In 2021, Mathieu Munsch walked away from the “normal” script— rent, bills, loans, a regular job— and headed for a sloping meadow in northeast France to build something radically simple: a small home made from the earth under his feet, wood from nearby, and straw bales from local farmers. He kept it to 50 m² … Read more
Below are listed several ways homes can be provided with renewable energy. There’s a good reason that solar panels appear first and foremost on this list. Converting to solar power for your entire home is the ultimate way to reduce your carbon footprint. This method offers to save you the most money over time. Many … Read more
Located in Eastern Ghana, Barnwood is a residential project by Symbolic Spaces. The development consists of clay-pigmented, monolithic villas emerging from the red earth landscape characteristic of the area. The studio has explored climate-responsive strategies for this region. This construction tries to promote economic efficiency, while using color and surface texture as integral components. The … Read more
An 18-day outdoor annual cultural event that combines film, music, folk traditions, and contemporary art takes place in Guangdong Province, China. For this event a temporary coastal space was created capable of accommodating multiple programs, including a theater, stage, exhibition area, and public garden. The design team utilized a long-standing local construction method based on … Read more
The Canelo Project, a family ranch in Sonoita, Arizona, uses the most basic of resources, dirt and straw, to build houses. Bill and Athena Steen, the husband and wife team that founded the project in 1989, use strawbales as the building blocks for their homes. They stitch together the bales, and plaster them with a … Read more
This striking Wishing Well house, located on the coastline of the small island of Jersey, UK, has walls made of stones and rammed-earth. ‘Many of our projects explore materials that respond directly to their site context,’ say the architects. ‘In this instance, the coastal setting inspired the exploration of local granite, sand and earth as … Read more