Natural Building (97)

Will Beemer of The Heartwood School for the Homebuilding Crafts was kind enough to send us this amazing book on learning to build using the timber framing technique. I have always been amazed by this particular process of framing, watched a ton of YouTube videos on builds using this technique, but never really understood the process fully.

I now know about wood selection, the tools needed, layout and cutting, framing, sills, joists, braces, etc. This book gave me a great starting point for using timber frame building techniques. Thank you so much Will! Can’t wait to start a project!

• You can find a copy of the book at www.amazon.com/…

Hey there!

Well, it’s happened twice now. Just as you publish a book on a subject, I finish a project that might have sat nicely in your book!

First one was my tiny home dome, released just after your book Tiny Homes. 

Then coincidently I purchased and moved onto my 38 ft. narrowboat just as you released Tiny Homes on the Move. 

Now. I have just finished creating this 40m² / 430 sq. ft. straw bale house with my new company, Hartwyn. The building is named Ty Twt — Welsh for “small home.”

It was an interesting project, where we offered the entire build as a training program. We took a group of mixed-skill interns through the entire building process in 12 weeks.

We used local straw, dug our site clay for plasters, and the timber was (mostly) all milled locally. It boasts a green roof, composting toilet, tadelakt shower (Moroccan lime plaster), and greywater system.

I have attached some pictures, and have high-res ones if you would like. But all of the information is on our site with a nifty little time-lapse of the whole process!

Hope this is of some interest!

–Jeffrey

“As I was finishing it, nailing the last shake on the roof, a surveyor came along.” Bad news: The building was completely on his neighbors’ land. What else to do but move it? He jacked up the building, slid four logs underneath, put axle grease on them, and with a come-along, a 5-wheel block and tackle, and 1″ steel cable, skidded the building up onto the logs, onto four other logs and then onto the repositioned original logs, a distance of 70 feet onto his own property.

• Jan’s buildings are featured in our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast.

Ruby Lake, BC, Canada Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• Featured in our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast

Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• shelterpub.tumblr.com

Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• www.instagram.com/…

I had to share some of the driftwood shacks my daughter and I found at Moolack Beach in Newport, OR recently. All of your books have brought me so much joy. Thank you!

–Joyce Welsh
Portland, OR

• www.lloydkahn.com/…

Driftwood shelter on the Northern Coast of California. Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• shelterpub.tumblr.com