Construction Videos:
Solarium/Shadehouse
Making Mud
Using Broken Concrete
Building Spiral Gardens

Text:

1. Orientation and Solar Shading

2. Slope

3. Storm Directions and protection

4. Existing Plants and microclimates

5. Minimum intrusion on the land and it's ability to revert to a healthy non-inhabited conditions.

6. Availability of waste materials appropriate for construction.

The following comments are concerned with the latter:

The availability of waste materials useful for construction.

We were very fortunate. Near our site was an unsightly pile of chain link fence posts with the concrete still attached. There was also a pile of 2" ABS pipe. I recognized it's value if needed for water transport some time in the future. It turned out that the 2" ABS just fits over the regular (not corner) posts.

Hmmm. This made me think of bamboo. We get some fierce winds. One storm blew over 70 kt. last year. I thought, "I can't build a rigid structure to stand up to that, but maybe a flexible one?"

As an old sailor, I like lashing and have long admired traditional bamboo structures. So I pretended I was working with bamboo and I used the ABS for everything: posts, beams, and rafters. We also had unsightly piles of corregated tin on the property. These got screwed to the rafters. The roof slope is oriented towards oncoming storms, but those screws could still pull out of the relatively soft plastic. So we also ran several 5/8" lines over the roof and anchored them to the walls. The roof may really shake, but the ropes limit destructive movement.

Waste straw is also readily available, so we used it liberally for insultation on the roof and walls. We passed soaker hose through the insulation so that the house could be made wet when under fire threat. We also use straw in our concrete and mud recipes.

We import chunks of broken concrete. The stuff is everywhere, once you develop the roving eye. If something is under construction there is always waste. Usually the builders are glad to have stuff taken away. In a clutch, you can get it from a yard that grinds it up and recycles it for making new roadbed. Usually they will give it to you and if you do something nice in return, the secretary may call you when they get in a bunch of bricks. I find chocolate works well. That's how we got our paths, kitchen, and solarium floors.

We often use brick and broken cement as thermal mass. During the winter they soak up heat during the day and release it at night. Brick was used to floor the solarium/shade house. The bath, privy, and family room are floored on a foundation of broken cement up to three feet deep. The orientation and roof overhang of the building allows winter sun to heat this foundation (Thrombe Wall). In the summer it is shaded and stays cool through contact with the earth.