Articles

Dear Friends,
We are currently looking for board nominees for our 2012 elections. This is a 2 and a half year term starting in August. The board meets once a month by Internet teleconference and has a yearly weekend retreat where we meet in person. Duties can include project management, volunteer coordination, fund raising, web development, interaction with the public, and being excited by Natural Building. If you are interested in seeking a place on the NBN Board of Directors or would like to nominate someone else please contact us. Applicants must be Natural Building Network members in good standing of at least one year.

As part of the research for their new book, The Natural Building Companion:A Comprehensive Guide to Integrative Design and Construction, Natural Builders Jacob Deva Racusin and Ace McArleton used state-of-the-art technology, including infrared photography and blower door testing, to document the thermal and moisture performance of seven straw bale homes in the northeastern U.S. As NBN helped fund and publicize the project, Deva and Ace have shared with us the results of the study, which NBN members are welcome to download here: http://www.newframeworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Research-Paper-2011_Final_Complete.pdf

SPOILER ALERT: What they found was that attention to detail makes a huge difference in building performance. Anywhere timber frames or rafters or other structural members break the insulative envelope is a potential problem spot and requires a greater level of detailing to avoid compromising performance. Hidden checking in timber frame members and unsealed joints within the frame can allow significant air infiltration. Consistently across all test cases, the largest sources of air leakage occured in non-straw-bale-wall components of the assembly, particularly in roof penetrations, roof edge detailing, and window-unit-to-rough-opening sealing.
More of this type of research and documentation needs to be done on natural material building systems, especially in an “as built” situation. The thermal performance of a house, especially in harsher climates, has a profound impact on the ongoing ecological footprint of a building, and the comfort and well-being of the people who live there. Our hats are off to Deva and Ace.

Their book can be found at
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_natural_building_companion/

Ace and Deva are co-owners of New Frameworks Natural Building, a Vermont-based contracting and consulting business specializing in the integration of natural materials, holistic design principles, an intentional process to create high-performance structures of beauty. They also teach natural building courses through the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Warren, Vermont.

“Mud, Hands, A House” is an engaging educational documentary on natural building which comes as close as possible to the experience of learning and working next to a natural building master. In this DVD, Jorge Belanko demonstrates a large variety of different wall systems and how to build a building from start-to-finish. Jorge also addresses the many reasons why natural building is a good choice as an approach to building your home…

Order DVD at Firespeaking Natural Building & Masonry Heating »

This year’s Yestermorrow Natural Building Intensive engages students in a truly innovative project and course of study. Over the past three years we have worked with clients in the Mad River Valley to build a variety of structures—a barn, a garden folly and a music studio. This year’s project takes the program to a whole new level, building a home for a young couple in Middlesex, Vermont. The project achieves very high standards of efficiency in heating, cooling, daylighting, and overall energy use, all while maintaining a beautiful, custom, hand-crafted finish with a minimal use of petro-chemically-derived materials.

The Natural Building Intensive (NBI) brings together a collaborative group of experienced and enthusiastic instructors with students in an in-depth, hands-on experience in natural building, from the design and planning stages through the finishing touches. Over the course of a 12-week curriculum, students in the Summer 2010 program are helping to design and build a complete home from start to finish – a building handcrafted from natural stone, straw, timber, and clay along with more modern building materials, emphasizing an integrated approach to natural building systems for a northern climate.

This year’s clients, Bryan Redmond and Kate Clemente, live in Montpelier, Vermont and for years have dreamt of building their own home. Three years ago they purchased a piece of land on a hilltop in Middlesex abutting the Green Mountain National Forest. They cleared trees, put in a driveway, and started to think about the design of their future home. Bryan enrolled in Yestermorrow’s 6-day Timberframing course in 2007 and met instructors Josh Jackson and Skip Dewhirst. After finishing the course he was convinced he wanted to build a timberframe home, and started to work with Josh and an architect friend to develop a design concept.

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A natural building journey by Chris and Wil Dancey

Our understanding of what is ‘natural’ building has evolved during the past two decades. We have refined our process of experimentation and evaluation, as we have built our two homes together. We have tried to make both homes beautiful and comfortable, as well as healthy environments to live and work within. Welcome to our natural building journey.
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SHELTER from jason sussberg on Vimeo.

16mm color film. 6:43 min.

Lloyd Kahn claims that shelter is more than a roof over your head. As the author and publisher of over a dozen books on home construction, Lloyd has been grappling with the concept of home, physically and psychically, for over five decades. Situated in the financial and housing crisis, this film profiles Lloyd’s ideas on do-it-yourself construction and sustainability.

Clay Culture: Plasters, Paints and Preservation
By Carole Crews

Now in print, this self-published book begins with a condensed history of the Southwestern US with details about how the old adobe houses were built and how to repair their walls. The chapter, “Learning by Doing” is a brief memoir of the author’s own building experiences, and includes details about the construction of her adobe dome. It also includes a beautiful photographic essay by John Collier Jr. of Malcolm and Rachel Brown erecting their family home made of mud in the 1950’s.
A survey of natural building wall systems and how to plaster them will help owner-builders plan the simplest ways of manifesting their dream home. The author also shares the building of an adobe fireplace and methods of making adobe floors. The Elemental Awareness chapter goes into scientific detail about the materials themselves to facilitate the formulation of recipes for specific tasks using your local materials.
Well known for her micaceous clay finishes, the reader will learn all about alis, casein, color and how to make your own walls beautiful in the simplest dust-free ways, using either found materials or those from pottery suppliers. Binders can be made from a variety of ingredients found in your own kitchen. Many tips about making art from the same materials are also shared.
As those interested in natural building well know, social justice issues can be addressed through this body of knowledge as we all find our places in the evolution of a more earth-friendly world.
Order books through the author’s website: carolecrews.com

First Earth, Uncompromising Ecological Architecture

A documentary by David Sheen, about building healthy houses out of earth, creating social justice and evaluating the status quo of how ( and in what ) we live. David traveled the world in search of ancient earthen buildings and sustainable cultures while interviewing top experts in the field. This is the full film available on YouTube – for free.

Learn more at DavidSheen.com/firstearth