in building

Cob is similar to cement, in a way. Unlike cement though, cob is handmade and accessible to pretty much anyone for free or nearly. Most people consider cob to be a mixture of clay, sand, and straw...

Oak trees tower above me. Their branches sway in the wind and drop spiky leaves onto the forest floor. Deer make their way silently (and turkeys not so silently) through the trails in the meadow. This

Concrete - it's anywhere we look! And though it has enabled humanity to build enormous steel-enforced skyscrapers and infrastructure like bridges and tunnels, it feels dull. It's grey and not particularly

Our dream home has lived on paper and in inspired imagination for years. The two of us have spent hours and hours discussing the details, drawing out designs, erasing, and re-arranging. And now, after

At this moment the hedgerow is in it's infancy. It will be truly magical to see it grow and ourselves grow in the process of building a home and one day living in this beautiful piece of land. Thank you

Natural Building Diary ~ gathering the building blocks

Each garden location comes with its own challenges, from erosion to pests and beyond. In this little mountain garden our main challenge is protecting our herbs from the local herd of deer and to keep seasonal

Earth is abundant. Earth is everywhere. And this technique of building earthen furniture, called cob, a combination of five ingredients: clay, sand, straw, water & human energy. All the clay came from

More than three decades ago a radically new building material started gaining popularity - in Europe: The benefits of hempcrete (a.k.a. hemplime) include exceptional thermal performance, highly effective

An Earthship build on beautiful Vancouver Island in 2018. Before we could start the actual build, there were a lot of other preparatory activities.

This is an long project, spanning several years, of the construction of a sustainable theater in the town of Mazunte, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Though the topic is mainly the construction project,

As I mentioned, hinted, and alluded to it (mostly in this post), there is a crowdfunding campaign coming up: Itínera Theater, the natural-building / theater group I am involved with, wants to harness our