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Case Study: East and West House

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

Straw in sustainable building

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

Introduction to Natural and Recycled Building Materials

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

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