The earth-house uses the ground as an insulating blanket that efficiently protects it from temperature extremes, wind, rain and extreme weather events.
Underground homes with a modern bent. A large thermal mass stabilizes inside temperatures, giving you free heat in the winter, free cooling in the summer.
For those in northern, high altitude or windy climates who wish to grow their food year round. Take advantage of the insulating properties of the Earth.
Ingenious ways to stack firewood.
The rocket mass heater works on similar properties as a masonry heater. A fast, high heat and oxygen-fed fire burn up the volatile gases and particulates, leaving very little pollution, and turn almost every ounce of wood fuel into energy.
Masonry heaters can incorporate cook stoves. And cook stoves can act as masonry heaters for small homes.
Bake ovens can be either white (the fire is in another box, usually below the oven) or black (the fire is in the same compartment as the food being cooked).
Heat, not pollution. The cleanest burning wood stoves have been around for centuries, yet have taken a backseat to metal wood stoves and other polluting energy sources for far too long. Time for a revival!
If you live in a cool climate, you might as well investigate adding a masonry heater along side your pizza oven. Or at least understanding them so that you might take advantage of exhaust heat.
Although lots of mass and beautiful, most heat goes straight up the flue. Build a conventional fireplace for beauty alone, build a masonry fireplace for heat.
Somewhere around 30 million steel shipping containers exist today. 8 feet wide by 8.5 feet high, and either 20 or 40 feet long, they have been the globally standardized transportation module since 1956.
Call them bug condos, insect hotels, insect habitats, wildlife stacks, insect boxes, insect houses, insect walls, wild bee walls, insect accommodation, wild bee houses, solitary bee walls or wild bienenhaus. Wildlife habitat is rapidly disappearing. Building beneficial insects a special habitat will help your garden and the bugs.
Examples of pure cob and adobe, and refractory castable cement over bricks.
Recycle some old bricks...into an oven.
Build an outdoor oven with local stone and DIY skills for a few hundred dollars. Or, buy an oven kit and have it veneered for a few thousand.
Willow cuttings called 'withies' easily root in either water or moist soil. Plant in late winter and come July you'll have a privacy screen.
Over two thousand years older than chain link.
Replacing your old windows or windowed doors with more energy efficient ones? Here's a project to repurpose those old windows.
No more plastic! Or vinyl, or PVC! Looks great as a weight loss program as well. First, the perspiration created while moving the stones into place, and certainly one would not become lazy and lounge around for too long on any of these pieces of furniture.
More pebble ideas...
Next Posts
Showing 1 - 37 of 37 Articles
| < Previous | 1 | Next > |
Those who are feeling extra energetic and who come upon a large number of used sinks, this post is for you.
Also known as Craftsman. If a large oak tree falls on your property and you have the tools and know-how, or know a good carpenter...
Walk a forest with your building design in mind and select individual trees to harvest for your home. Each tree is chosen both for its structural and design integrity and for the effect that its removal will have on the forest left standing around it. Often the selection will be based as much on thinning an overcrowded stand or managing an invasive species as it will on that tree being the nearest with a 10 inch diameter trunk.
Old boats become furniture and stay forever more on dry land. What to do with that old wooden boat...
“If man walks in nature’s midst, then he is nature’s guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest.” Dreams do come true...
Popular in Europe for decades...starting to catch on in the rest of the world. The price of a natural swimming pool are comparable to an inground pool, yet maintenance costs are much less. Have you ever thought about how many pounds of chemicals go into a typical swimming pool? Let nature do the work for free.
Dirt cheap....earthbag building is also known as superadobe, flexible-form rammed earth or sandbag construction. Whatever you call it, it is earthquake resistant, flood resistant, hurricane resistant, fire resistant and termite proof.
Flooding is a natural function of rivers. Sea levels are predicted to rise. There are two types of floating homes, permanently floating homes and homes that float only when flood waters swell, but sit on the ground during the dry season. Requiring the later on new construction within floodplains, and considering same for threatened shorelines, is one way to plan for the future. Although floating homes near the coast need protected waters, wave attenuation through wave walls and dykes (as used in Europe) are a future possibility. Inaction is costly. Some inspiration for those on waterways...
Cardboard reuse -- turn your cardboard into chairs, tables or bookshelves. With some used cardboard, tape, earth-friendly glue, scissors and a utility knife you could furnish your entire home...
Plastic Waste Lighting...
"Re-use as a design tool (and material) is still extremely under explored, and it holds so much potential – both as a source of raw material and as a beautiful limitation." Heath Nash
Vertical Farm Inspiration from practical to futuristic... Will the public pay for these structures and let the farmlands return to the wild?
There are numerous builders around the world filling up used plastic bottles with mud or sand and creating schools, stores, homes, greenhouses... The possibilities are endless. Lots of pictures to inspire...
In the future; will we give back the land to native plants and animals and live up in the trees? Hovering aircraft are available, we just need to wait for the clean energy versions... If we compost our waste, give up plastics and petroleum, grow hydrophonically...what would our new footprint be? More photos...
Are wooden bathtubs environmentally positive? If you grew the bamboo or cedar in your backyard and then made it yourself- definitely! These examples might not be the greenest and they cost a pretty penny, but it must feel wonderful to bath in wood. In the past bathtubs were made of wood, marble or ceramic tile. Cast-iron starting in the 1880s, then enamel over steel...now mostly formed acrylic, fiberglass or porcelain on steel. Wood holds heat longer than other tub materials. Unfinished wood tubs must be used regularly or kept partially filled with a bit of water to prevent them from drying out and warping or shrinking.
Showing 1 - 37 of 37 Articles
| < Previous | 1 | Next > |