Building (356)

Stone Cottage Overlooking Sea on Scottish Island

By Lloyd Kahn on June 5, 2016
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Everything here is perfect. It’s one of the buildings where I just say to myself, oh yeah! The rounded, angled-out corners, the proportions, the deep wall openings, the red roof.

According to an historical account which I read, some 14 farm families were forced to leave their land by landlords in the mid-1800s, and resettled on a more remote and less fertile part of the island. This is one of the dwellings; in its day, it would have had a thatched roof.

And with this I conclude posts from Scotland. I’m back in the saddle at home and back at work on Small Homes.
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Categories: Natural Building, Small Homes  Tags: ,
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Black-and-White Photos of '60s Back-to-Land Communes in New Mexico

By Lloyd Kahn on June 1, 2016
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No one captured the spirit and essence of the ’60s southwest American communes better than Irwin Klein. With a Leica, black and white film, and natural lighting, he created an authentic and artistic record of this unique and short-lived period of back-to-the-land ’60s idealism.

Poet Gary Snyder, in Earth House Hold, described the ’60s communards: “Men, women and children — all of whom together hoped to follow the timeless path of love and wisdom, in affectionate company with sky, wind, clouds, trees, waters, animals, and grasses — this is the drive.”

In this newly-published book, you can see the optimism, the earnestness, and yes, the impracticalities of these young, mostly urban people who left the cities for the harsh climate of the high desert of New Mexico. Irwin was a photographer who was obviously in tune with his subjects, and they with him, so you are getting an inside look at a period now lost in time, with these spare and insightful photos.

Categories: Farming, Gardening, Natural Building  Tags: , ,
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Lloyd Kahn Talks Shelter in Kirkcaldy

By Evan Kahn on May 11, 2016
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I have been looking forward to this for a while and it was not a disappointment! Lloyd Kahn is in the back of many self-builders’ cerebral toolboxes for his seminal works as Editor-in-Chief of Shelter Publications, California. His 1973 book Shelter is an incredibly detailed catalogue of building techniques through the ages, illustrated with the personal stories and evocative photos of small houses and cabins collected on his travels throughout the USA and Canada as well as Ireland and the UK…

Categories: Architecture, Carpentry, Farming, Gardening, Natural Building  Tags: ,
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40 ft. Small Shipping Container Home

By Evan Kahn on May 7, 2016


When we first met Brenda Kelly from IQ Container Homes, she was living in a brilliantly designed 20 ft. shipping container home. Since then, she has completed her slightly larger shipping container home, which is constructed from a 40 ft. and 20 ft. shipping container that have been joined together.

Immediately, it’s hard to miss many of the similarities between her new home, and the (much tinier) predecessor. Similar details and colour features run throughout the new home, as can be seen in this very modern and well designed kitchen. As Brenda says though, why change a good thing?

Categories: Tiny Homes  Tags: ,
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