This week I came across a style of house building I’d not seen before. Bags filled with earth are used to build the walls. While having something in common with Earthships and some other building technologies I’ve seen, I like the idea of earth bags even more. It’s so simple. Really, I wonder why we’ve not all heard of it.
I have many unanswered questions about the low adoption of the multitude of Earth friendly building technologies which are ‘out there’. Are there some critical flaws in these technologies, or is it simply that local planning infrastructure is flawed when it comes to analyzing and adopting something other than the status quo? Sometime I want to get to the bottom of these questions, if someone else doesn’t get there first. I can hope… my list is getting long.
Oops, I almost forgot the link: Earth Bag Building.
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In our neighborhood, someone wanted to build a straw bale home. She went to the township with all the pros and cons and earth-friendly, energy efficient reasons for doing so, but was denied permits for building because of the 'there goes the neighborhood' mentality. It was disheartening, as we were hoping to remodel and add on to our old, drafty place and use some of the "new" techniques that have been around for centuries. ^.^ I'm going to take a look at that earth bag home now. Thanks for the link!
Building anything with earthbags beyond military and flood control works is relatively new to the world. This is the main reason you may not have heard about it, and why it will take awhile for local building authorities to understand the true merits of the system. Given our urgent need to address the many issues related to becoming truly sustainable in the way we live, I'm sure that earthbag building will become much more universal.
The link given above is for one short post at our blog, but there is much more information provided at the blog, and also at our primary website: http://www.earthbagbuilding.com where you can find lots of pictures and descriptions of earthbag projects that have been completed all over the world.
Katterley, that's too bad about your neighbor being refused permission to use straw bales, though it doesn't surprise me. I wonder if involving architects as consultants on this kind of application would make a difference. Perhaps it's largely a matter of the information being more widely known and accepted. As with most things, the first part is the hard part. Who will take the first steps?
Kelly, thanks for visiting and for the additional information. I do want to know more about this building option. It's going to have to wait for another article I think – too many questions for me to put in here.