I really like this. The curved roofs, the corrugated siding (never needs paint), the nifty balconies, the alternating symmetries.
Kudos to the good architects, of whom there are unfortunately few these days.
The first part of the complete reorganization of our “social media” is now up and running: shelterpub.tumblr.com. To start, we’ve posted 10 photos from our building books. This was set up by Sean Hellfritsch. Tumblr will be our photography platform.
We have over 7,000 photos in our 6 building books, and I have something like 15,000 photos (film and digital) dating back to the ’60s, maybe a third of them on building(s).
We are currently working on redesign of my blog, The Shelter Blog (this blog), Twitter and Facebook pages, Shelter’s website, and getting Instagram rolling.
With all this going on, I’m not posting very often these days, but I intend to get rolling with Instagram soon, and coordinate my Instagram photos with this blog.
Stay tuned.
From www.lloydkahn.com/…
Hi Lloyd,
My name is Atulya K. Bingham and I run The Mud earthbag building website (www.themudhome.com). I hope my story inspires a few others to go for their dreams too.
I always wanted to write, and like many writers it was a passion I had to crowbar in between slabs of paid work. Then one day I had enough of compromising. Fortunately, I owned a small square of land in Turkey. I moved up there with a tent and not much else. It was the beginning of an adventure that changed every preconceived idea about what actually made me happy. Six months later, with only $6000 left and winter a month away, I gathered a team and embarked on the construction of a small earthbag house. I had zero building experience at the time.
Building my house was probably the most transformative thing I’ve ever taken on (and I’m no stranger to adventure). I ran out of money, made a heap of mistakes and was continually hounded by naysayers. But today I’m sitting inside that beautiful handcrafted home. Not one drop of cement was used and it is 100% solar-powered. My earthbag house has enabled me to leave behind the drudge of a job my heart wasn’t in and spend my days creating and writing instead. I love it.
There’s a free earthbag building PDF to download from my site if anyone wants it.
I’ve written the full story of the earthbag adventure in my popular book, Mud Ball.
–Atulya K. Bingham
Author of the OBBL winner Ayse’s Trail, and The Mud website.… [More in full article] …
At the end of tiny road, after another one of those roundabouts, lays a spectacular garden, then an abandoned castle, then a huge German bunker, then the Orangerie and finally, what I am really impatient to visit: the Mémoire de Soye two “baraques,” the French one — the 534-10 — and the American one — the famous UK100 we also had in the UK (about 8,000 were imported from America in 1946). I am amazed by all the work Mémoire de Soye has put in the dismantling of the prefabs, their re-assembling on a land which used to count 286 of them till 1991 when the last ones were pulled down! Then they transformed the two prefabs into wonderful cosy and cute museums, trying hard and succeeding in finding the right pieces of furniture, the memorabilia etc…
Article from www.theaccidentalphotographer.me/…
Brad Kittel from the Tiny Homes book (pages 44-49 and on the cover) has started a Kickstarter campaign for a book of plans for 30 houses built of 95% salvaged materials free of plastic, vinyl, sheetrock, or latex paints. Check it out.
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/318443601/tiny-texas-houses-building-plans
Nine years ago I began pioneering the 95% Pure Salvage Building techniques that have been perfected over the years in the form of Tiny Texas Houses. They are now built using “Space Magic,” a term I coined for making spaces seem much bigger than they are through illusions of a sort few others in the tiny house industry seem to understand. Read More …
Hey Evan, I thought you and the rest of the Shelter team might get a bang out of a project I’m finishing up.
My inspiration for this tiny shelter was of course J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and his description of the shire the homeland of the Hobbit. I also drew from my fascination with small wooden sailboat cabins. Intended to go in my living room to act as a reading/napping nook next to a fireplace. I believe foolishness is a much neglected feature in modern design. The act of not taking yourself to seriously is an art and I intend on surrounding myself with it.
–Tohner Jackson
For more info and foolishness, check out:
www.instagram.com/onetreewoodwork
Thanks Tohner, looks great!
Yogan is an accomplished timber framer (and treehouse builder) from France. His work has appeared in our last two books. He will be traveling along the West Coast this summer and wants to hook up with builders, homeowners, homesteaders, and/or people of like interests. He’s open to any kind of arrangement, including working for room and/or board.
You can check out his work here: yogan.over-blog.com
From Yogan:
Hi, friend builders, carpenters, inventors…
I’m Yogan, a carpenter of Southwest France,
I’m coming in August, September and October to walk on the West Coast, from California to Seattle. My goal is to meet, visit, help, places and people where there are amazing shelters, cabins — in the woods, if possible.
If I could find a community of carpenters living in cabins in the forest, it would be perfect!
I’d also like to go to any carpenters’ or timber framers’ meetings.
I will be hitchhiking frequently with my backpack and accordion!
You can email me at: Yogan Carpenter <yogancarpenter@gmail.com>
Kirsten Dirksen
Photo by Nicolás Boullosa
Kirsten walked in the first time and within 5 minutes, was shooting. We were comfortable with her. She winged it, seeing what we were doing, following us around. On one of her visits, her two little long-haired girls explored the garden and chickens and Nicolás shot photos.
…[more on full post page]…
One thing I love about this video is that she recognized what Lesley is doing in her life and with her garden, her art, and her attitude towards a home. Often that gets missed in people coming here to see me.
Read More …
Now here’s some carpentry!
Underhill is an incredible hobbit-home eco-cave house built into a hillside. The off-the-grid house is cleverly constructed to resemble a cave. With no electricity in the house, the stone, wood and rustic features truly make you feel like you’re stepping back in time.
For more information on this house, visit www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com.
One of the most common questions we get asked is “How do I learn how to build a tiny home?” A very superior answer would be the Yestermorrow School in Waitsfield, Vermont offering over 100 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft including a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design and green building. Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Hands-on courses are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country.
Read More …
Les Tit’B Libres is a group of young French artists living communally in handmade structures, such as this cob home with a reciprocal roof.
See more of their free lifestyle at titblibre.garagepunks.com.
To build a reciprocal roof, we first install a temporary central pillar on which the first chevron is placed. The height of this pillar depends on the roof pitch.The following rafters are then placed to support the one on the other. The last chevron place above the penultimate and below the first one. They are then attached to each other and the central pillar is removed. If only one of the rafters breaks, the whole structure collapses. Read More …
This is SunRay’s newest down-drafting sauna with a stove built from salvaged materials. The fire box is a 20″-diameter stainless steel piece from an industrial heating system. The heat riser is housed inside an old propane tank.
Flue gases spiral and rise until they hit the top of the tank and then are forced down between the heat riser and the tank until they are vented out the spiral chimney made of flexible stainless steel ducting.
Read More …
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