A cutting edge green home building technique that is taking the eco-friendly construction industry by storm is that of using earth-bags, or sandbags as they are more commonly known, to build new environmentally friendly structures. Earth-bags use the very dust of the earth to create an extremely durable structure that is in many ways better than brick construction. Earth-bags can be used to construct a green home in a manner of a few days using only barbed wire, dirt, and a few burlap or polypropylene bags as the main construction materials.
Dr. Nader Khalili, a pioneering architect who immigrated from Iran, started the earth-bag construction movement as an eco-friendly way to build earthquake resistant homes in California. He combined the knowledge of ancient architects from Iran with those of the native peoples of the Western United States and came up with a method that he referred to as Superadobe. This method uses earth filled bags to build the walls and major features of a building and with a dome structure eliminates the need for wooden roofing. He pioneered getting the process approved with building codes in the US by working hand-in-hand with the building code department of Hesperia, California. Once the code inspectors saw just how durable Dr. Khalili's structures were and tested them against earthquakes and other natural disasters, they approved the process into California's building code. This development led Dr. Khalili to open the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture, which still teaches his methods of earth-bag construction.
As earth-bag construction has begun to take the eco-friendly construction industry by storm, it has shown that it possesses many advantages that are not found in typical stick...
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...ith earth-bags will eventually become one of the best ways to build a green home.
Sources
June Fletcher, “Calculating the Costs Of Building a Home,” Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120896495907838431.html
Dr. Owen Geiger, “Earthbag Advantages Over Other Earth Building Methods,” Earthbag Building
http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/articles/advantages.htm
Derek Markham, “Earthbag Homes,” Green Lifestyle Magazine
http://greenlifestylemagazine.net/issue-2/earthbag-building.php
Dr. Owen Geiger, “Health Benefits of Earthbag Building as Opposed to Traditional Construction,” Earthbag Building Blog
http://earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/health-benefits-of-earthbag-building-as-opposed-to-traditional-construction/
“About Cal-Earth,” California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture
http://calearth.org/about/about-cal-earth.html
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