Real Talk!

These days, many people are dreaming of building an eco-friendly home and it turns out that this sort of construction can be quite economical, too!

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Organic Architecture was a key element in the 1930s designs of American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Building with natural materials and never painted, Wright's designs often featured low-pitched rooflines with deep overhangs and uninterrupted walls of windows that merged horizontal homes into their environments.

LLOYD'S FALLINGWATER 1935(recognized as the architect's most acclaimed and famous works)

Frank Lloyd Wright said of the house; "Fallingwater is a great blessing - one of the great blessings to be experienced here on earth. I think nothing yet ever equaled the coordination, sympathetic expression of the great principle of repose where forest and stream and rock and all the elements of structure are combined so quietly that really you listen not to any noise whatsoever although the music of the stream is there. But you listen to Fallingwater the way you listen to the quiet country."

The present trend to go green shows that Wright was esthetically ahead of his time. His designs cooperated with the environment, made use of local organic building materials and displayed an understanding of the solar capacity of a building.

"Organic buildings are the strength and lightness of the spiders' spinning, buildings qualified by light, bred by native character to environment, married to the ground." said Frank Lloyd Wright

Today's construction encourages furthering the intimate relationship with the outdoor environment and provide responsible solutions and sustainable resources to power a structure's energy needs. The goal- an earth friendly lifestyle.

WOODLAND HOME- WALES

The main tools used to construct the Woodland Home in Wales: a chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel. The builder was not a carpenter and his only experiences was helping someone build a similar home, 2 years prior. He says, "This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again."
http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

Straw bale buildings, baled straw from barley, wheat, rice, flax, rye or oats are becoming almost mainstream. They utilize an annually renewable agricultural by-product. The interior plaster of straw bale houses increase the "thermal mass" of the home, which helps to stabilize interior temperature fluctuations. The big thick walls provide for nice quiet spaces. Straw bale homes are low maintenance. The final coat of plaster can be mixed with a die to provide colour. As such, the owner may never have to paint it. When built with a steel roof and high quality windows, a straw bale home may have a virtually maintenance free exterior.

STRAW BALE HOME IN BANCROFT,ONT.

The Potters of Bancroft, built their enviromental home from used tires. Laid concrete-block fashion, the tires are filled with densely-packed earth. Concrete 'parging' covers these walls, smoothing them, and surrounding aluminum pop cans which occupy space and reduce the amount of concrete needed. The walls thus built are immensely thick and strong. The Potters say that they qualify as a load-bearing foundation, on their own.

THE POTTER'S "EARTHSHIP" TIRE HOUSE

Earth turns to gold
in the hands of the wise.
- Rumi Persian poet and philosopher

Cordwall or Stackwall homes are built by stacking piles of wood on top of each other and connecting them with mortar. Openings are left for windows and doors. Glass bottles or jars may be incorporated into the construction- this is both decorative and adds light.

A BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF STACKWALL CONSTRUCTION- COE HILL, ONT.

Earth bag building utilizes the poly bags that grain comes in. They are piled like bricks with barbed wire between them. A final layer of mortar creates a sturdy wall.

Papercrete uses glossy magazines and other paper, mixed into a mortar-the recipe is easy: one shovel of cement and three shovels of sifted sandy dirt to a drum of newspapers and magazines. The mixture is placed into a form and made into a brick of sorts. One soaker drum of paper will make 20 blocks.

Cob is a very old building method that is now enjoying a resurgance. A cob house is made of clay, sand and straw. The mixture is kneaded like dough before it is put into place by stomping on it with your feet or using a cement mixer for larger scale operations. The clay acts as the glue, while the sand gives strength to the mixture and the straw gives the walls tensile strength once hardened into place. Because cob is very flexible to work with, the builder is free to create just about any shape.

COB HOUSE

Rammed Earth Construction is the ultimate in building with local materials. It is build from earth that is dug up from the building site. The technique consists of building a form, similar to a form used to pour concrete, and then filling the form with a mixture of sand, clay and gravel with portland cement as a binder and then compressing it together with a tamper.

This type of construction has a large amount of thermal mass, which will even out the temperature fluctuation during the day. It is particularly good in passive solar designs. It also has the advantages of being almost soundproof and fireproof. In some sites, other materials, such as glass or shells are added to the mixture to give it additional texture. It can also be coloured by adding pigments to the mixture. Variations can be created by using different mixture in the various layers.

Poured earth is similar to ordinary concrete, in that it is mixed and formed like concrete and uses cement as a binder. The main difference is that instead of the sand/gravel used as an aggregate in concrete, poured earth uses ordinary soil (although this soil needs to meet certain specifications) and generally uses less cement. Poured earth could be considered a "moderate strength concrete." Little to no maintenance is required of poured earth walls, since they have a high resistance to the deteriorating effects of water and sun.

One of the most fascinating and eccentric eco homes are cave houses. Many examples are foudn in Spain (casas cueva) to be found throughout the region in towns, villages and countryside. Most cave dwellings are hand-hewn and can date back to the Middle Ages. Spectacular galleries of abandoned Moorish cave houses can be seen high up in cliff faces in such places as Benamaurel (Las Hafas) and Castilléjar (La Morería). Cave houses are still being excavated to this day, using modern machinery.

No two cave houses are the same. Some have front additions and others are on more than one level. A majority of the cave houses lived in today have been modernised, some to a very high standard, but all still retain many of their original features. Inside, their rounded walls and ceilings are almost always white-washed, giving them a light and airy yet cosy ambience.

The atmosphere within these caves is dry and comfortable, with temperatures fairly stable at 18C to 20C. There is a variation of a couple of degrees between the summer and winter months, depending on the orientation of the cave.

Baldassare Forestiere, a Sicilian immigrant to American created a subterranean complex of patios, garden courts and grotts with interconnecting passageways that encircled his living quarters.

The self-taught artist and builder, by 1923 (at the age of 44)
ad carved 10 acres underground using farming tools—picks and shovels, wheelbarrows, and a Fresno scraper pulled by two mules.

Take a look at his creation at this website: http://www.undergroundgardens.info/index.html

& I haven't even begun to touch on domes...

R. Buckminster Fuller; inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet and cosmologist was one of the most enlightened mystics of the last century. His universal vision saw our planet as "Spaceship Earth'. He secretly took the responsibility of being a "ships captain' and with passionate intent made his goal helping to care for everyone onboard. Bucky committed his entire productivity to the whole planet Earth and its resources; undertaking to protect and advance all life. Buckminster Fuller made geodesic a household word.

Some other fun and eco friendly buildings can be seen at these websites:
http://design.spotcoolstuff.com/architecture/rotating-dome-house

http://design.spotcoolstuff.com/unusual-architecture/shipping-container-buildings