Natural Materials (313)

Cob House in Northern Spain

By Evan Kahn on June 28, 2016
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Dear Lloyd & Co,

I’ve been an admirer of your work since I came across the first Shelter book years and years ago. I wanted to send you a link to a self-published book that we’ve just brought out about our natural building & ecological learning project here in Northern Spain.

Our cob cabin was already featured on Lloyd’s Blog. 

The book’s available here: www.abrazohouse.org/… It’s in English and Spanish, free to view online or download. If you like it, share it or give it a mention on the blog!
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Categories: Natural Building, Tiny Homes  Tags: , ,
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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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