Natural Homes: techniques, solutions and beautiful images

Natural homes can be such beautiful, timeless, welcoming and restful places to be. If you have ever had the opportunity to visit, live or stay in a natural home, you might well understand what I am saying here. :sun:

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I have always seen the home as a natural extension of one's self, and when you are living in a space that feels warm, homely, comfortable and is aesthetically pleasing, you can't help but feel good inside.

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Natural homes, in addition to being practical, energy efficient, cost affordable (depending on how you build) and earth-friendly can also be whimsical, highly personalised and can incorporate recycled natural materials.

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Over many years now, I have been deeply interested in mastering the art of natural living and in particular, in building my own natural home and helping others to do the same.

When I first started to think about building a natural home, it all seemed rather daunting at first. When I first took the plunge to build my own home with natural materials, I often wondered what I had gotten myself into.

I didn't have any experience whatsoever (apart from a few workshops and building an earth dome) and I had only the most rudimentary of carpentry skills. However, what I soon discovered was that as long as you have two hands, an imagination, the time, the access to resources, and some helping friends along the way, almost anyone who is willing to have a go at it, can build a natural home.

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Our living room wall being plastered with cob with a little help from a friend:)

I'm still the amateur when it comes to building; I've made a few mistakes along the way and there were many times when I had to improvise (too many times to count!) but I soon learned that Mother natures materials are very forgiving, and this was a really crucial factor in helping to build my confidence. If you have ever played with clay, you will know what I am talking about.

When it comes to experimenting with creating something new, the beauty of working with natural materials is that they are very pliable/flexible in their nature. Natural materials like cob, strawbales, light clay straw, hempcrete, bamboo and wood can bend and mould into different shapes and forms; you are only ever limited by your imagination as to what you can create. So you can play, you can get really creative with what you are doing and at the end of the day, if something hasn't worked out, you can simply reuse or repurpose the material, or if it is not working out at all, return it to the earth!

Many countries experience housing shortages for many reasons, poverty, war, uninhabitable spaces, lack of land, environmental disasters and overcrowding, (forgive me if I have missed anything here).

Mother Earth needs us now more than ever to be building natural homes.

Whilst we can never return to being cavemen, we can look to the most natural solutions that are most harmonious to us all. We need to build more homes made or derived out of natural materials local to our area (vernacular), materials that are 100% biodegradable, and cost-effective. As my favourite natural builder Sigo Koko says, "Build like you give a damn!"

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Building a natural home can also be a community builder. Natural building takes time and when you invite your local community, friends and family to participate, it can also be a lot of fun. It is a project that can bring people together, create common ground and saves on labour costs.

To build, or to live in a natural home has the potential to bring so many rewards for not just our generation, but for many future generations to come.

We also need to consider, the mini ice age that will be here in our lifetime. We are going to be needing homes that are well insulated and well built. The thick walls of many different types of natural homes such as strawbale can keep a house passively warm in winter with minimal heating required.

See these threads here for more information about the coming mini ice age.

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...over-the-world

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show....-is-it-a-scam

I do hope to inspire someone along the way, even if it is to begin the first step in considering the relationship that we have between ourselves, our homes and Mother Nature. I feel that the further that we distance ourselves from living in harmony with nature, the further we have distanced ourselves from being able to live in peace, to return to our natural state, and to well and truly know who we are.

I would love to share all the resources I have gathered, share all the practical advice and solutions I have received from those who have trodden the path before me, share practical how-to video's, contribute some of my own unique ideas, and share beautiful photographs of some of the most inspiring natural homes I have seen from the past and present.

I would also like to invite you to share your own building experiences, your natural homes and things you have learned here too! :star:

thanks for sharing, here are some examples of ancient ways of building but operating in the present day.

I prefer to live in a house with lots of air circulating The more I'm expose to the elements of nature the healthier I become. Of course freezing is not a concern in our place. I dont normally sleep in the family house I normally have a makeshift house at the back with 3 walls or a portion of roof open.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/15DgbzQmpsU/maxresdefault.jpg

Alyoshas USA workshops in February might be of interest:
https://www.bioveda.co/usa-tour?inf_...c0223e68310bb1

These are beautiful buildings Spade. :flower: The use of catenary arches and is that sandstone I see for the walls?

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Posted by Bubu

I prefer to live in a house with lots of air circulating The more I'm expose to the elements of nature the healthier I become. Of course freezing is not a concern in our place. I dont normally sleep in the family house I normally have a makeshift house at the back with 3 walls or a portion of roof open.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/15DgbzQmpsU/maxresdefault.jpg

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Bubu, that is really wonderful that you are so close to nature. Is that your home?

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Posted by Constance

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Posted by Bubu

I prefer to live in a house with lots of air circulating The more I'm expose to the elements of nature the healthier I become. Of course freezing is not a concern in our place. I dont normally sleep in the family house I normally have a makeshift house at the back with 3 walls or a portion of roof open.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/15DgbzQmpsU/maxresdefault.jpg

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Bubu, that is really wonderful that you are so close to nature. Is that your home?

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Nope I use to have one very similar but much bigger back in 2005 to 2010 I dont have a camera back then so no photos. :(

Natural materials tend to be on the bulky/heavy side and transportation costs can become extremely prohibitive as a result. It is best to use local materials if you are building with natural materials.

You can often obtain local materials at a very low cost, or if you use the earth beneath your feet, it can be free!

These are some of the different types of materials you can find being used to build natural buildings around the world.

Walls and structures

Adobe or cob - walls built out of the earth and water, sometimes using organic material such as straw or dung.

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Bamboo

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Cordwood

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Caves

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Earthbags - hemp bags filled with earth or cob

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Hempbale - hemp bales covered in lime render

Mud brick or adobe bricks - mud packed into formwork and dried in the sun

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Rammed earth - soil packed into formwork

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Stone

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Strawbale - strawbales tied together and covered in cob or lime render

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Turf - homes built from wood/earth and then covered in Turf

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Hempcrete - composed of lime and hemp hurds and then rendered in lime render. Hempcrete originated in France

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Light straw clay - straw and clay packed into formwork between timber studs and then rendered with cob or lime.

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Underground homes- underground structures built by removing rock

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Wattle and daub - woven structures packed with cob

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Compressed earth bricks

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What is COB?

Cal Earth in the desert of California. They have a variety of different structures and classes to learn how to build them. At the time I went there about 12 years ago it would cost about $6000 to build one but it would take about 4 connected together for a living space.

They build them in disaster areas all over the world.

https://www.calearth.org/superadobe-structures-calearth

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Posted by amor

What is COB?

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Hi Amor:waving:

Cob is a mixture of soil, water and organic matter, (such as straw). Soil quality can and will vary, so to improve a cob mix, sand and clay are sometimes added.

It is a lot of fun building with cob as long as you are not building a large house. If anyone has seen Kevin Macleods Grand Design episode on the 10,000 square foot (929 square metres) Cob House they will know what I am talking about.

To mix cob effortlessly, you can use your feet! The technical term is called, cob stomping :)

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Here is a short video describing the benefits of cob.

Main take home points:

• It is completely environmentally friendly.
• It is very hands-on type of work, labour intensive - a great family and community builder.
• It can cost you almost nothing to build with cob.
• It is super-durable and strong. (providing that it has a good top hat and good foundations)
• It can be extremely efficient to heat.
• It is termite and fire proof. (and depending on how you build, earthquake proof)
• You can shape cob into any form you like.
• You can use cob to support load bearing materials eg. roofs
• There are many earthern homes around the world that have lasted for centuries.
• It can be challenging to build a natural home built with cob due to conventional building/government regulations.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CWuHQOvNRDw

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Posted by latte

Cal Earth in the desert of California. They have a variety of different structures and classes to learn how to build them. At the time I went there about 12 years ago it would cost about $6000 to build one but it would take about 4 connected together for a living space.

They build them in disaster areas all over the world.

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Latte, I've also had experience with building one of these shelters myself. The only issue I can see with adopting this method is the extensive use of plastic bags. Because of that alone, I wouldn't place it in the category of a "natural home". However, upon saying that, in emergency situations, a Cal Earth shelter would be perfect.
I have seen Earthbag shelters made out of hemp but how well the structure would hold together once the hemp biodegrades is anyones guess.
One would be better off building a cob dome maybe just because of how the straw/clay binds and holds everything together? The only issue I see with cob domes is that under high rainfall, the cob render will eventually become compromised and degrade.

A Pattern Language is a valuable book for anyone planning to build a home or a community. This beautiful and timeless book is still used by architects today.

You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction.

After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language.

At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people.

At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a form, a system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment.

"Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.

Some snippets from the book.

Pattern language # 133
Staircases as a stage

A staircase is not just a way of getting from one floor to another. The stair is itself a space, a volume, a part of the building; and unless this space is made to live, it will be a dead spot, and work to disconnect the building and to tear its processes apart.


Place the main stair in a key position, central and visible. Treat the whole staircase as a room (or if it is outside, as a courtyard.) Arrange it so the stair and the room are one, with the stair coming down around one or two walls of the room. Flare out the bottom of the stair with open windows or balustrades and with wide steps so that the people coming down the stair become part of the action in the room while they are on the stair, and so that people below will naturally use the stair for seats.


Pattern language # 197
Thick walls

Houses with smooth hard walls made of prefabricated panels, concrete, gypsum, steel, aluminium, or glass always stay impersonal and dead. Open your mind to the possibility that the walls of your building can be thick, can occupy a substantial volume - even actual usable space - and need not be merely thin membranes which have no depth. Decide where these thick walls ought to be.

Pattern language # 202
Built-in seats

Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious. But often they do not actually work. They are placed wrong, or are too narrow, or the back does not slope, or the view is wrong, or the seat is too hard. This pattern tells you what to do to make a built-in seat that really works.

Pattern language #203
Child caves

Wherever children play, around the house, in the neighbourhood, in schools, make small "caves" for them. Tuck these caves away in natural leftover spaces, under stairs, under kitchen counters. Keep the ceiling heights low - 2 feet 6 inches to 4 feet - and the entrance tiny.


Pattern language # 204
Secret place

Make a place in the house, perhaps only a few feet square, which is kept locked and secret; a place which is virtually impossible to discover - until you have been shown where it is; a place where the archives of the house, or other more potent secrets, might be kept.

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Posted by Constance

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Posted by amor

What is COB?

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Hi Amor:waving:

Cob is a mixture of soil, water and organic matter, (such as straw). Soil quality can and will vary, so to improve a cob mix, sand and clay are sometimes added.

It is a lot of fun building with cob as long as you are not building a large house. If anyone has seen Kevin Macleods Grand Design episode on the 10,000 square foot (929 square metres) Cob House they will know what I am talking about.

To mix cob effortlessly, you can use your feet! The technical term is called, cob stomping :)

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Here is a short video describing the benefits of cob.

Main take home points:

• It is completely environmentally friendly.
• It is very hands-on type of work, labour intensive - a great family and community builder.
• It can cost you almost nothing to build with cob.
• It is super-durable and strong. (providing that it has a good top hat and good foundations)
• It can be extremely efficient to heat.
• It is termite and fire proof. (and depending on how you build, earthquake proof)
• You can shape cob into any form you like.
• You can use cob to support load bearing materials eg. roofs
• There are many earthern homes around the world that have lasted for centuries.
• It can be challenging to build a natural home built with cob due to conventional building/government regulations.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CWuHQOvNRDw

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someone has to come up with a cob mixer then it would be a lot easier to build with cob and save the foot.

already have one

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5cHBpOviwvc

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZdFEmye_JRo

http://ilovecob.com/archive/auger-mixer

Concerning Cob housing. The best way to do this and it is purely natural, Is to do the mixing with bare feet. One gets to feel the earth between their toes while they are stomping the mud mix. The most important part of this is to have two pits, One full of grapes that you get folks in a community minded way to stomp the fruit into wine while the other groups stomp the mud mixture. This way everybody gets happy and the building moves right along. Do not mix the mud stompers with the grape stompers though, could make the wine a bit gritty.

Concerning the codes of local and state authorities. All of the above structures built with the natural materials have been around for 1000's of years and there are many of these types of structures still standing today. The building codes did not come about until 1927 in the United states and the book was very thin and small. It was created more by the Fire departments at the time. These codes were more or less for Fire, Life and Safety. simply because of all the big devasting fires in the big cities like New York and Chicago. I could talk alot about the codes and will later. The long story short of this happenstance was to turn the standard natural building materials into an alternative way to build while the codes required people to ask permission to build on their property and use the only materials that became mandated by the government. I will discuss the alternative materials later and how the codes regulate them in the United States.

Steven

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Posted by Lost N Found

Concerning Cob housing. The best way to do this and it is purely natural, Is to do the mixing with bare feet. One gets to feel the earth between their toes while they are stomping the mud mix.

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It's quite healing (the mud) and meditative too. And fun! Mud fights anyone? :p

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The most important part of this is to have two pits, One full of grapes that you get folks in a community minded way to stomp the fruit into wine while the other groups stomp the mud mixture. This way everybody gets happy and the building moves right along. Do not mix the mud stompers with the grape stompers though, could make the wine a bit gritty.

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:bigsmile: I'll take my grape juice fresh, on the rocks.

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I will discuss the alternative materials later and how the codes regulate them in the United States.

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Thanks for this Steven :flower: Greatly appreciated.

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Posted by Lost N Found

All of the above structures built with the natural materials have been around for 1000's of years and there are many of these types of structures still standing today.

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A shout out here to all my beloved Iranian friends :waving:

Take this ancient refridgerator in Yakhchāl (Yakhchāl means ice pit) in Iran for example

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Or this ancient Windmill in Nashtifan Iran. The windmills at Nashtifan are believed to have been built during the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736) and are among the oldest in the world.

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Posted by Bubu

already have one

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5cHBpOviwvc

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZdFEmye_JRo

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Thanks for sharing Bubu :highfive:

By the way, I really liked your thread on Nature :flower:

After having mixed a few hundred batches of clay, I can certainly appreciate how an electric mixer might be welcome!

I have to admit, I tried using an electric mixer at the beginning of the build but in the end, I actually found it more effortless to mix the cob in the traditional way? It just seemed more intuitive and I could get a real feeling for how well the cob mix was coming together?

One more natural building technique before I introduce the next section, Foundations, Frames, Floors and Roofs.

This is a Mud and Stud home. Mud & Stud is a construction technique found almost exclusively in Lincolnshire, UK where the timber frame has nailed, vertical laths between the studs. The mud of earth mixed with chopped straw and water is applied in layers and lime wash containing fat or oil seals the exterior.


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[QUOTE=Constance;1272778]

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Posted by Bubu

I have to admit, I tried using an electric mixer at the beginning of the build but in the end, I actually found it more effortless to mix the cob in the traditional way? It just seemed more intuitive and I could get a real feeling for how well the cob mix was coming together?

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Yep if I want some exercise of the body and relaxation of the mind I would do it manually. But it almost instantly hit me that if I can create an easy way to make the cob, earth house can be mass produce. I have played the cob in concrete mixer in my mind and I must agree with one of the vids. Its not good for cob making. The creation of a much better one specifically for cob is underway (inside my head). I want this cob house to be exploited it will help lots of people.

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Posted by Constance

lime wash containing fat or oil seals the exterior.


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I'm curious how this is created. Is it for waterproofing so the rain wont wash off the earth/mud? Water proofing is my real concern? have I missed it?

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Posted by Bubu

But it almost instantly hit me that if I can create an easy way to make the cob, earth house can be mass produce.

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I've been following this with great interest. WASP, based in Italy, have produced the first ever 3D printed Cob home. Their aim is to eventually provide mass produced Cob homes around the world.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KPaOCWrZJ94

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The creation of a much better one specifically for cob is underway (inside my head). I want this cob house to be exploited it will help lots of people.

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That is wonderful Bubu! If you feel like you can share here, I am sure that a great many would be interested in your thoughts and ideas. :)

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Posted by Bubu

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Posted by Constance

lime wash containing fat or oil seals the exterior.


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I'm curious how this is created. Is it for waterproofing so the rain wont wash off the earth/mud? Water proofing is my real concern? have I missed it?

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The exterior is painted with lime-wash which would have been given an animal fat or linseed oil additive for weatherproofing, so in essence, yes, it is for waterproofing to prevent pitting and deterioration of the cob.

If you are really concerned about waterproofing, it is highly essential to have a good top hat (roof). A roof that has extended eaves like this

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can mitigate any issues of rain falling directly upon the cob, combined with a high foundation to protect the bottom of the wall.

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Posted by Constance

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Posted by

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The creation of a much better one specifically for cob is underway (inside my head). I want this cob house to be exploited it will help lots of people.

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That is wonderful Bubu! If you feel like you can share here, I am sure that a great many would be interested in your thoughts and ideas. :)

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Yes I definitely will post here a working prototype. I included this to my priority list of devices to create. Aside from being a builder I also make customize equipment for a living. So this is pretty under my line.
One question that lingers in my mind, How do they take care of shrinkage since mud tends to shrink a lot during drying.

Foundations

The “7th generation” principle taught by Native Americans says that in every decision, be it personal or in community, we must consider how it will affect our descendents seven generations into the future.

When we are building a home, not only do we need to consider what is essential to us, we also need to consider the environment and future generations. One of the most fundamental structures of your home is the foundation upon which it stands on.

The purpose of any foundation is to support and distribute the loads (weight) of the building to the ground in a stable manner so that there is no uneven settling and to extend your building stucture to stable earth.

It is always worth consulting with a local structural engineer to get the foundation design right. It will be money worth spent and you will be sure of having a home that will stand for many centuries to come.

Many factors can influence what type of foundation you build your home upon. Soil type, climate variations, topography, weather, cost, tree roots, flooding, bushfires.

There are many foundation options to accomplish this.


Rubble trench foundations

The main benefits of a Rubble trench foundation is that it acts like a drain, so it takes all water away. Water freezing is what causes foundations to heave/move and the site disturbance is limited to just below the building footprint. What this means is that there is no overdigging and no backfill. You can also greatly reduce or eliminate the need for any concrete.

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In conjunction with a rubble trench foundation, natural owner builders will often lay French drains. French drains are a trench filled with gravel or rock or containing a perforated pipe that redirects surface water and groundwater away from an area. A French drain can have perforated hollow pipes along the bottom to quickly vent water that seeps down through the upper gravel or rock.

French drains are primarily used to prevent ground and surface water from penetrating or damaging building foundations.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=k7goh7iDCx0

Stone (dry or lime mortared)

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Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mxrip_vr6wE

Posts/Pillars/Stumps

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Pouring hotlime on a post

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Bamboo Poles/Stilts

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Posted by Bubu

Yes I definitely will post here a working prototype. I included this to my priority list of devices to create. Aside from being a builder I also make customize equipment for a living. So this is pretty under my line.

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I'm very excited to hear this Bubu! I will look forward to seeing your working prototype! :clapping:

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One question that lingers in my mind, How do they take care of shrinkage since mud tends to shrink a lot during drying.

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There are always variabilities in timing a build and especially when building with cob. Cob homes are what I call "slow homes". They take time to build but they are worth it. Many of the natural builders that I know have taken at least a couple of years before they have finished their homes.

The type of soil you use, any aggregates or binders you use will also influence shrinkage. I have read somewhere that adding aggregates reduces the amount of shrinkage but I could be wrong there?

Hopefully this article will answer your question.

"...Well, the fact that it is mixed wet means in a thick wall it will take some months (depending on site conditions usually 6-9 months) after building, for the walls to finish shrinking. Most of the shrinkage will occur in the height of the wall, this means in practice waiting around a week of good weather between each lift (a lift being two feet or so in height) before it is sufficiently dry and strong to take the next lift. Therefore three months is ample time, allowing for a typical English summer to build a two-story building. Although the roof structure can go on a week after the wall plate height is reached it’s best to wait about six months before fitting windows and door frames, otherwise there is a danger of the reveals either side of the opening shrinking and then the lintel crushing the window frame. This means it is usually fifteen months from start to finishing a cob house.

Over the last twelve years I have built over fifteen buildings of one sort or another and all of them except two rather complex split-level part-retaining walled buildings have been finished well within this time frame. Although this is longer than a typical new estate house, it’s not actually especially long for any bespoke one off design building. It’s also worth noting if any green oak is used in the structure for lintels or roof structure then this will continue to shrink for much longer than the cob (about one year per inch thickness of timber)."

This article is intended for those who live in the UK, so for the Phillipines, drying times may be shorter or longer, depending on what time of the year you build? I assume you have rainy seasons that may prevent you from actively building with cob during those periods? :raining:

It is a good idea to cover unfinished cob homes during rainy periods with tarps although I have seen builders who haven't bothered to cover their cob with mixed results.


Two books here that might be helpful to you Bubu

1. "Building Green, A Complete How-To Guide to Alternative Building Methods", Earth Plaster, Straw Bale, Cord-wood, Cob, Living Roofs by Clarke Snell & Tim Gallant (Lark Books, 2005). 2. "The Natural Building Companion. A Comprehensive Guide To Integrative Design And Construction" (with instructional DVD) by Jacob Deva Racusin and Ace McArleton (Chelsea Green Publishing 2012).

Yes it is correct to say that adding aggregates will lessen shrinkage. Maybe a cross between ram earth and cob will be better. I mean less water equals less shrinkage. Geeee I think this is gonna keep my coconuts busy :) This is gonna really require for a specials cob mixer. I am looking into roller type mixer like the dough roller but with some form of teeth and a form of enclosure that continuously recirculate the cob. I will try to post a drawing when I get back.

Keep it coming please. Perhaps I could start somewhere from where it ends rather than reinvent the wheel altogether.

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Posted by Bubu

Keep it coming please.

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I'll do my best! :bigsmile:

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Posted by Bubu

Yes it is correct to say that adding aggregates will lessen shrinkage. Maybe a cross between ram earth and cob will be better. I mean less water equals less shrinkage. Geeee I think this is gonna keep my coconuts busy :) This is gonna really require for a specials cob mixer. I am looking into roller type mixer like the dough roller but with some form of teeth and a form of enclosure that continuously recirculate the cob. I will try to post a drawing when I get back.

Keep it coming please. Perhaps I could start somewhere from where it ends rather than reinvent the wheel altogether.

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Back. I realize that I'm doing it incorrectly. Normally I try the existing system first before I try to come up with an improvement. So I will try my 2 dirty feet first. I dont want to waste your time on something that is not worthwhile. So I will put off the drawing for now.

Ancient natural airconditioners of Iran

“...I have water air conditioning too, but I prefer sitting under my natural air conditioning. Reminds me of old times,” Mr Saberi said, gesturing to the badgir (wind catcher) that we were sitting under. “More chai?”

In the 40C summer heat of Yazd, a desert city in the heart of Iran, a hot cup of chai would normally have been the last thing on my mind. However, a glance out from the breezy shaded patio where I sat onto the central courtyard, ablaze in the glaring evening sun, and all thoughts of bidding my host goodbye immediately evaporated. I leaned back and gazed up along the length of this remarkable technology that’s believed to be thousands of years old.

Wind catchers are tall, chimney-like structures that protrude from the rooftops of older houses in many of Iran’s desert cities. In their simplest form, wind catchers harness the cool breezes and redirect them downwards either into the home or into underground storage rooms to refrigerate perishable foods. Studies have shown that wind catchers can reduce indoor temperatures by around 10 degrees...."


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Wind catchers harness cooler breezes and funnel them down into homes (Credit: Shervin Abdolhamidi)


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For centuries, badgirs (wind catchers) have helped Yazd residents stay cool despite desert temperatures that can reach 40C in summertime (Credit: Shervin Abdolhamidi)

Frames

The frame of a building is what creates the walls and supports the roof. Frames must be designed and built to accommodate all the different loads a house has to bear. The load a house has to bear can vary depending on the type of roof you build, wall requirements, and the climate it is situated in.
While some natural building wall materials can be load-bearing (stone, cob, adobe, and strawbale for example), many natural buildings utilise a wooden frame. Many of the oldest structures in the world are timber framed buildings.

Forbidden City, Beijing circa 1406
Attachment 39854

As you might already be aware, old growth forests depend on us to do the right thing when choosing timber for our homes. There is a very large question mark that hangs over the true sustainability of plantation timber. I am personally very concerned about the "greenwashing" of plantation timber by corporations and government. Storm damaged and salvaged wood, bamboo and rattan - these are some of the friendlier choices that have little to no impact on our local environments.

Stick Framing

Also known as conventional framing, stick framing relies on a repetitive number of light framing members, or "sticks". With insulation systems such as straw-clay and woodchip-clay, The sticks can be joined together with gusset plates to make a truss. This framework can, when designed correctly, serve the double purpose of supporting the loads in a structure, as well as providing the formwork for the wall infill of straw-clay or woodchip-clay. Stick framing can also work well with straw bale construction; the framing can be designed specific to bale sizing to allow the frame to be embedded in the bale wall, or left proud of the bales to receive siding.

Attachment 39855

Post and Beam

Post and beam structures are made up of vertical and horizontal heavy timbers. The floor and roof loads are carried by these posts and beams. Timber is connected by via the mortise and tenon - pegged wood-on-wood joinery or butted together. Because there are no repetitive framing members as in stick framing, post and beam structures must be carefully designed and built to handle the loads of walls and roofs. Many of the oldest structures in the world are timber framed buildings.

A subset of post and beam framing is traditional timber framing. In post and beam frames, the timbers are often joined with lag screws and metal plates, which is easier, thereby requiring less labour.

Attachment 39856

Round Pole Framing

This frame utilises poles, as the vertical posts and dimensional or sawn beams for the horizontal connection between the posts, or poles. Poles are directly buried into the ground. It should be noted that for wood to be buried in the ground, it must be treated to resist rot and decay. One of the most common forms of naturally treating a piece of wood is for the wood to be charred at its base.

Attachment 39857

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PeuA7A-cj88

this is cool. natural air conditioner. Utilizing the simple laws of nature. I have once constructed a drying system by collecting the hot air at the roof apex and directing it to a drying cabinet. Perhaps a combination of both will be more efficient.

"Downward airflow due to direct wind entry
One of the most common uses of the windcatcher is to cool the inside of the dwelling; it is often used in combination with courtyards and domes as an overall ventilation and heat-management strategy. It is essentially a tall, capped tower with one face open at the top. This open side faces the prevailing wind, thus "catching" it, and brings it down the tower into the heart of the building to maintain air flow, thus cooling the building interior. It does not necessarily cool the air itself, but rather relies on the rate of airflow to provide a cooling effect. Windcatchers have been employed in this manner for thousands of years.[8]


A windcatcher and qanat used for cooling
Upward airflow due to temperature gradient
Wind-assisted temperature gradient
Windcatchers are also used in combination with a qanat, or underground canal. In this method, the open side of the tower faces away from the direction of the prevailing wind (the tower's orientation can be adjusted by directional ports at the top). By keeping only this tower open, air is drawn upwards using the Coandă effect.

The pressure differential on one side of the building causes air to be drawn down into the passage on the other side. The hot air is brought down into the qanat tunnel and is cooled by coming into contact with the cool earth[Note 1] and cold water running through the qanat. The cooled air is drawn up through the windcatcher, again by the Coandă effect. On the whole, the cool air flows through the building, decreasing the structure's overall temperature. The effect is magnified by the evaporative cooling of water vapor when the air passes through the qanat water canal, as the water that evaporates in the canal has a large enthalpy of vaporization and, besides, the dry air is humidified by the evaporated water from the canal before entering the building.

Solar-produced temperature gradient
In a windless environment or waterless house, a windcatcher functions as a solar chimney It creates a pressure gradient which allows hot air, which is less dense, to travel upwards and escape out the top. This is also compounded significantly by the diurnal cycle, trapping cool air below. The temperature in such an environment cannot drop below the nightly low temperature.

When coupled with thick adobe that exhibits good resistance against heat transmission, the windcatcher is able to chill lower-level spaces in mosques and houses (e.g. shabestans) in the middle of the day to frigid temperatures.

Directing airflow upwards using wind-assisted or solar-produced temperature gradients has gained some ground in Western architecture, and there are several commercial products using the name windcatcher."

Thanks everyone here for the interesting info and vids. I’m amused that Russia now appears to be the new haven for creative-natural-raw-material construction, for housing, whereas the USA has taken a very stern attitude towards such construction. Curiously, my take is that this is due to the possible outcomes of the globalist mandates, (hidden agendas), which attempt to moderate population growth, by setting limits per each nation, and Russia might be below that threshold, in the man to land ratio. Whereas most industrialized nations might be above that threshold and are thereby obligated by these secret agendas, to find means to reduce population levels, by all the crazy instigations we have long discussed on this forum.

;)
Here are some of my building concepts, primarily dedicated to my climate, where freeze-thaw cycles demand water proofing and considerable insulation is needed. At least we have plenty of fresh water here. Some of my pictures date back to the 1980s and most pictures were compressed to a low resolution, for bandwidth limits, of the early internet. Many of the links have “gone dead”. Many details deserve attention, but are instead just offered as-is, for the structural/ visual content only.

I should confess my work has always been stoically stressed and while I learn better ideas from difficulties, to improve the arts, I rarely could afford preferred tools and materials to do better. I am grateful for life as it has been. This life style keeps me healthy and agile to continue. The advent of digital cameras with moderated resolutions, (and some photoshopping as well), all hides most of the flaws and the sore points.

http://harmoniouspalette.com/CostFre...cientHVAC.html
http://harmoniouspalette.com/TranslucentDome.html
http://harmoniouspalette.com/BuildGreen.html
http://harmoniouspalette.com/IntersectingJoists.html

Floors

Earthern floors

http://www.buildnaturally.blogspot.c...uild-dirt.html


'An adobe floor, or earthen floor, relies on the sticky binding properties of clay...one of the most versatile building materials I know of. Clay expands when wet, creating sticky platelet particles, like a bunch of suction cups. Add to the clay ample course sand, to increase compressive strength and control shrinkage as the clay dries. Finally add fiber, to increase tensile strength and knit everything together, like reinforcing bar in concrete. The finish mix is essentially the same as adobe or cob. And the installation is similar to a concrete slab, only without the environmental impacts or cold nature of cement....'

Attachment 39861

laying an earthern floor
Attachment 39866

Stone

Attachment 39862

Wood

Attachment 39863

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GgVekcX_NYk

Part 1

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hvsvMzgiq6s

part 2

Compressed earth bricks

Compressed earth bricks are a building material made primarily from damp soil compressed at high pressure to form blocks. Compressed earth blocks use a mechanical press to form blocks out of an appropriate mix of fairly dry inorganic subsoil, non-expansive clay and aggregate.

Attachment 39864

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AHfSd1Lkgss

Here is how to make compressed earth bricks.
https://makezine.com/projects/cheap-...-block-floors/

An open source compressed block machine
https://offgridworld.com/open-source...block-machine/

Quote:

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Posted by Constance

Floors

Earthern floors

http://www.buildnaturally.blogspot.c...uild-dirt.html


'An adobe floor, or earthen floor, relies on the sticky binding properties of clay...one of the most versatile building materials I know of. Clay expands when wet, creating sticky platelet particles, like a bunch of suction cups. Add to the clay ample course sand, to increase compressive strength and control shrinkage as the clay dries. Finally add fiber, to increase tensile strength and knit everything together, like reinforcing bar in concrete. The finish mix is essentially the same as adobe or cob. And the installation is similar to a concrete slab, only without the environmental impacts or cold nature of cement....'

Attachment 39861

laying an earthern floor
Attachment 39866

Stone

Attachment 39862

Wood

Attachment 39863

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GgVekcX_NYk

Part 1

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hvsvMzgiq6s

part 2

Compressed earth bricks

Compressed earth bricks are a building material made primarily from damp soil compressed at high pressure to form blocks. Compressed earth blocks use a mechanical press to form blocks out of an appropriate mix of fairly dry inorganic subsoil, non-expansive clay and aggregate.

Attachment 39864

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=AHfSd1Lkgss

Here is how to make compressed earth bricks.
https://makezine.com/projects/cheap-...-block-floors/

An open source compressed block machine
https://offgridworld.com/open-source...block-machine/

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I was imagining cob blocks when I wrote post 31. less water less shrinkage. easier to file, more durable. This earth block machine can be use for that purpose. You are good at reading minds.:)

Quote:

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Posted by Bubu

I was imagining cob blocks when I wrote post 31.

less water less shrinkage. easier to file, more durable. This earth block machine can be use for that purpose. You are good at reading minds.:)

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Awesome on your imaginings! I completely agree with you there Bubu about there being less effort with the cob blocks. Although, I personally love the earthern floors.

I think that maybe you read my mind!!! :hug: