Tag: natural

The Art of Natural Building

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The Art of Natural Building is the encyclopedia of natural building for non-professionals as well as architects and designers. From straw bale and cob, to recycled concrete and salvaged materials, this anthology of articles from leaders in the field focuses on both the practical and the esthetic concerns of ecological building designs and techniques. Includes examples of diverse natural dwellings, from a Hybrid Hobbit House to a thatched studio and a cob office.

This is a good primer for concepts, and shows a lot of different ways of natural construction. I imagine, if you are experience, handy, and smart, then you could manage to construct a home using this as your sole guide, but I use it more as a reference to help narrow down what I want, and then get more specific construction books.

It has some very nice pictures, and is a great book to sit down and thumb through while dreaming about what kind of homestead you want to build.

This book has spurred my imagination, I sit and look at it and dream of a time when I can build the buildings it describes. I am a large supporter of cob construction and other forms of natural building, I just wish I had more time to do instead of dream.

May 14, 2018
How to Build and Furnish a Log Cabin

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W. Ben Hunt’s classic has earned a reputation as the” authentic handbook since it was first published in 1939. Updated in 1974, it remains the only step-by-step guide to building log cabins and log furniture — pioneer style.”

I have read this book several times in my search to learn how to build and furnish a log cabin.

While I am still working on getting mine built, I do believe that this one book alone is enough to get a decent pioneer book built. As long as you a willing to do the work with the tools and techniques listed.

Books like this are invaluable to a new homesteader or prepsteader, it not only shows how to build a log cabin, but how to make the furniture for it also.

You may not have a log cabin, but it you live in rural America you probably have the materials to make log furniture. I bet that no matter the type of home construction you use, you will need basic furniture in your homestead.

Personally I like rustic furniture, and when I left TEMA, I took the money I received and bought several tools for creating that type of pegged rustic furniture found in this book.

December 1, 2016
Rustic Carpentry

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With an introduction by master craftsman Ralph Kylloe, this manual on rustic carpentry is a superb resource for woodworkers, furniture makers, and carpenters of all skill levels.

Here are clear and concise instructions for creating beautiful pieces with unfinished timber, utilizing the unique texture and shape of tree branches, trunks, and shrubs. In addition, rustic woodworking requires few tools and relatively little skill to make decorative and practical flower stands, tables, chairs, gates, porches, aviaries, footbridges, verandas, tool sheds, and more.

All these projects are included here with detailed advice on collecting and drying sticks; what kind of wood works best for various items; how to varnish both indoor and outdoor pieces; using battens and mortises to secure furniture; and successfully employing a range of other techniques.

June 16, 2016
Earthbag Building
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Over 70 percent of Americans cannot afford to own a code-enforced, contractor-built home. This has led to widespread interest in using natural materials—straw, cob, and earth—for building homes and other buildings that are inexpensive, and that rely largely on labor rather than expensive and often environmentally-damaging outsourced materials.

Earthbag Building is the first comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth—or earthbags. Having been introduced to sandbag construction by the renowned Nader Khalili in 1993, the authors developed this “Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique” over the last decade. A reliable method for constructing homes, outbuildings, garden walls and much more, this enduring, tree-free architecture can also be used to create arched and domed structures of great beauty—in any region, and at home, in developing countries, or in emergency relief work.

This profusely illustrated guide first discusses the many merits of earthbag construction, and then leads the reader through the key elements of an earthbag building:
- Special design considerations
- Foundations, walls and floors
- Electrical, plumbing and shelving
- Lintels, windows and door installations
- Roofs, arches and domes
- Exterior and interior plasters.
With dedicated sections on costs, making your own specialized tools, and building code considerations, as well as a complete resources guide, Earthbag Building is the long-awaited, definitive guide to this uniquely pleasing construction style.

Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer have been involved in the construction industry for the last 20 years, specializing in affordable, low-tech, low-impact building methods that are as natural as possible. They developed the “Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique” of building affordably with earthbags and have taught the subject and contributed their expertise to several books and journals on natural building.
March 24, 2016