In 1968, Charles Bello and his wife, Vanna Rae, moved onto 240 acres of redwood forest looking to live a simpler life off the land. They had spent their savings to purchase the land so they got to work building their home themselves. Their first structure was a panelized A-frame that they erected in 5 … Read more
Clay has shaped Saudi Arabia’s architecture for centuries. Now, as the Kingdom’s construction boom accelerates, the ancient material is making a comeback as developers seek healthier, lower-carbon building finishes. The renewed interest reflects a broader shift in Saudi Arabia’s construction sector, where sustainability has become as important as speed and scale. From the restoration of … Read more
Karie Sullivan lives in an earth-berm house, burrowed into the ground on three sides. The front is clad in stained wood clapboard with white-trimmed windows with a sun-drenched southern exposure. The house was built in 1981 and was influenced by Malcolm Wells, a well-known architect who championed earth-sheltered buildings. Wells was not involved in the … Read more
The Alice Lynch House in Los Angeles was built in 1922 and is a rare example of the true adobe building technique, made with traditional stacked sun-dried mud blocks. The house was built using Mexican craftsmen skilled in the old methods. This is a two-story, roughly 2,500-square-foot home organized in a U-shape around a central courtyard. … Read more
“After my senior year of high school, I was living in Tanzania and noticed traditional building techniques were being replaced by foreign techniques that didn’t fit into the environment,” Ayodele Washington says. “So I learned about the traditional architecture of the Maasai house, which is basically a mud hut. They have been used for hundreds … Read more
Jikyeong bought a deralict property that had been stripped back by a previous owner and renovation work had stalled before it had really begun. Many of the surrounding dry-stone walls had started to collapse. Jikyeong says, “Ever since moving to England in 2000, I had dreamed of owning a traditional Yorkshire stone house, There is … Read more