The ‘House at 9,000 Feet’ is a unique example of modern mountain architecture, set among the peaks of the Intermountain West, spanning Utah, Nevada, western Wyoming, southern Idaho. The home features a 100-foot-long extruded ellipse, all finished with red cedar along both its interiors and exterior. With a steep thirty-percent slope and an annual snowfall of forty feet, the architects devised a strategy of ‘floating’ the building atop an array of stilts and providing access by way of a perforated steel footbridge. This approach not only allows the house to sit gracefully on the site, providing ..read more

The peaceful lifestyle of Nung ethnic people has been preserved well in Bac Hoa hamlet of 160 households in Vietnam. It is nestled against the mountains and is blessed with a stream. Many of the houses have preserved the traditional Nung structures with rammed earth walls and yin-yang tiled roofs. The People’s Committee of the district has implemented plans for the restoration and conservation of these rammed earth houses. The head of the hamlet said that in recent years, his village has greeted many visitors, including researchers, tourists, students and enthusiasts who came to explore and ex ..read more

Human health and well-being in affordable housing design should begin with crafting connections to nature, healthy indoor environments and spaces that foster community. Biophilic design harnesses the innate affinity humans have for being exposed to nature. Studies have consistently shown that people with access to daylight and views of natural settings thrive better than those who don’t have such access. Larger windows bringing natural light into units, corridors and common areas, can provide views out to natural settings whenever possible. Well-designed outdoor spaces and community garde ..read more

The Arc at the Green School in Bali is built from a series of intersecting bamboo arches and is a testament to bamboo’s strength and viability when it comes to constructing large scale buildings. According to Christopher Matthews, an engineer with Atelier One, the demand for bamboo is increasing, with 30% of Atelier One’s worldwide clients now asking for it. “We had to test it,” Matthews, who was involved with the school’s construction, said. “We were there, loading it up with sandbags to prove how strong it was.” “In the countries that are using it, it’s extremely cheap and extremely abundant ..read more

Tony Johnson runs Earth House Holdings in Sooke, B.C., Canada. He specializes in rammed earth like his own house featured here. He used steel rebar and wool insulation, which results in exceptional strength when it comes to earthquakes and a much more insulated envelope for the colder Canadian climate. It is extremely energy efficient due to the thermal mass and thermal break created by the insulation. It is also an airtight material, which means that there’s little heat loss from a poor air barrier. Another factor is its ability to provide protection against wildfires. Rammed earth is natural ..read more

In this is short film an architect decided to move to Costa Rica to build his dream home in the jungle. It is made with shipping containers, bamboo, and other sustainable materials. It runs on solar and hydro power and has beautiful ocean and jungle views. It is like a dream of living in when you where a kid. You can watch the video at www.youtube.com ..read more

Over the last month there have been several times when emailed notifications of blog posts that I have made were not sent to subscribers. I have been communicating with the Mailchimp service that is supposed to handle this and I believe that we have finally resolved the problem. I will list the missing blog posts below, so that if you were affected by this problem you can access the posted information here: Historical and Modern Use of Seaweed for Building April 2, 2024 Seaweed has been used in constructing buildings since the the ancient Greeks, who used the material as wall insulation. The ..read more

You have probably noticed that terms related to “sustainability” are tossed about rather freely these days, and it is often hard to know how appropriate they might be. The concept of “sustainability” originated in German forestry circles around 1713, and is ubiquitous today whenever there is a call to action amid the threat of an ecological crisis. Unfortunately, a distortion often occurs when commercial and corporate interests attempt to explain their efforts to meet so-called green standards. This distortion is called “greenwashing,” and it’s everywhere. This has been described as “the pract ..read more

Hemp mixed with lime can create a low-carbon, more climate friendly building material than concrete. “There’s an enormous growth potential in the US for hemp fiber used for building and insulation,” said Kaja Kühl, founder of youarethecity, a design and building practice. “Hemp was only legalized in 2018, but now industrial hemp is following the first wave of CBD and cannabis.” The potential for hemp as a building material has been known for centuries, because it is a material that combines fast cultivation with strength. The hemp that is used is the hurd, from the inner stem, and not the bark ..read more

A home made of earthbags in Johns Town, Jamaica, is setting an example for sustainable living. It’s part of a group of largely self-sufficient residences called The Source Farm Foundation and Ecovillage. The home gets 70% of its energy from solar and wind, and the owner says, “People kept coming in our house to see how it worked, even professors. We live on a hill, so we can see when the rest of the parish has no power. When there’s a hurricane, people come to us to charge their phones.” The home is resistant to fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, and insects and is mostly water, bullet, and sound ..read more