A Heroic Earthbag ProjectComments
dontvisitmyintentions OP wrote
That book looks interesting, thanks. The Natural Building Blog site (whose authors have also written books on it, the late Owen Geiger and Kelly Hart) has some posts on building codes. Most of the blog's reports on legal success are about strawbale and cob, but they mention (expensive) engineer approval for earthbags, which is always an option if you can't escape to a free county or need to get cohabitants to trust it.
I remember a documentary on those desert dwellers. Unfortunately, their outcast society precluded cooperating on a decades-long proof of concept like the original tire-rammed earthship. And I guess they were too mobile for earthbags to work.
The late Monolithic Dome Institute guy sparked my imagination with his experiments with basalt roving and reinforcement on small, strong domes that don't take moving tons of soil to build. But even easier, Aircrete Harry plans on building multiple lightweight domes on his property, and he can pour his mix, instead of using a bunch of expensive and fiddly spray equipment. He's living my dream so far. Though before I start sewing together airforms, I want to try slipform or cast aircrete building. These techniques seem like the cheapest, most-effective ways to throw up durable structures, which can be reinforced with a denser mix later for burial (or built on top of a stem wall for partial burial). But all I've done sit back and watch so far.
Rambler wrote (edited )
If you want a great book, check out: https://www.amazon.com/Earthbag-Building-Tricks-Techniques-Natural/dp/0865715076
It's been one of my favorite coffee table books for hell, probably going on ten years now. Maybe one of these days I'll get a place that would allow this style of building... or maybe I'll just do a stealth build of a small earthbag structure. Great building for earthquake and fire prone areas.
I recall a study with... I want to say University of California(?) where they have a machine that essentially simulates an earthquake to test building techniques and structures. Not only did the earthbag monolithic dome exceed expectations, it broke the damn machine.
I get called a lot of things, especially nowadays because of this website, but I'm a bleeding heart hippy environmentalist at heart. I'm all about alternative construction, energy, etc. Would love to see widescale acceptance of stuff like this.
If you ever find yourself in the American Southwest, in New Mexico, check out the earthships and natural buildings in Taos (I believe). About an hour north of Santa Fe. I've visited a couple other places, lesser known, than those including some amazing riff-raff misfit type renegade desert dwellers who build with whatever they can and they live comfortably. People nowadays kill themselves to keep up with the Jones and get themselves in a perpetual state of debt to do it, making them a slave to work until right before they die. A cheap, well built and efficient house like an earthbag home (or strawbale, in climates that support it) can really relieve so much burden off a person financially and allow them to work less for someone else, work more for themselves, and just be happier and healthier.