by QPT Qala Phelang Tala | Sep 30, 2014 | Adobe, Amanda de Gouveia, Anita Venter, Clay, Cob, Community, Earth testing, Events, Insulation, Local materials, Mud brick, Natural building, Peter McIntosh, Qala Phelang Tala, Sand, Start Living Green, Sustainable human settlements
Imagine being outside on a chilly Free State winter morning with the sun just coming out and starting to gently warm your body. Now imagine being told to take off your shoes in order to trudge in icy cold mud. I glanced at my fellow volunteers and I saw a collective...
by Laurie Simpson | Aug 24, 2014 | Guest post, Laurie Simpson, Student build story
Discover how mud dancing helped Laurie overcome the challenges she encountered building a natural home for her family in Zimbabwe.
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 | Apr 20, 2014 | Adobe, Clay, Cob, Compressed Earth Brick (CEB), Earth theory, Mud brick, Natural building methods, Peter McIntosh, Rammed Earth, Sand
By Peter McIntosh One of the challenges of working with earth is that no two sites are the same. The recipes one learns on one site may not work on another, because the earths’ found there are composed differently. Most earth building relies on a mix of sand and clay,...
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...
