EcoEngineering

05/07/2018

Fun to spend time and answer questions in a client's house on the recent straw bale home tour in Grass Valley! Thanks to CASBA, the organizers, and the homeowners for an interesting and informative tour.

One home boasts countertops and window sills made of old slate blackboards reclaimed from a local school. The floor of another home was stained using fertilizer and is completely

09/30/2016

Rest in peace, Bill Mollison. You will be sorely missed but the treasures you have shared with the world will live on and flourish.

With deep sorrow, we wish to inform family and friends that Bruce Charles “Bill” Mollison, the “Father of Permaculture,” has passed away. He departed peacefully from this world in Hobart, Tasmania, just before 11 pm AEST, on the 24th of September, 2016. After founding Permaculture Institute in 1978,...

09/19/2016

I love this quote by Tiny House Foundation Co-founder and CEO David Wooldridge: “A home is not just a roof overhead it is a springboard under your feet.”

Tiny Homes Foundation (THF) has received DA approval to build what is believed to be Australia’s first tiny house project for homeless women, men, youth and the elderly. The pilot project next to Gosford Hospital on the NSW Central Coast will consist of four tiny homes, a common lounge, a common lau...

06/11/2016

Interesting article by David Holmgren on his new book about permaculture in the suburbs in order to survive and thrive in the future.

  In 2002 I explored permaculture as thinking tools for the energy descent future in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability. In 2008 I outlined a more nuanced and over-the-horizon view of the diverse ways in which that energy descent future might unfold in Future Scenarios (firs...

05/02/2016

Informed buyers are helping to drive the energy-efficient home market...

Millennial home buyers expect energy efficient features: http://ow.ly/10AkKC

04/23/2016

Project focus was to build a comfortable, healthy, energy- and water-efficient home using durable, green and recycled materials. Designed a detached garage and located the house further back on the property to provide privacy and take advantage of an existing clearing to the south for passive solar gain. Photo by Veronika Tracy-Smith.

04/15/2016

The 2016 International Conference of the Portland Urban Architecture Research Lab (PUARL) will be hosted at University of San Francisco from Friday October 28 – Sunday, October 30.
The theme is The Regenerative City.

The Regenerative City: 2016 International PUARL Conference, Friday, October 28 – Sunday, October 30, 2016 at University of San Francisco, California. Conference website: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/puarl2016/

03/25/2016

What better way to introduce the concepts of Permaculture than in a catchy song? Get your groove on!

The Garden, a new animation series. To introduce the concept, here is a song about Permaculture. Music by David Griswold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYIBY...

03/12/2016

For those interested in straw bale construction who live or want to build in earthquake country, this is the conference for you! CASBA is a terrific community of straw bale enthusiasts, eager to share experiences, offer support, and save the world! We will be celebrating CASBA’s first 20 years and plotting the course for the next 20 years of low carbon and natural building. Keynote speakers are pioneers Athena and Bill Steen of the Canelo Project. Hope to see you there!

03/01/2016

Inspiration from Carl Sagan - astronomer, scientist, author-philosopher, activist. "National boundaries are not evident when we view the earth from space... A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet."

7 minutes | "We have heard the rationales offered by the super powers. We know who speaks for the nations. But who speaks for the human species, who speaks for Earth?" - Carl Sagan

02/21/2016

Miracle March 2011 in the Truckee-Tahoe area! On March 25, after a prolonged snowstorm dropped about 6 feet of snow in Tahoe Donner, I walked around the neighborhood looking at the incredible snow formations.

02/13/2016

This is a wonderful free resource, with professional articles, scientific explanations, and up-to-date information on building science. https://buildingscience.com/

BSC, a consulting and architecture firm is an industry recognized leader in building technology for commercial, institutional, and residential applications.