Alternative Building
Many regions of the world (including many parts of the U.S.) do not have enough wood to build wood-frame houses, so forest resources in other regions are depleted. While wood-frame houses predominate in the U.S., many other building materials are in use around the world. Houses can be made out of locally available building materials such as cob, adobe, bamboo, straw bales, rammed earth, formed cement, and mixtures of these materials with waste debris (i.e. tires, cans, or bottles). Additionally, inexpensive shelters can be made with poles and canvas, hides, or wool (i.e. Yurt or Teepee). In many places where wood is available, there is an under-utilized supply of small diameter timber (harvested in forest thinning operations). This timber can be used to make pole or log cabin style houses. Thatch, bamboo, tin roofing, sprayed cement, and living roofs can be used as alternatives to plywood/asphalt roofing.
Adobe
Bamboo
Cob
Strawbale
Rammed Earth
Sprayed Concrete and Papercrete
Earthships
Yurts
CCAT's Cob Bench
Additional Topics
Ecological design: If Ecological Design Were Widely Adopted [PDF 12.1KB]
by Joanna (February 2002)
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