Carpentry (165)

In an era when mass-produced housing and cookie-cutter developments dominate landscapes, Lloyd Kahn’s Builders of the Pacific Coast stands as a profound reminder of the rich architectural heritage that continues to influence sustainable building practices today. This documentation of coastal builders from San Francisco to Vancouver Island isn’t just a historical record—it also serves as a blueprint for contemporary cultural preservation and sustainable living.

Cultural Heritage

The book’s relevance to today’s cultural-heritage conversation is shown in several ways. For example, it captures the intimate connection between Indigenous building practices and environmental stewardship. The detailed accounts of First Nations architecture, particularly the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka’wakw) people’s sophisticated use of cedar and their sustainable building techniques, provide valuable lessons for modern architects grappling with climate change and environmental degradation. These traditional methods demonstrate how cultural heritage and ecological responsibility can seamlessly intertwine.

The significance of the book lies in its documentation of a countercultural building movement that has become increasingly relevant in the current housing crisis. The builders featured in Lloyd’s work championed small, efficient living spaces long before the tiny-house movement gained mainstream attention. Their innovative approaches to using local and recycled materials, minimizing environmental impact, and creating harmony between structure and landscape mirror the principles that today’s sustainable-architecture movement embraces.

Past Inspiration

One can see the book’s influence on contemporary builders through a fascinating chain of inspiration. As Lloyd discovered during his journey, many of the builders he encountered were inspired by his earlier work Shelter (1973), creating a direct lineage of architectural knowledge that continues to influence eco-conscious builders today. This demonstrates how documented cultural heritage can actively shape future building practices.

The emphasis on craftsmanship and personal connection to building materials speaks to the current moment, where there exists growing resistance to disposable consumer culture. The builders’ dedication to understanding their materials—whether through one designer’s artistic approach to woodworking or another’s organic building methods—offers an alternative to the increasingly automated and standardized construction industry.

Community

Furthermore, the book’s documentation of community-based building practices resonates with contemporary movements toward collective housing solutions and cooperative living arrangements. The stories of builders helping one another, sharing knowledge, and creating spaces that foster community interaction provide valuable models for addressing today’s housing challenges.

In an age when digital technology often disconnects people from physical craft, Builders of the Pacific Coast reminds readers of the profound satisfaction and cultural significance of creating with one’s hands. The book’s relevance extends beyond architecture to touch on broader themes of cultural preservation, environmental responsibility, and community building—all critical issues in the current global dialogue about sustainable future development.

As society faces unprecedented challenges in housing, climate change, and cultural preservation, the wisdom captured in Lloyd’s work becomes increasingly valuable. These builders’ stories remind us that cultural heritage isn’t just about preserving the past—it’s about learning from it to create a more sustainable and connected future.

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. 

Are books like Small Homes, from Shelter Publications, helpful with today’s housing issues?

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.

The Crestone Energy Fair, celebrating its 35th year, is one of the longest-running sustainability fairs in the nation. The focus of the gathering is on “sharing innovative, sustainable, and regenerative ideas in construction, lifestyle, and community.” This free event, which will take place September 14th and 15th, features presentations, demonstrations, home tours, and vendors showcasing alternative building methods and materials, such as straw bales, Earthships, cordwood, and Hempcrete. Attendees will also learn about different electricity sources. In addition, the fair contains a Wellness Village and an Artisan Marketplace that will host music and yoga. 

Rooting Forward

This year’s theme is “Rooting Forward,” which is about “prioritizing our commitment to finding common ground, reaching across the aisle, and growing strong roots in order to move forward as a grounded, unified collective.”

Shelter Publications founder Lloyd Kahn will be one of the headline speakers at the fair. His presentation will cover what he’s learned over the years, including his experience editing the Whole Earth Catalog shelter section, interviewing and documenting builders, and the effect of the 1960s countercultural revolution on his life and work. 

Crestone Town

In a recent interview with Lloyd, he talked about Crestone as a town. 

“Crestone is a pretty cool town in Colorado where a lot of young people have gone. And that was the case in Bolinas in the 1970s. And there are these unique small towns in different states like Patagonia in Arizona or, you know, just a town that’s got something special and, often, the artists will be the first ones to discover it, and then more and more people do.”

Here is the official schedule of events with information on Lloyd’s talk on the Main Stage, scheduled for Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Crestone has a fantastic YouTube page with live broadcasts during the fair, as well as archives of past events. It’s worth checking out.

Visit crestoneenergyfair.org for all the details.

Tiny Homes Get All the Attention, but Small Homes Are What America Needs in a Housing Crisis 

The climate for building is so different in this country now than it was in the 1960s and ‘70s. It’s hard to believe that there was a time when people of moderate means could build their own homes, but that’s what it was like 50 or 60 years ago. You didn’t need a ton of money to survive during the year it might take to build your house.

Now, everything is ridiculous:

• Materials costs have skyrocketed.
• Bureaucrats have pushed fees into the stratosphere.
• Just plain living is so expensive.

And although I’ve generally been telling people that fixing up an old house in a city or a town is a good way to create a home nowadays, there are still people out there who want to build a house from scratch on a piece of land. And to you, brave souls in this day and age, here’s some advice.

To view the full post, check out Lloyd’s Substack post HERE. He goes on to talk about stud frame construction, rectangular design, how to waste less in/with your new home, and the relationship between the kitchen and the garden. He also provides links to two books: Shelter II and Small Homes.

Hi Lloyd,

I’ve been fascinated by handmade houses for years. I came across a book in the ’70s called The Wood Butcher’s Art. I now teach in a traditional school in India, and teach my students about such houses. With their help I made a house here in West Bengal from mostly local timber and I thought you might be interested. We have several of your books which are very inspiring. The boys made several models based on a reading of some of your books. If you are interested I can send more photos. The house was inspired by my travels in Cambodia, Thailand, and Assam.

I teach in a traditional school in West Bengal, India. We have international students and I wanted to show them that you can build a great house out of local renewable materials. The trees for the frame and most of the floors was all local. Many students came and helped me build the house. It took about two years. I wanted to use shingles for the roof, but we can’t get cedar here. So I had to invest quite a bit to make teak shingles, which were used historically in tropical places like Hawaii or Mauritius. The walls are made from ‘Slipstraw’ but we used the abundant eucalyptus sawdust that we generated instead of straw. We finished the walls with a lime sand plaster. It came out so well we had no need to paint. The wood was finished with a mix of local beeswax and pine turpentine.

The Bhaktivedanta Academy Gurukula, a traditional Vedic school with international students in West Bengal, India is helping to construct a series of houses for teachers. The boys of the academy spend a couple of hours each day learning basic construction methods based on age-old building traditions and using mostly local materials. The school’s oxen and horse also assist in the process. The boys are from all over the world: Russia, Ukraine, China, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, different parts of India, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. Before starting to build the boys spent several lessons studying your books, Builders of the Pacific Coast, Shelter 1-2, etc.

–Greg Clark

Sasha making pegs

This stunning off-the-grid home in Australia may be tiny, but it has a very big story to tell. Constructed as a do-it-yourself build by recent empty-nesters Jan and Kev, this tiny house is open, spacious very efficient and completely off the grid.

When the last of their adult children left home, Jan and Kev decided it was time to redesign their lives. Constructing a tiny house on wheels was a fantastic way of freeing up capital and living a more simple lifestyle which would give them plenty of opportunity to travel and focus on the things in life which are important to them.

The home was constructed as a DIY project as Jan and Kev got stuck into all aspects of the build themselves. With no prior building experience, the tiny house was certainly a challenging project and the couple admit there were more than a few arguments throughout the process including a few walk-offs. Ultimately though, together they have built a beautiful home which has taught the couple they really can achieve anything they set their minds to.

Even though it’s a tiny house, there’s still plenty of space for entertaining their family when they come over. The couple are currently expanding on their home by adding a large deck, which will be completely under cover giving a lot of additional outdoor living space to capitalize on the fabulous Queensland weather…

• From www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/…

Jay Nelson’s latest treehouse, now under construction in a redwood grove in Northern California. It’s about 10 by 11 feet in floor area. The round window pivots open on center pins. There are two climbing ropes attached high up so Jay and Max can work on the curved roof. Almost all the wood (except for floor framing and plywood sheathing) is used.