...our villages and towns were built from what came closest to hand:
stone in Northamptonshire, timber in Herefordshire, cob in Devon,
Flint in the sussex downs, brick in Nottinghamshire. Each town and
each village has a different hue, a different feel, and fosters a
fierce loyalty in those who belong there.
-HRH Charles
|
Natural Building
Natural building is based on a philosophy that places the highest value
on social and environmental sustainability. Natural building is about
integrating our built environments into their local ecologies and communities
with a minimal amount of adverse effects on local and distant environments.
We believe that natural building improves lives in many ways. It allows us
to show deep respect for our immediate environment and gives us the chance
to make responsible decisions regarding distant environments. Our goal is
to use minimally refined and manufactured, non-toxic, natural materials.
Natural building is not new, but it is revolutionary. Most of our grandparents,
including those of us from the industrialized North, practiced natural building.
Before the advent of standardization, mass production, and long-distance transport,
people relied on locally available materials to house their family. During the
last century there has been a shift towards the import of building materials, causing
disastrous effects on ecosystems, cultures, and communities. But we have a choice. By
exchanging earth and straw bale for concrete and cement, by choosing locally milled
lumber and roundwood over lumber that has been unsustainably harvested, and opting
for natural clay plasters, washes, and paints instead of dangerous chemical varnishes,
stuccoes and paints, we can exert a force to affect change in our economies and in
our lifestyles.
Cob
Cob is the Old English word for an earth building technique
that combines clay sediment, sand, fiber, and water, which is hand sculpted to
form walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. Variations of this technique are
found around the globe and through the millennia. Cob building makes use of
readily available, affordable, non-toxic materials to build beautiful, organic
structures. Historical and anecdotal evidence has proven cob buildings to be
long-lived, weather-resistant, earthquake-resistant, and comfortable. As
pressure to continue manufacturing toxic building components while degrading
our environments for building materials increases, cob provides an excellent,
affordable alternative.
Straw bale
Straw bale building was common in Nebraska during the early
twentieth century. The renaissance of this building material began in the
late 1970s and early 1980s and is even stronger today. Straw bale building
makes use of an underutilized waste product of agriculture. Straw bales are
stacked like giant masonry blocks, usually pinned together with rebar,
wooden or bamboo stakes. The massive straw bale walls provide a high insulation
value calculated between R42 and R70 (compared to an R-value of 10 to 15 for
stud frame walls). Building with straw bales can decrease the amount of lumber
needed for a building, lower its energy costs, and can be more affordable
than conventional stick frame buildings. Marrying the insulating properties
and speed of straw bale construction with the thermal mass and compressive
strength of cob is a concept currently under research.
Slipstraw
This is also known as straw light clay. Slipstraw is a building material
made by coating straw with clay slip. Slipstraw combines a readily available,
affordable material that has good thermal retention, namely earth, with the
excellent insulating abilities of fiber. This creates a lightweight,
insulative building material that is resistant to fire, insects and rot.
It can be packed between forms to build freestanding walls. It can also be
used to insulate walls and roof spaces. Recently, people have been experimenting
with woodchips and clay slip to create a similar material to slipstraw.
Natural plasters
Beautiful plasters and washes can be created with
earth. Around the world, people have developed different techniques of combining
materials such as clay, sand, straw, hair, gypsum, lime, and dung to create
natural finishes. A rainbow palette of clays and minerals can be used to produce
colors, patterns, and textures to finish the walls of a building.
Masonry
This technique utilizes stone, fired brick, and other
materials such as recycled concrete to build foundations and
walls. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, shaped and unshaped
stone was a common building material. Stones are stacked dry or
with lime-sand or earthen mortars. Stone, brick, block, and
urbanite are important materials providing a strong foundation
for many natural buildings.
Roundwood carpentry
A timeless, natural approach to the use of wood, timber is
used without being squared by sawing or hewing. The integrity and
strength of the wood are maintained by retaining its natural shape.
The forest is a supermarket of sizes and geometries for posts,
beams, and rafters.
Finding and using recycled materials
The use of recycled and refurbished materials is in harmony with the
philosophy of natural building. Windows, glass, doors, fixtures, lumber, bricks, and
more are being brought to landfills every day. Thankfully, many places have set up
collection and distribution sites where the thrifty and aware can pick up these types
of materials either for free or for a minimal fee. Hunting for, repairing and refurbishing,
and finally using recycled materials helps us to break out from our society's 'throw-away'
mentality.
Ecological passive solar design
Passive solar design allows the sun to heat and cool a building.
It utilizes the sun's heat and the shade's coolness to keep the building cool in
the summer and warm in the winter. Thermal mass stores the warmth of the sun
during the day and releases it throughout the night, and insulation helps you
keep the warm air inside you structure. Well-designed passive solar houses
require little if any extra heating or cooling.
|
