Here is another post in the series of Reader Mail that was recently shared with the founder of Shelter Publications, Lloyd Kahn:
The Stump, built in reverence and resemblance to the beaver’s favorite sculptural form, was made from a timber-frame structure infilled with precast concrete walls. This octagonal labor of love was built on an old granary pad in Water Valley, Alberta, by the Black Griffin family.
The Black Griffins used red cedar reclaimed from interior British Columbia forest fire areas, poplar (generally considered a “weed tree”), recycled windows, and donated timbers and sawdust from the generous local sawyer. Built in true organic improvisational style, the technical plans that were etched on scraps of wood are now long gone, transformed from ideas into heat from the hearth.
Crafted with the help of supportive friends and family of all ages, and tapping into local waste streams to form the bones of the building, The Stump was an exercise in pushing boundaries, inspiring future generations of young builders, and creating spatial magic.
Thanks again for reaching out. I really appreciate you and the work you do!
Cheers,
Bruen Black
Thank you for sharing your story with us, Bruen, and for being a longtime reader of Shelter books!
This is a transcript from our series on YouTube. See the full video HERE.
I find that [the] generation of millennials, the 30- [to 40-]year-olds, are picking up on what we were doing 50 years ago and liking this idea of doing it yourself. I discovered in the 1970s that you can’t be self-sufficient. You can’t very easily grow your own wheat and mill it, and you can’t fill your teeth, but the idea is [that] you do as much for yourself as possible. Perfection? You’ll never get there, but [you can] work towards it. You still need human hands to build a house, so I think that our message is still relevant. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, everybody wanted to get 10 acres in the country and build an adobe house or a log house on it, and [then] have a garden.
Nowadays, if I were a young person, I would look around in small towns or cities, maybe in a neighborhood, and find a house that needs work. The advantage is, you’ve already got water, electricity, and waste disposal on the site. I would look to make sure the foundation is solid and then, you know, fix it up. If you live in an apartment in Manhattan, grow some parsley on your fire escape, you know. Just do anything you can to create your food and shelter.
I have young people coming up to me…. It was yesterday, this guy was 36 years old. He said, “I saw the book Shelter when I was a kid, which influenced me, and I’m now a carpenter.” You know, I probably get two or three people a week telling me that these books inspired them to do stuff, you know, to use their hands to build something, so the idea of this ADU thing, you know the, the unit in the backyard, is a good one, and I mean you can do it complying with the code. A lot of stuff is…people are going under the radar to live and…in every place where it’s difficult.
I think that’s true, there are a lot of great ideas. You know, there’s different construction techniques, different materials, different designs, and different approaches. It has [appeal in the] city, as well as [in the] country. For example, in San Francisco, in the book, Jay Nelson [is] another person [who] bought a house in San Francisco, and, with the approval of the building codes, turned it into a duplex to cut the cost of the building in half. Another couple bought a home in LA that was really run down for like $200,000 and fixed it up, and so that’s a really, that’s a kind of important thing, I think, for people to consider, you know, as an alternative to starting from scratch.
You know people can live in school buses. There’s just all kinds of approaches you can get out of these books.
When people are hesitant about whether they can do it themselves, I tell them to start, and they’ll figure it out as they go along. You know, I read [a book on] Picasso recently. I read a quote where he said [something like], “If I want to know what I’m going to draw, I have to start drawing.” And so, you know, I think the use of your hands is a very important thing because, I tell people, your computer isn’t going to build a house for you. I mean, they do have these machines that extrude houses from a computer, but I don’t think that’s a very sensible thing. It’s not going to amount to anything…. You know, you still need a hammer and a saw, and the hammer could be a nail gun, and the saw could be a skill saw, but still, you need those things to put a house together.
School is back in session, and Shelter Publications has a book that’s popular among elementary teachers and school librarians. Showcasing diverse housing styles around the globe and offering a glimpse into different cultures, Wonderful Houses Around the World, by Yoshio Komatsu with drawings by Akira Nishiyama, was first released in 1997 in Japan. Katy Bridges and Naoko Amemiya translated it into English for its US release by Shelter Publications in 2004.
The book features clear illustrations of the insides of different homes, where family members are performing everyday tasks. Each illustration includes captions that tell where the house is found, how the surroundings influence its design, what life is like for the family, and how the homes are furnished. This offers a fascinating look at various cultures and promotes understanding and appreciation for lifestyles around the world.
Why This Book is Valuable in Education
Wonderful Houses Around the World is beneficial to the classroom, as it promotes cultural understanding and global awareness, introduces basic architectural concepts,displays side-by-side comparisons of building exteriors and interiors, and encourages critical thinking about living spaces and cultural adaptations. Learning about different cultures is helpful to understanding other people; it increases empathy and curiosity, and it enhances an appreciation for diversity in living conditions.
The book aligns with several educational standards: as social studies curriculum by understanding diverse cultures and societies, in STEM education by introducing engineering and design concepts, and in art education by showing different architectural styles.The photographs and drawings are great for comparing a variety of art forms as well.
Examples of Classroom Use
The book can be integrated into the classroom with a geography lesson, mapping the locations of featured houses. An art project could include the creation of models or drawings of unique houses; a writing exercise could imagine life in different types of homes. Projects and activities could include virtual “world tour” presentations by students, a comparative analysis of housing in different climates, or a design challenge to dream up houses for specific environments.
Testimonial
“Clear, color photo spreads and explanatory paragraphs introduce 10 ‘wonderful houses’ from a variety of cultural backgrounds. A circular tulou in China, a felt yurt in Mongolia, an underground home in Tunisia, and an earthen ‘castle’ in Togo are among the featured domiciles. Each picture has a full-spread color diagram of a structural cutaway with captions that describe architectural details and/or furnishings and indicate the makeup of the family/families in residence. The author’s personal comments enliven the terse text, and his three-sentence introduction mentions his enthusiasm for ‘interesting’ domestic design.”
—Patricia Manning
School Library Journal
Integrating Wonderful Houses Around the World into classroom activities gives kids a lot more than just a peek inside homes. Students learn lessons in social studies, STEM, art, and character building. Teachers will enjoy putting together projects and activities based around this book. True to Shelter Publications’ tagline, “Shelter is more than a roof overhead,” this book—with its thoughtfully created text, photos, and illustrations—offers a rich experience that goes beyond traditional learning.
We always love getting reader mail, and this beauty of a DIY home build was recently shared with Shelter Publications founder Lloyd Kahn: “…I still have my original Whole Earth Catalogs and recently replaced my Shelter book that I loaned out 40 years ago. You have been a great inspiration Lloyd…Many thanks. I am fully retired and ready to finally build my forever home! Greetings from Ontario, Canada! – Ursula Z.”
We wish you the best of luck on your future build, and thank you for being a long-time reader of Shelter books!
Doug and Stacy are living the pioneer lifestyle in the 21st century. After quitting their high-stress city lives they moved onto a property in rural Missouri where they could be debt free and construct a beautiful little pioneer style homestead. Today, they raise animals, grow most of their own food and live simply on the land.
The homestead is centered around a beautiful 600 sq. ft. (55 m2) log cabin which was built by Doug. When he began this massive DIY project he had absolutely no building experience but figured that if the pioneers could do it then so could he! Since then, he has been adding additional out-buildings to their off-the-grid homestead including an outdoor kitchen, and his new project (still under construction) which is a root cellar.
Doug and Stacy’s cabin is simply beautiful with gorgeous wood and rustic features everywhere you look. Here, the couple live with no electricity and no refrigerator. Rainwater is collected and is gravity fed to the cabin. Stepping inside this tiny house feels almost as though you have travelled back in time. Still, it’s warm and cozy and provides this couple with a beautiful place to call home.
With over 1,000 photographs, Shelter is a classic celebrating the imagination, resourcefulness, and exuberance of human habitat. It includes a history of shelter and the evolution of building types: tents, yurts, timber buildings, barns, small homes, domes, etc.
There is a section on building materials, including heavy timber construction and stud framing, as well as stone, straw bale, adobe, plaster, and bamboo. The spirit of the ’60s counterculture is evident, and the emphasis is on creating your own shelter (or space) with your own hands. A joyful, inspiring book.
Greetings, My name is Gwendolyn Nix and I’m a casting producer with Warm Springs Productions (www.warmsprings.tv) and the DIY network. I’m currently casting the third season of DIY’s show “Building Off the Grid.” I’m reaching out to you to see if you or anyone you know would be interested in this opportunity.
We’re looking throughout the United States for folks who will soon be building an off-grid dwelling (i.e., starting within in the next few months). We cannot consider homes that are already underway.
All types of structures can be considered i.e., straw bale, earthship, tiny homes, yurts, container homes, earth-sheltered, log, stick-built, or whatever else your imagination comes up with! If you’re chosen for this project there is generous pay involved.
If you’re interested, please reach me at the contact information that follows my signature via either email or phone.
Please note, in order to be considered for the show, the home must be built on the land where it will ultimately exist (as opposed to being built in a warehouse and then transported to the land)
Here is a sneak peek link to the show: www.diynetwork.com/… Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
–Gwendolyn Nix, Casting Producer & Social Media Manager
Warm Springs Productions
Cell: 406-214-6405
Email: gnnix@warmsprings.tv
Available 9am-5pm Mountain Standard Time
When I start working on a book, it’s like setting out on an ocean voyage without a map. I get a theme, an idea, some kind of coherence on a subject, then start.
When I built my first house in Mill Valley in the early ’60s, my friend Bob Whiteley and I laid out the foundation lines in chalk on the ground. “What do we do now, Bob,” I asked.
Bob said “This,” and took pick and shovel and started digging the foundation trench.
It’s been my M.O. all my life. When I don’t know what to do, I start. Things (usually) sort themselves out in the process. (I know, I know, I’ve said all this before…)
This book is about the tools and techniques Lesley and I have evolved in building a home and growing food (and creating a bunch of things) on a small piece of land over a 40+-year period.
I started by writing it in chapters: The House / The Kitchen / Kitchen Tools / The Garden / Garden Tools / Chickens / Food / Foraging / Fishing / The Shop / Shop Tools / Roadkill / Critters … What we’ve learned; what’s worked, what hasn’t… Read More …
Two great catalogs just arrived. Lehmans and McMurray Hatchery. The former: do-it-yourself tools for home, kitchen, garden; the latter for chicks by mail — which we’ve been doing for over 30 years.
We’ve got about 25 baby chicks coming this month. It’s great: We get a call from the post office: “We’ve got a box for you that’s chirping!” We pick them up and put them under an infrared light until they feather out. This year mostly Rhode Island Reds and Auracanas.
…Alan did everything himself: carpentry, plumbing, wiring (solar electricity and hydro), and developed his own water supply. He drives a tractor, maintains several miles of roads, makes beer and wine, and raises pigs and ducks. A lot of people have started homesteads since the 60’s, but seldom have they got as far along as this…
Hallig Habel during “land unter,” a local term describing the flooding of the Halligs during storms when just the houses stick out of the water. Thirty years ago, when this picture was taken, the house was inhabited by a farmer. His sheep and cattle spent their nights in the lower story. In extreme storms, when the lower story was flooded, the farmer would bring his animals upstairs. Photo by Hans Joachim Kürtz
In 1973 we published Shelter, which turned out to be station central for people interested in creating their own homes. Now, in the 21st century, we continue this dialog here online on shelter, carpentry, homesteading, gardening, and the home arts with this blog. We hope you will join us and contribute.
