A dome made of cob, earth bags, light straw clay, and adobe in the high desert of Southern California.
This is Sneak Preview #7 from our forthcoming book, Small Homes, to be published in October, 2016.
Farm building in Ireland with huge (4′ × 6′ or so) roof tiles split from local stone, from our book Shelter. Photo by Lloyd Kahn.
I built a hut with a tiled roof, underfloor heating and mud and stone walls. This has been my most ambitious primitive project yet and was motivated by the scarcity of permanent roofing materials in this location. Here, palm thatch decays quickly due to the humidity and insects. Having some experience in making pottery I wondered if roof tiles could feasibly be made to get around these problems. Another advantage of a tiled roof is that it is fireproof. A wood-fired, underfloor heating system was installed for cold weather. A substantial wall of mud and stone were built under the finished roof. It should be obvious that this is not a survival shelter but a project used to develop primitive technological skills.
From primitivetechnology.wordpress.com/…
From Rick Gordon
Photo by Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan)
www.unclemud.com
Lime over wattle and daub with hand-split cedar shakes.
Student independent study project by Ian Stabler at Aprovecho’s Natural Building School.
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 …
My wood-artist friend Duncan, tells of the temple builders in Japan. They go to the forest to find the temple. When found, ceremonies are performed amidst the trees. Then the builders relocate the temple from the forest to the population center. I consider myself (and likely delude myself) creating on that level — finding the house in the forest, asking permission, seeking willingness, then moving the house from the forest to the brow of the hill.
30 years ago, I was gifted a scroll from Japan by a friend who studied there. It depicted dozens of people moving a huge log with rollers, ropes and oxen. In turn, because of his interest in Japanese woodworking, tools and culture, I gave the scroll to Duncan who kept in on a low table in his temple office with other treasures of wood and art and spirit.
A room with a wooden ceiling, curved in a soft barrel vault, emerged from a deep place in my heart. With this internal picture, I went for a walk in the snowy, hickory woods, searching for this room. Because hickory trees grow straight and tall, the likelihood of finding a curved one for the ceiling was slim, and two beams with the same curve pushed the dream into the realm of unrealistic. But dreams are to pursue, explore, manifest.
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!
A submission for our Small Homes book.
Hello,
For consideration in Small Homes.
Northwest Washington: 940 sq. ft. octagonal cedar home featuring wrap-around deck, open floor plan, natural lighting, wood heat, domestic rainwater catchment system, composting toilet, all-wood interior and non-toxic construction. 1 bed, 1 bath. Separate 96 sq. ft. guest cabin/bedroom.
–Mark & Ruthie T-K
Summon the word “homestead” and you likely think of hardy farmers with 10 or more acres on which they keep livestock, grow and preserve a great deal of their own food, and fell trees to build their homes. But more modest-sized homesteads are more attainable for most people, and these smaller-scale acreages can embody old-school homesteading in principle, if not in scope. Our half-acre homestead is one of those. Following are some of the most useful tools and techniques that have made Lesley’s and my 40-year journey toward greater self-sufficiency possible.
Sent to us by Conor McBrierty :
A young family is making a last-ditch effort to save its cherished “hobbit house” from the bulldozers after planners deemed it had to be razed.
Charlie Hague and Megan Williams used natural materials to lovingly build their roundhouse tucked away in southwest Wales. But the pair, both 27, applied for planning permission only after moving in with their newborn son, Eli, in 2012.
Though many local people did not even know the small building was there, planners ruled the house did not fit in with the surrounding Pembrokeshire countryside and decided it had to go.
My first building in 1961, in Mill Valley, California, a studio with what is now called a “living roof”
I actually started building in 1960 and soon thereafter started shooting photos and interviewing builders for our series of books on handmade housing. In those days we didn’t call it “natural building,” but that’s what it was. In our book Shelter in 1973, a section of the book was devoted to these materials: wood, adobe, stone, straw bale, thatch, and bamboo. I guess we were natural before it was called “natural.”
A month or so ago, Cheryl Long, the editor at The Mother Earth News, asked me if I could do a talk on natural building at the TMEN fair in Albany, Oregon (near Corvallis) on the first weekend in June. As I was getting the materials together, the Maker Faire asked if I could do a presentation at their annual event in San Mateo, California, on May 16.
Read More …
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