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Snell and Callahan, whose popular Good House Book helped environmentally-minded readers create an earth-friendly home, have returned with a photo-packed, amazingly complete, start-to-finish guide to "green" house-building. This absolutely groundbreaking manual doesn't just talk about eco-friendly building techniques, but actually shows every step! More than 1,200 close-up photographs, along with in-depth descriptions, follow the real construction of an alternative house from site selection to the addition of final-touch interior details. Co-authors Clarke Snell and Timothy Callahan (a professional builder and contractor) provide thorough discussions of the fundamental concepts of construction, substitutes for conventional approaches, and planning a home that's not only comfortable and beautiful, but environmentally responsible. Then, they roll up their sleeves and get to work assembling a guest house that incorporates four different alternative building methods: straw bale, cob, cordwood, and modified stick frame. The images show every move: how the site is cleared, the basic structure put together, the cob wall sculpted, the bales and cordwood stacked, a living roof created, and more. Most important, the manual conveys real-world challenges and processes, and offers dozens of sidebars with invaluable advice. It's head and shoulders above all others in the field. |
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 New!
Natural
Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House:Bringing Your Home Into Harmony with Nature by Carol Venolia & Kelly Lerner $25, 2006, 280pp
You don't have to build from scratch to live in a house that's good for you and the earth. This unique guide teaches the basics of ecological renovation, planning your project, choosing materials, and making your home more energy efficient. It presents simple ideas you can do right away to more advanced moves you can make after careful planning. You'll have the tools you need to create a beautiful green haven that's uniquely your own. Carol Venolia specializes in the field of eco-healthy building. Her first book, Healing Environments, has enjoyed international success, and her home designs have been featured in The Natural House Catalog, Earth to Spirit, The Healthy House and Environ magazine. Carol currently writes the "Design for Life" column for Natural Home & Garden magazine. Kelly Lerner is an award-winning architect and innovator in the fields of sustainable development, straw-bale construction, and earthen plasters. She spearheaded an internationally recognized project responsible for building more than 600 passive-solar-heated straw-bale houses in China. Her designs have been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, The Straw Bale House, Serious Straw Bale, The New Straw Bale House, and Green by Design |
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 Building
with Awareness: The Construction of
a Hybrid HomeDVD & Guidebook by Ted Owens $42, 2006,152pp + DVD
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Clarke Snell is a builder with experience using a wide variety of materials and techniques, both conventional and alternative. The construction project closest to his heart is his own partially bermed, passive solar house, which he built in the mountains of western North Carolina. Many pictures from Earthaven Ecovillage. |
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Cob (an old English word for lump) is old-fashioned concrete, made out of a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. Becky Bee's manual is a friendly guide to making your own earth structure, with chapters on design, foundations, floors, windows and doors, finishes, and of course, making glorious cob. She loves doing something that makes sense in a world where lots of things don't. "I believe that building with cob is a way to recreate community and experience the joy of working together while taking back the right to build our own homes and look after our Mother Earth." |
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Cob has been a traditional building process for millennia in Europe, even in rainy and windy climates like the British Isles, where many cob buildings still serve as family homes after hundreds of years. The technique is newly arrived to the Americas, and, as with so many social trends, the early adopters are in the Pacific Northwest. Cob houses (or cottages, since they are always efficiently small by American construction standards) are not only compatible with their surroundings, they ARE their surroundings, literally rising up from the earth. They are full of light, energy-efficient, and cozy, with curved walls and built-in, whimsical touches. They are delightful. They are ecstatic. The Hand-Sculpted House is theoretical and philosophical, but intensely practical as well. You will get all the how-to information to undertake a cob building project. As the modern world rediscovers the importance of living in sustainable harmony with the environment, this book is a bible of radical simplicity.
Michael G. Smith teaches practical workshops and consults on cob construction, natural building, and permaculture. He is the author of The Cobber's Companion: How to Build Your Own Earthen Home and co-editor of The Art of Natural Building: Design, Construction, Resources. Linda Smiley teaches workshops on cob, sculpting sacred spaces, intuitive design, and natural plasters and finishes. With a background as a recreational therapist, she specializes in helping people use natural building as a tool for personal transformation and healing. |
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This book introduces a revolutionary new concept to gardeners. Planting on roofs and walls began in Europe, but it is now becoming popular all over the world. Green roofs and walls reduce pollution and run-off, and also help insulate and reduce the maintenance needs of buildings. Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls discusses the practical techniques required to make planting on roofs and walls a reality. It describes how roofs may be modified to bear the weight of vegetation, considers the different options for drainage layers and growing media, and lists the plants suitable for different climates and environments. This informative book will encourage gardeners everywhere to consider the enormous benefits to be gained from planting on their roofs and walls. |
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2002,
291pp.,
This profusely illustrated"Ultimate Ecological Building Encyclopedia" gathers together the wisdom of more than fifty leaders in the alternative construction field. Inspirational case studies from around the world profile pioneer builders and their projects - including a low-cost adobe vault, an earthbag-papercrete house, and a straw bale retail store - concluding with a detailed resource section. All three editors are pioneers and central practitioners in the natural building movement. Catherine Wanek is publisher and editor of The Last Straw Journal, Joseph F Kennedy is an ecological architect who has researched and taught natural building methods on four continents. Michael Smith is the author of The Cobber's Companion. |
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Newly revised. Ten easily grasped solar principles underly the creation of comfortable, energy efficient houses. With tables for calculating solar gain and heat loss: applicable to diverse regions, climates, budgets, and styles of building. Includes solar design software on CD.Offers a technique for building homes that heat and cool themselves in a wide range of different climates, using ordinary building materials available anywhere and with methods familiar to all building contractors and many do-it-yourselfers. Kachadorian's techniques translate the essentials of timeless solar design. |
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Two of Canada's leading strawbale builders have put together this clear and well-illustrated guide to building with bales. All you'll need to know about foundations, roofs, wall ties, plasters, waterproofing, and how to avoid problems. |
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Copyright
©The Permaculture Activist, PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN
47407 USA 812-335-0383 Original material in this website may be reproduced in any form without permission on condition that it is accredited to the Permaculture Activist magazine, with a link back to this site or, in the case of printed material, a clear indication of the site URL (http://www.permacultureactivist.net). We would appreciate being notified of such use. Although care has been taken in preparing the information contained in this web site, the Permaculture Activist magazine does not and cannot guarantee the accuracy thereof. Anyone using the information does so at their own risk and shall be deemed to indemnify us from any and all injury or damage arising from such use. |
New!
Building Green:
Ianto
Evans is an applied ecologist, landscape
architect, inventor, and teacher with
building experience on six continents.
Cob is traditional in his homeland,
Wales. In addition to teaching ecological
building, Ianto has consulted with
USAID, the World Bank, the Peace Corps,
and several national governments.
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