The UmBlog

I do have a weakness for strawbale construction . They are like big lego blocks which one can stack into a house you can live in. Even I can build with legos. Because they are bigger, they can make a wall quicker than earthbags, with insulation properties, unlike earth alone. There is some good work being done on the Pine Ridge Reservation with strawbale round homes, look at these beautiful homes . One difficulty is the need to keep them from getting wet though. One solution is having large work parties, who can bang it out over a few days. Another solution is to pre-fabricate straw bale walls under a roof, then deliver them to the home site and slap them together in a couple days, which ModCell in the UK has developed. They build a timberframe, cram the bales in tight, then spray on a lime plaster on both sides. This wall frame is then stuck together, like a SIPs panel, but unlike a SIP, it's all natural and massive, like 2000 lbs a panel. NatureBuilt in Ontario, Canada has a s...

Sometimes I like alternative construction that's a little more conventional, but still better. Ferrocement is pretty neat. It was developed around the same time as reinforced concrete but ferrocement got used for boat hulls and not for buildings as much. Imagine slapping cement on a chainlink fence, but with a form to hold the cement in place until it dries, or a much tighter mesh than the fence. I first learned about it because one company started doing it, Shelter 2 Home , in Haiti after the earthquake. Apparently they build houses in the states as well, but not so many. Recently, I heard about another company doing the same thing in the states, with seemingly more builds under their belts, Am-Cor Inc . All that steel concerns me in regards to heat convection through the structural beams, but they have some pretty good insulation options . Am-Cor seems to also be DIY friendly as well. overhead stucco (Photo credit: velacreations ) File this under: #anothercrazyhouseJoh...

First of all the credit goes to Owen Geiger and his EarthBag Building Blog for, yet, another great find . Second of all, I like the idea of repurposing grain bins into homes. Third of all, I was thrilled to see that this business, Sukup, is donating these houses to Haitians in Les Cayes, map , and  Croix-Des-Bouquets , map , through Haiti Relief Fund, Inc . This video shows a representative excitedly looking over a demo house at the Sukup factory. This is Sukup's explanation of the house . Sukup Safe T HomesTM are engineered structures that are suitable for all phases of recovery effort. They are quick and easy to construct, making them ideal for emergency situations. The all-steel construction makes the Sukup Safe T Home perfect for longer-term use, since they are weather-, fire- and termite-proof. They are also movable, making them well suited to transitional shelter needs. The round shape of the Safe T Home allows the unit to withstand high winds. They are also virtually ea...

I read about this rammed earth house in Ontario, In rural Ontario, a high-tech home built of low-tech dirt , and I got thinking about insulation for this kind of construction. It is built as a sandwich 6 inches of polyisocyanurate between 6 inches of compressed earth on each side, in and out. The walls look gorgeous. At a R-7 per inch, polyiso is good insulation, 6'" x 7 =R 42, but to me, couldn't something more natural be used? How about a rammed earth sandwich that surrounds a strawbale? Strawbales have a range of R-values , but let's say 1.5. An 18" thick bale has an R value of 27, but at a much lower price than all that polyiso. Of course the wall nearly doubles in thickness, but those deep window seats would be awesome. close up of a bedroom wall from the article exterior shot in this construction shot you can see the polyiso between the earth walls I think this looks gorgeous.

Here is my latest crazy idea. Well, it's an enhanced earlier idea . I think thick walls are helpful no matter what. I think two different layers are important as well for airsealing as well as insulation and thermal mass . I'm also into quick and cheaper. So here's my latest big idea, Hesco wall ( R-house ) filled with dirt with strawbales on the outside tied into the welded wire of the Hesco walls. The bales would not be load bearing, just insulating. They would be covered with plaster to protect them from the elements. If critters somehow got into them, the occupant, such as myself, wouldn't hear a thing through the 18" of fill in the Hesco wall. I'm also thinking of putting the window frames between the layers. Unlike the EarthCo Megablock idea I wrote about last fall , the R-house does not require any particular mix of soil to stick together, in fact it can be filled wit Image via Wikipedia h sand, just like armies have been doing successfully in Iraq and...

First of all, credit goes to Owen Geiger for finding this and putting it on his blog . Timbrel vaults, aka Catalan vaults , seem like magic to me, method and history here . But they work really well in massive European cathedrals (and have lasted for 100s of years) as well as amazing Image by Skunkworks Photographic via Flickr American urban buildings, like the NYC Gustavinos , built by Rafael Guastavino Moreno . Somehow thin tiles are layered into a vault and form gorgeous roofs that don't fall down. Great explanation and documentation here . From Low-tech magazine , Cohesive construction also proved to be very durable. During the restoration of Ellis Island in the 1980s, only 17 of almost 29,000 tiles had to be replaced. And of course, several churches are living proof of the achievements of timbrel vaulting in the Middle Ages. Wow. Image via Wikipedia Here is a link to a well-documented build in Ethiopia where the affordable materials at hand are dirt and rocks. Building the S...

Eichelberger Architects - Innovative Materials Instead of buliding with hay bales, how about building with 6'x6'x3' bales of waste paper and waste plastic? I love this thinking, and I love thick walls covered with plaster. It might be the simplest way toward a nearly passive house. Doug Eichelberger is doing it to make barns, with trash, a baler, chicken wire, a forklift and plaster. I also like his gabion barn. This video is from the link Trash Barn #3 update at Green Building Elements .

First Kelly Hart, at the earth bag building blog , posts a link to the bottle brick house in Africa. Then I found a BBC report on it. Eventually I ended up at Eco-Tec Soluciones Ambientales , which I think is the Latin American nexus of this technology. This video seems to explain how it started way back in 2000. My brain is exploding with excitement especially about applying this to Haiti, which has an abundance of trash water bottles all over Port-au-Prince.

I think about many odd things on my bike ride. Yesterday, I was thinking about North Dakota . It's economy is smoking right now because of it's petroleum reserves. As a result, many people are moving there but are not finding enough housing. However, the climate is tough there. A good house there would be 1) quick to build, 2) easy to keep warm, 3) light filled in those long winters and 4) strong for tornadoes and blizzards and floods, (bonus points for no/low cost mortgage). Earthbags could do all but 1, unless there was a big team of helpers. A Corganix shipping container/earthbag hybrid also suffers from slowness except for the utilities which come pre-installed. Earthships would also be slow. The earthships are low slung though which helps with high winds. They also are built with south facing green houses to capture passive solar heating and provide light. But this modified version, called the high thermal mass (HTM) home is even faster to build and promises ...

A couple weekends ago, a couple guys from my church and I trekked over to Patti Stouter's house to learn from her how to build with dirt and bags and barbed wire . We want to provide permanent shelter for Haitians in a sustainable, affordable, culturally appropriate, disaster resistant manner and she has already designed and seen constructed a few buildings in post-earthquake Haiti. She has a website, Simple Earth Structures , which has a page for training workshops at her house. Her classes are not just for relief minded people such as myself, though she has had much interest from ex-patriot Haitians who want to go back and do something for their friends and family. There are Americans who want to build additions or entire domiciles out of earth bags for themselves, in the USA. One such couple was also in our class. The class was great. We worked on rubble bags for the first rows of the foundation. Then we mixed dirt to the right mixture of clay and sand and moisture and added th...

Conscience International is doing alot with rubble and housing in Haiti on the southern finger of that nation in Grand Goave , which was 90% destroyed in last year's earthquake. I visited the nearby towns Fouche of Petit Goave , on either side of Grand Goave, last year. Their website is full of pictures, construction drawings, volunteer opportunities, funding, and video from a report by the Discovery Channel. They have done engineering for these houses. They don't seem to use a bunch of gabions to layer up a wall, but single cages for each wall. It's very impressive and earthquake safe as well as hurricane safe and thug safe, for about $3500. They are also trying to avoid sourcing any materials at all from outside of Haiti. They want to support Haiti, and Haitian businesses, as well as abundantly available Haitian labor. If you have any ability to contribute to this effort please do. They seem to be ahead of the progress of Oxfam in this style of house, see this note by...

World Buildings Directory - Project R (The Rubble House) This page has a great idea for a place like Haiti, which is filled with concrete rubble since the earthquake last year. The only thing I'm not quite sure about is the availability of wire to make strong cages. But this picture is beautiful. I know of at least one house being done in Haiti like this, as described in the comments at the Earth Bag building blog . Owen Geiger is also proposing to use rubble but in bags. Anyway, this house in Lebanon is gorgeous. Update: Good news. Oxfam is indeed doing this in Haiti . They are planning 100 houses and are using chicken wire and rebar to hold the rubble together. Another update: More gabion houses have been built in Grand Guave. Discussion and picture here . Website, Haiti Replacement Homes .

I'm disappointed that none of my posts in 2010 made the top 10 in popularity for this year's hits. I am surprised how many people come here to read about bicycles . Only a few posts in 2010 cracked the 100 hits ceiling. My cinema review of the Book of Eli got the most. My post on the Binishell , generated a cluster of hits recently, that pushed it over the century mark. None of my Haiti posts exceeded the 100 level, but collectively, the ones in February, generated many hits, including my trip report from February . Here are the top 10 hits overall for 2010. 10. Yummy Land Shrimp 9. Picture of the Electra Royal 8i and my bike crush on it 8. my personally positive experience at Family Life's marriage retreat, A Weekend to Remember 7. Someone else's negative review of the Cruzbike, which I pointed to (but I still want one) 6. the announcement of my new bike 5. a review of my Actionbent recumbent , which is still for sale, email me to buy it 4. a picture of the Gabion ...

Renaissance Ronin guest posts Green-Trust.org and combines two really great low construction methods at Can you REALLY live inside a steel shipping container? | Green-Trust.Org As a shipping container guy, he starts with the container. But then talks about giving it wings using roofing and earthen walls, specifically earth bags, but why not compressed earth blocks or rammed earth? Alex gives his "elevator speech" below. His $10 e-book is worth every penny too. Basic ISBU rules; * You CANNOT bury a container! You cannot just pile dirt on top of it, either. If you do, it’s called a coffin. That corrugated steel is just to keep weather and bugs out. It doesn’t have the strength required to take that kind of load. * The insulation goes on the OUTSIDE of the container, unless you’re nuts. That’s right, I said it. Think about it. WHY make a small place even smaller? Even if you connect ISBUs together to form larger rooms, why rob yourself of living space? * Use SPF (Spray Foam I...

Compressed earth blocks diminish deforestation and energy intensive housing material (kiln fired bricks and cement). They are not a new concept but a group called Faith Tech Connect have come up with a machine that can crank out these bricks real quick. An important difference between these houses and the concrete block houses that fell down in Haiti is the addition of chicken wire on the inside and outside that provides tension to prevent shearing and a base for the stucco. Also the block in Haiti can break in your hand. It is very cheap. HT: Green Building Elements

This past weekend, our family went to one of those large greenhouse and shrubbery places and looked at pumpkins and such. But what really got our attention were those neglected big sheds for sale for several thousand dollars each. Somehow, my influence over my kids about tiny houses has filtered down and they realized they would like to have their own sheds to live in. This sounds like a set up for some Series of Unfortunate Events book, where the cruel parent builds small prisons for the children. But that is not the case. I think it inspiration. My son even drew up a site plan for the new Umland compound which resembled the camp my daughter went to this summer. A semi-circle of sheds with a dining room/shower house/school room at the center of the arc. The parents either end up with their own shed or live in the conference center, perhaps in a loft over the communal part. The sheds only get electricity, but no running water, which complicates things both with zoning and with skill...

I got to learn much more about container housing from a blog and ebook by Alex Klein in Image by seier+seier via Flickr Mississippi. He is selling the 100 page PDF on container housing for $10 at his blog. He is doing work to get some container structures to Haiti and make container housing for oil clean up workers working on the Gulf beaches. The information that was good for me was worth the ten bucks. He recommends closed cell spray on polyurethane foam on the outside. He recommends a SIP roof with standing seam metal on top which makes the installation of solar panels easy. He even recommends the short containers ( ISBU 's to those in the know) to make delivery and drop off easier. A crane is not necessary for the small ones. He shares designs of single container homes and nine container homes. He recommends planning ahead so that adding modules in the future will be easier. He prefers siding like in the house above and not making the neighbors suffer with the architectura...

update 2012: new website- EcoSteps ecoBUILD techologies has this hybrid of sand filled bags and their ecobeam, which is small lumber with a metal zig-zag in between. It was developed in South Africa as an affordable housing option requiring no skills, just perseverance, bags, and sand. Their is also a division in Israel , which markets their homes to a wealthier market. As someone aware of the need for housing in Haiti, I think this is fantastic. With the addition of rebar ties between the floor and ceiling plate, I think this simple technology would be great in Haiti. The addition of the rebar would be for earthquake stability. Even the Earthbag Building blog has an article on the Eco-Beam . The video is low quality, but very informative. The summary from their website is: Advantages of the Ecobeam system The Ecobeam System complies with all NHBRC requirements. Construction can take place at locations to which road access is not provided. This reduces the damage and congestion caused...

IM Design has been bringing great housing alternatives to its blog lately. Like this thing. Binishell : These pictures are pretty old, but there are new ones at the new website, Binishells.com . There is similar technology in use in the US used by Monolithic Dome . Monolithic seems to take more work. Bini lays the re-bar in circles on top of the air bladder, but springs run cross wise through that steel. The concrete is poured on the flat bladder and re-bar and springs and then the bladder is inflated before the concrete sets. All the technical details are explained on the older version of the website. Insulation still needs to be added on the dome and a finish coat after that. Monolithic blows up the bladder first, then sets up re-bar inside then insulation is sprayed on then concrete. No matter what, I like domes and round homes .

I love round houses. Preston at Jetson Green found this round incarnation of a Passive House. It even has a little courtyard. Circular Passive House Villa in Sweden : " Preston writes "Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture recently let us know of a newly completed Passive House in Borlänge, Sweden. It's beautiful, prefabricated, contemporary, and, stating the obvious, circular. The 1,700 square-foot home features an interior atrium, lake-facing kitchen and living room, and more private bedrooms and bathrooms on the other side of the home." Learn more about Passive House Villa Nyberg in Sweden . Media credits: Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture. Back to the umblogger: I like the clock philosophy the architects use.