In “The Apothecary’s Song,” Carina and Pato plan to build an off-the-grid, underground home. An advantage of such an underground or an earth-sheltered home is natural earth insulation, which dramatically cuts the need for heating and cooling and leaves the home up to 90% more efficient compared to conventional housing. Mike Oehler provides a wealth of valuable information about how to build light-filled, inexpensive, earth-sheltered homes in his book: $50 and Up Underground House Book
But, what if you want to live in an earth friendly home and the idea of living underground just isn’t cutting it for you? Fortunately, innovators in green building are bursting with techniques and designs for the whole spice rack of tastes. Calearth.org teaches how to build super-adobe eco-domes. The man behind these eco-domes, Nader Khalili, who says he was inspired by the poet, Rumi, developed his super-adobe building technique to be accessible to those with low budgets and little construction experience. Theoretically, all members of a family, even children, can help build a home together. The designs are sometimes beautiful, sometimes bizarre, and always fascinating. I’ve heard the domes compared to “smurf village” housing. Take a look: Super-adobe eco-domes by calearth.org
Straw bale building is yet another option. Straw bale walls are up to three times more energy efficient compared to conventional framing (and yes, the walls of these homes are literally built of big bales of hay. They’re plastered, so supposedly, they’re exceptionally resistant to fire!). Strawbale.com offers workshops if you’re interested in learning more about this technology, and the photos of the homes on this website are amazing. These homes do not look like the raggedy piles of straw you may be envisioning… Straw bale geodesic dome shows time-elapsed footage of the construction of a small straw dome.
I highly recommend the next resource for information about cob construction, which involves a mix of earth and straw: The S.H.I.R.E. On the S.H.I.R.E. website, Benjamin Pinover writes:
“Cob is truly the ultimate natural building material, as it seems merely working with it brings people into greater harmony with nature. It is needless to say that using unprocessed and local materials has ecological benefits; it nearly wipes pollution and embodied energy out of the calculation. There are no specialized skills required, but due to its weight, working with cob can be labor intensive and slow. As a result, cob builders usually involve their friends, family and neighbors to aid in the building process, creating community through the joy of working outside with good folk. Working with cob is just delightful, from mixing sand clay and straw with your feet, feeling the squish of earth between your toes, to shaping beautiful sculptural walls with one’s hands, molding the wet earth to anything the builder fancies. Cob is also the material that gives people the most flexibility and freedom to improvise details and fit their home to their lives like a glove, not a box.”
Finally, the last green building movement I’ll discuss today goes by the quirky name, “Earthship.” The funky buildings are even quirkier than the name… Take a peek: Earthships These off-the-grid, carbon-zero homes are designed with water capture and food-growing systems right in the walls…wow! Earthship.net offers seminars and webinars along with a wealth of other resources if you’re interested in learning more.
Happy building! Please leave a comment to educate me on green building techniques not mentioned above!
For more information about my book, please visit: The Apothecarys Song
