Alternate Building Materials

This paper examines a broad range of traditional and modern natural construction methods, including straw-bale, light-clay, cob, adobe, rammed earth and pise, earth bag, earth-sheltered, bamboo, and hybrid systems.

It also covers key ecological design principles, as well as current engineering and building codes. In an increasingly resource-conscious era, alternative construction is truly an idea whose time has come. This paper thus provides information to create low-impact, high-quality buildings that meet the highest levels of comfort, health, and safety. We believe that un-sustainability does not arise out of ignorance, irrationality or greed.

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