Since discovering straw bale construction in 1992, Catherine Wanek has traveled widely to spread the straw bale gospel, and documenting traditional and modern examples of natural building. She co-edited The Art of Natural Building in 2002, wrote and photographed The New Strawbale Home in 2003, and wrote The Hybrid House in 2010. Her photos are featured in Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter.
Shown above, Thierry Dronet built this fairy-tale hybrid of straw bales and cordwood masonry, topped with a “living roof,” as his workshop and stable for two horses in eastern France. Bale walls act to retain the hillside, with a plastic sheet barrier and a “French drain” to wick away moisture. Time will tell whether this practice is advised. Read More …
Bill Coperthwaite was a master yurt-builder/designer who was featured in Home Work. He died in 2013. Here is a selection of several of his wooden yurts.
The photo above and the two photos immediately below were Bill’s home in the Maine woods. It is 54 feet in diameter and was designed so it could be built over a period of several years and still provide shelter during the process. It is a tri-centric, or three-ring yurt with 2700 sq. ft. of floor space. You can first build the 16 ft. inner core as a room to move into. In the second stage, you can build the large sheltering roof over a gravel pad, allowing the major cost, floor construction, to be delayed. In the meantime you have a spacious area under roof that can be used for a workshop, greenhouse, garage, or for play.
Just thought you might like to see some photos of SunRay’s latest creation — a funky little treehouse nestled in ponderosa pine trees, built during the recent 20th anniversary Natural Building Colloquium in Kingston, New Mexico. I have a bunch of images on my website here: www.theyearofmud.com/blog
It’s a beautiful structure, particularly the roof. Hope you enjoy!
–Ziggy
Brian “Ziggy” Liloia
Natural Building Workshops & more
P.S.: By the way, I’m greatly looking forward to the next book!
Ian Ingersoll’s home, built of recycled barn timbers in the ’60s with help from his friends Caleb (center) and John Welles (right). The home burned down in the ’70s. This picture is the cover photo from our book Shelter II.
I met Mike B. when we started working on the Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move books. Amazing builder, snowboarder, traveller. This guy does it all, one of the most inspiring people I know. Here is a newly released video by GoPro and him detailing the build and trip to Alaska.
Situated just behind New Street Station, the Birmingham Back to Backs are nestled in the very heart of Birmingham and are a residue of the history of the city’s population over the past 150 years.
The Back to Backs were originally tiny houses literally built back to back to each other in different quarters. Within these quarters communities would form. They were built in the 1800s in order to provide homes for the ever increasing population of the Birmingham of the Industrial Revolution. The Back to Backs were still inhabited by residents until the 1960s and 1970s when most of the courts were demolished to make way for more modern accommodation. 10 years ago the National Trust acquired the city’s very last surviving court of Back to Back buildings and has been preserving them ever since, much to our advantage.
There are buildings that have — for lack of a better word — a sweetness to them. Like a small abandoned cottage in an English field I once found, slowly disintegrating back into the soil from which all its materials came. Inside, I could feel the lives that had been lived there. Or the buildings of master carpenter Lloyd House. It happens most frequently in barns, where practicality and experience create form with function. No architects needed, thank you. Read More …
Bill and Athena Steen, the straw bale/earthen plaster maestro/maestra team from Arizona are helping build this home, which will be featured in our new book, Small Homes.
Bill writes: “Interior adobe wall in a clay-plastered straw bale house we are helping our boys build in Sonoita, AZ.”
(Bill shoots pretty much all his photos with an iPhone — has been doing it for a few years. I’ve finally come around to doing this. Both of us still use the big cameras (him a Nikon, me an Olympus OM-D) for serious shoots, but the iPhone for everyday shots. The new iPhone 6s Plus has a super new camera.)
Yogan and Menthé, carpenters from France, who have been featured in our last two books, stopped by here yesterday on their way home. They have spent the last three months hitchhiking and working on the West Coast, from Northern California up to Orcas Island. Kindred spirits, these two have had a wonderful time, working with a variety of people, trading work for room and board.
We’ll be posting photos of their projects in the near future.
I was shooting photos of the old one and Louie said, “Hey, the one across the street is identical.” Sure enough. Twins. On the ocean side of the highway in Fort Bragg.
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.
