Alternate Home Building

[mountainmama]

I saw a fascinating show a few years back about alternative home building materials. I believe the group they were filming was in Europe and they were building a home out of mud and straw! It was quite amazing when they were finished. Does anyone know much about alternative home building methods or a good website where I could find out more about this?

[CarrieAnn]

Europeans seem to be one step ahead of us when it comes to being creative with alternative materials. I don't know about a website, but I used to have a subscription to Dwell magazine and they had some good articles every month about unique building ideas. Most of the homes featured were very space conscious and environmentally friendly. You might want to check it out if you're looking for different concepts like that.

[jimbrown]

Do a search for straw bale houses and rammed earth houses. Those were both a big fad here about 10 year ago. Gonna save the world.

[sally mae]

If you are looking for natural home building ideas, check out Green Home Building. They not only have articles on natural home building, they also have actual plans for you to follow.

Green Home Building: Natural Building Techniques

[Pat]

There are straw bale houses in Kansas built in (forgive my memory) either in the 20's or 30's that are still in good shape and have good thermal performance.

10-15 years ago there was a lot of interest in straw bale construction at a community in Baja California near San Felipe. Several were built. I toured some of them. Works for them. I have not kept track so don't know if it is ongoing or not.

It is NOT a simple building process if you want to do it right and have it last. Rammed earth is another good green building process BUT can be done poorly by amateur DIY types and lead to disaster.

I Googled and found many entries for Eldorado Ranch in Baja California near San Felipe. Here is the URL for one with a picture of a straw bale house under construction.

Straw-bale Building | I Want To Be In Baja

Pat

[Kyle241]

We build a strawbale house about 8 years ago. It was a great house and we lived it in for 5 years. There are challenges in the build but if you plan well, it works and is not that hard.