Building a tyre retaining wall for our parking area, with some thoughts on problems and solutions We humans spend large amounts of our time zipping around in metal boxes with rubber tyres (or tires, if you’re in the US.) These tyres quickly wear away—tyre dust is an important source of microplastics—and have to be replaced. Globally, every year a billion tyres reach the end of their useful life and have to be disposed of. Some… Read More »Tyred but Happy
By Robert Alcock, abrazohouse.org. Introduction to the book “Carrying the Seeds of Life”, available to download for free. Unless you’ve been living in a cave—or a social media bubble—you probably know by now that the Earth is going through a climate crisis, unprecedented in human history. You’ve probably experienced weird and crazy weather patterns yourself; you’ve seen wildfires, droughts and floods on TV; you might even have heard august figures like the Secretary-General of the… Read More »What on Earth can I Do?
East House and West House are two single-family dwellings, each roughly 70m2 in floor area with an additional semi-enclosed porch area of a further 70m2. They are located in a small village in eastern Cantabria. They were built during 2015-18, with a low cost and low environmental impact, using principally local and natural materials and volunteer labour. Both houses have a timber frame built with locally sourced eucalyptus timber, harvested less than 2km from the… Read More »Case Study: East and West House
Despite the availability of alternatives like dry composting toilets and greywater separation, wastewater continues to be a huge global problem. The amount produced, as well the diversity of contaminants, is on the rise. But wastewater from toilets is comparatively easy to treat using ecological methods. One method is aerobic composting, in which the solids are retained in a chamber where they are composted in the presence of air. This can be done using compost worms,… Read More »Ecological Blackwater Treatment
As we learned in the previous post on greywater, blackwater—that is, wastewater from toilets—contains far more contaminants than greywater (from other domestic sources), and is correspondingly more hazardous, and more expensive to treat. And untreated sewage is a big health problem in many places around the world. But is all this sewage really necessary? Normal flush toilets add human waste to clean fresh water, before flushing the mixture away into the sewers. In essence,… Read More »Dry Composting Toilets
Wastewater treatment is an area where simple, natural solutions are often not just cheaper, but more effective, than complicated technological ones. As fresh clean water becomes scarcer, recycling wastewater makes more and more sense.
Those of us who live in wet countries often take the rain for granted and even grumble about it, but in dry climates and those with seasonal rainfall, lack of rain has always been a serious problem. And now, with climate change accelerating, drought is more and more common even in regions that once had dependable rain; while rainfall is becoming more intense and irregular, leading to flooding and soil erosion. But the good news… Read More »Rainwater Harvesting
A recipe from the forthcoming SHH (Sustainability, Health, Heritage) Recipe Book. Ingredients Quinces Sugar Walnuts Hard cheese or vegan cheese (optional) Instructions Wash the quinces well and place in a large pot. Cover them with water and bring to the boil. Turn down to medium heat and let them cook for about 40–45 minutes, depending on the size of the quinces. Remove them from the heat and let them cool so as not to burn… Read More »Quince Jelly with Cheese and Walnuts
Water is the essential element for life: wherever there’s water, life is found as well.But the relationship of human beings with water is not always benign. Conflicts involving access to clean, fresh water are increasing worldwide, as supply diminishes and demand grows. Meanwhile, untreated wastewater is a growing danger to health and the environment.Half of the world’s domestic and urban wastewater is discharged without proper treatment, leading to pollution of rivers, lakes, seas and… Read More »Introduction to Ecological Wastewater Treatment
As the climate heats up, the need for cooling is also increasing—which could lead to still more consumption of fossil fuels. By 2035, it’s estimated that half the households in the world will have an air conditioner, which will use twice as much electricity for cooling as today. But in most climates, it’s possible to eliminate the need for air conditioning by using traditional design techniques for cooling and ventilation, to ensure that the building… Read More »Natural ventilation and cooling
Whatever your type of building, whether it’s passive solar or not, good insulation is fundamental. Essentially, insulation is lightweight material that slows down heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. Weatherproofing—reducing draughts and air infiltration—is also included under the heading of insulation.A heat-sensitive camera can help us to see which buildings are properly insulated, and pinpoint where additional insulation may be needed. A poorly-insulated building, like the one on the right, loses a… Read More »Thermal mass and insulation
As we saw in the last post, in temperate latitudes, the amount of solar energy reaching the earth varies greatly through the year. Ultimately, this is why we have seasons. While we want to maximise solar heating in winter, during the summer months we may need to limit the amount of solar energy entering the building, in order to avoid overheating. A classic way to do this is with roof overhangs. As you can see… Read More »Controlling solar energy in the building
The sun is the source of all life on earth. We can also use it to keep our buildings comfortable, provided we understand how, and when, solar energy reaches our site. The apparent motion of the sun across the sky depends on latitude. At the equator, the sun passes nearly overhead, and follows a steady east-west path, regardless of the time of year. Whereas at the poles, the sun travels round and round the sky… Read More »Capturing solar energy in buildings
How can we build in a more environmentally friendly way, while at the same time making buildings cheaper to run? One way is by using the sun and wind to heat, cool, light, and ventilate them, thus avoiding the use of fossil fuels. This can be done by applying a set of techniques—known as passive solar design, or bioclimatic design—many of which have been used in traditional buildings for centuries. Like, for example, this house… Read More »Introduction to Passive Solar Buildings
A recipe from the forthcoming SHH (Sustainability, Health, Heritage) Recipe Book. Ingredients 200 grams of ricotta cheese (or similar) 2 eggs 70 grams of unsalted butter (at room temperature) 1 cup sugar 1 cup flour 2 cups whole milk 2 teaspoons lemon zest 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Small pinch of salt Instructions Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Cream the butter and sugar and whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Beat well and add in… Read More »Cantabrian Cheesecake (Quesada Pasiega)
The use of recycled materials in building is increasingly common. As well as having a lower environmental footprint, recycled materials can help cut costs; and the special texture of materials that have already lived a former life provides a unique feel to a building. On the other hand, there may be some sacrifices to be made in uniformity and speed when working with recycled materials. Recycled materials for building come in two main types. First,… Read More »Recycled Materials in Construction
Straw—the dried stems of grasses, reeds and other plants—is used worldwide in traditional building, especially in thatched roofs, like this one from Polynesia. Straw, like wood, stores carbon from the atmosphere in the building envelope and thus contributes to making carbon-neutral buildings. As a waste product of cereal production, straw is often burnt, tilled into the soil, or simply left to rot in the fields. So its use in building can lead to both ecological… Read More »Straw in sustainable building
Wood is an abundant natural material that’s widely used in both traditional and innovative ways. It can be used in almost every part of the building, from foundation piles to roofing, floors to structural members to wall cladding. Wood has been used in building for thousands of years, especially in regions of the world that have abundant forests. See, for example: the medieval stave churches of Norway: the temple architecture of Japan, including the world’s… Read More »Wood as a sustainable building material
Of all natural building materials, probably the most common, but one that is frequently overlooked, is earth. For most of human history, earth has been the most widespread building material in the world. It’s been estimated that between one-third and one-half of all human beings live in houses built out of earth. Earth has been used to build everything from humble huts to massive structures like the famous earth mosque of Djenné in… Read More »Earth as a Building Material
More sustainable construction materials include those obtained from natural sources, such as the rammed-earth walls of this building in Nepal (above), as well as recycled materials, like the doors used to clad this 10-storey block in South Korea. Well into the twentieth century, the vast majority of buildings in the world continued to be built by hand using mainly natural materials obtained locally, such as earth, stone, wood, and grass. It wasn’t until the late… Read More »Introduction to Natural and Recycled Building Materials