This page is starting as a survey of various construction techniques. But it would be great if it would grow into a detailed "how to" and "how not to", as we experiment with these techniques on the island.

General info

http://www.off-grid.net/

Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material mixed from sand, clay, and straw, dung or other fibrous materials, which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest extant buildings on the planet. Adobe buildings also offer significant advantages in hot, dry climates; they remain cooler as adobe stores and releases heat very slowly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/adobe.htm

Bamboo

When treated, bamboo forms a very hard wood which is both lightweight and exceptionally durable. In tropical climates it is used in elements of house construction, as well as for fences, bridges, toilets, walking sticks, canoes, tableware, furniture, chopsticks, food steamers, toys, construction scaffolding, as a substitute for steel reinforcing rods in concrete construction, hats, and martial arts weaponry, including fire arrows, flame throwers and rockets.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/bamboo.htm

Cob

Cob is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe. Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive. It can be used to create artistic, sculptural forms and has been revived in recent years by the natural building and sustainability movements.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cob.htm

Concrete Pipe

Houses made inside large concrete pipes. What else is there to say?

http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/06/25/dasparkhotel-made-from-pipes/

Cordwood

Cordwood construction (also called "cordwood masonry," "stackwall construction" or "stackwood construction") is a term used for a natural building method in which "cordwood" or short lengths pieces of debarked tree are laid up crosswise with masonry or cob mixtures to build a wall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthbag_construction

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cordwood.htm

Earth Bag

Earthbag construction is a very strong, very cheap way of creating structures. It is a natural building technique that has evolved from historic military bunker construction techniques and temporary flood-control dike building methods. The technique requires only very basic construction materials: sacks, filler material such as sand or gravel, and barbed wire (using the barbs on the wire as well as the wire for reinforcing). This system allows for rapidly and inexpensively constructing temporary or emergency shelters or for long-term structures in milder climates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthbag_construction

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/earthbag.htm

Earthship

Earthships are earth-sheltered autonomous buildings made of tires rammed with earth, which are usually arranged in "U" or horseshoe shaped modules. Each tire is rammed full of earth manually using a sledge hammer. Windows on the sunny side admit light and heat. The "U" shape of the structure faces South in the northern hemisphere, and North in the southern hemisphere, so that the house will catch maximum sunlight in the colder months. An Earthship is designed to interface with its environment wherever possible and create its own utilities.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/earthship.htm

Geodesic Domes

A geodesic dome is an almost spherical structure based on a network of great circles (geodesics) lying approximately on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and yet also distribute the stress across the entire structure. It is the only man-made structure that becomes proportionally stronger as it increases in size.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_dome

http://geometrydome.com/

http://www.cjfearnley.com/fuller-faq-4.html

Houseboats

A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseboats

http://www.boatingsf.com/photothumbpage.php?&infocategory=houseboats

http://www.murrayriver.com.au/houseboats/underboats.htm

http://euler.sfasu.edu/Shantyboats/

http://www.boatdesigns.com/departments.asp?dept=7

Papercrete

Papercrete is a recently developed construction material which consists of re-pulped paper fiber with Portland cement or clay and/or other soil added. First patented in 1928, it has been revived since the 1980s. Although perceived as an environmentally friendly material due to the significant recycled content, this is offset by the presence of cement. The material lacks standardisation, and proper use therefore requires care and experience.

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/papercrete.htm

http://papercrete.com/cheap.html

Poured Earth

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/poured_earth.htm

Pumicecrete (Lightweight Concrete)

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/pumicecrete.htm

http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/materials/lwconcrete/description.htm

Rock

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/rock.htm

Rammed Earth

Rammed earth construction, also known as pisé de terre or simply pisé, is an age-old building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek low-impact building materials and natural building methods. Traditionally, rammed earth buildings are common in arid regions where wood is in scarce supply.

Rammed earth construction is a process of compressing a damp mixture of earth that has suitable proportions of sand, gravel and clay (sometimes with an added stabilizer) into an external supported frame that molds the shape of a wall section creating a solid wall of earth. Traditional stabilizers such as lime or animal blood were used to stabilise the material, but cement has been the stabilizer of choice for modern times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/rammedearth.htm

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/shipping_contai.php

http://www.earth-auroville.com/

http://www.aureka.com/eace/index.php?categ=eace

Shipping Containers

Building living spaces using old shipping containers.

http://www.containerhouse.com/ch00002.htm

http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/

http://www.demariadesign.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/01/shipping_contai.php

Strawbale

Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses straw bales as structural elements, insulation, or both. It is commonly used in natural building. It has advantages over some conventional building systems because of its cost and easy availability, and its high insulation value.

Although grasses and straw have been in use in a range of ways in building since pre-history around the world, their incorporation in machine-manufactured modular bales seems to date back to the early 20th century in the midwestern United States, particularly the sand-hills of Nebraska, where grass was plentiful and other building materials (even quality sods) were not.
Contents

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/strawbale.htm

Tipis

A tipi (also teepee, tepee) is a conical tent originally made of animal skins or birch bark and popularized by the Native Americans of the Great Plains. Tipis are stereotypically associated with Native Americans in general, but Native Americans from places other than the Great Plains used different types of dwellings. The term wigwam is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to a dwelling of this type.

The tipi was durable, provided warmth and comfort in winter, was dry during heavy rains, and was cool in the heat of summer. Tipis could be disassembled and packed away quickly when a tribe decided to move, and could be reconstructed quickly when the tribe settled in a new area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipi

http://www.manataka.org/page186.html

Underground (or partially underground)

http://www.simondale.net/house/

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/psp.htm

Yurts

A Yurt is a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/yurt/

http://www.rdrop.com/~glacier/yurtPages/yurtGallery.html

http://www.shelter-systems.com/solor-dome.html