by Peter McIntosh | Jan 25, 2018 | Fire, Strawbale
The iconic straw bale house of Simon and Jasmine in the UK burned down in a freak fire after an electrical fault ignited some stored reclaimed plastic stuff they intended to use under the earth floors downstairs as insulation.
by Peter McIntosh | Feb 23, 2017 | Adobe, Alternative building, Alternative energy, Cape Town, City of Cape Town, Clay, Cob, Compressed Earth Brick (CEB), Delft ECD, Early Childhood Development centre, Earthen Schools, Ecobricks, Guest post, Hybrid building, Living Sustainably, Local materials, Long Way Home, Mud brick, Natural building, Natural building methods, Natural mortar mixes, Natural plasters, Passive Solar Design, Peter McIntosh, Qala Phelang Tala, Rammed Earth, Strawbale, Sustainable building, Sustainable human settlements, Thermal performance, Tyre building
In Delft, an impoverished township on the outskirts of the Cape Flats, local government is changing its approach to building early childhood development centres (ECDs) with a pioneering project showcasing a hybrid of natural building methods and up-cycled waste...
by Peter McIntosh | Nov 23, 2015 | Adobe, Architecture award, Clay, Cob, Compressed Earth Brick (CEB), Design competition, Events, Light Earth, Mud brick, Natural building, Strawbale, Sustainable building, Sustainable human settlements
The TERRA award is a collaborative effort on an international scale to enable both professionals and the general public to fully appreciate earth’s increasing popularity as a building material of high aesthetic and technical quality. Earth is becoming...
by Peter McIntosh | Sep 11, 2015 | Adobe, Alternative building, Alternative energy, Clay, Cob, Insulation, Living off-grid, Living Sustainably, Mud brick, Natural building, Natural building methods, Passive Solar Design, Permaculture, Peter McIntosh, Solar energy, Strawbale, Sustainable building, Sustainable human settlements, Thermal mass, Thermal performance
Passive solar design can dramatically reduce our demands on fossil fuels and other forms of energy input, allowing our buildings to become producers and not consumers of energy and resources, supporting us in a healthier more comfortable abundant way. Passive solar...
by Peter McIntosh | Jun 3, 2014 | Adobe, Clay, Cob, Compressed Earth Brick (CEB), Earth testing, Earth theory, Mud brick, Natural building, Natural building methods, Peter McIntosh, Rammed Earth, Sand, Sandbag, Strawbale, Sustainable building
By Peter McIntosh (Please note that in order to understand what is written here you will need to have read my previous post on understanding earth) Earth requires two properties to make it strong enough for building, compressive and tensile strength. In much the...
by Peter McIntosh | Mar 9, 2014 | Adobe, Cob, Malcolm Worby, Mud brick, Rammed Earth, Sandbag, Strawbale
by Malcolm Worby Using natural materials for construction of dwellings and community buildings, is the oldest method of building since humans moved away from caves. In fact, more people in the world live in houses built of natural materials, than any other type of...
