by Tarien Roux | Aug 9, 2017 | Anita Venter, Q&A, Sustainable human settlements
In honour of women’s day we asked Anita Venter a few questions about her grassroots development initiative using sustainable building methods in Bloemfontein. We have great admiration for the shack replacement initiative and what she has done to empower her change agents to become more self-sufficient and build community in her local context.
by Peter McIntosh | Feb 23, 2017 | Alternative building, Early Childhood Development centre, Guest post, Projects
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 | Feb 29, 2016 | Alternative building, Anita Venter, Guest post, Living Sustainably, Local materials, Natural building, Permaculture, Peter McIntosh, Qala Phelang Tala, Reclaimed materials, Shack replacement, Start Living Green, Sustainable building, Sustainable human settlements, Uncategorized
Do we as ethical natural builders have a right to deny someone a home simply based on the argument of its purity? Surely it’s about having the humility to acknowledge that sustainability is about economy and social justice as much as it is about ecology. Scott...
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 16, 2015 | Adobe, African Vernacular Architecture, Clay, Cob, Community, Guest post, Heritage, Indigenous Architectural Knowledge, Indigenous Building Systems, Local materials, Mud brick, Natural building, Natural building methods, Rammed Earth, Sustainable building, Sustainable human settlements, Thermal performance, Uncategorized
In this guest post by Jon Sojkowski, he chronicles common misperceptions of African vernacular architecture and how it is being abandoned for the status that comes with living in conventional Western style buildings. He asks whether these modern materials are truly...
