Green Building

Green Building~
This is such a large spectrum topic and a very important one. It also can be very complicated though it does not need to be.
One can go the route of a 1,000 sqf self built cob home or a contracted mansion. Either way it is possible to build it so that it requires no non renewable energy sources to operate. Such as water and electricity. With a well insulated home of any size it is quite possible to keep it plenty warm in almost all climates with solar alone. A wood burning stove or a solar air heater would be plenty to subsidize on an extraordinary cold stretch.
When so much of the house is efficient renewable electricity could easily be supplied to operate the other things such as computers, lights, & maybe a refrigerator. Its really impossible to compare the electrical use of a standard suburb home or business to that of an efficient sustainable home or business. SO many of the energy uses are just non existent.
All day time lighting can be provided by windows and solar tubes. Almost all heat can be provided by solar and insulation. All water can be provided via rain and efficient water use. Such as in these amazing efficient sustainable Earth Ships here. These are some of the best examples of widely made and used sustainable homes.
Hot water can mostly all be heated via the sun. This leaves a very small amount of electricity needed and that is easily applied by renewable sources.

What I really love about efficient sustainable buildings is the many levels of efficiency in play & how they all effect and enhance each other!
Take cob for example. It is all earthen materials so its possibly free or very cheap. Its totally green meaning there is no environmental impact expect for how they may be harvested but the materials them selfs are totally green. Cobb just also happens to be incredibly temperature efficient for cold or warm weather making it a desirable insulating material. While also being so strong & solid that it is one of the most earthquake resistant types of buildings there is. Cob is also sufficient load bearing! This makes things so simple. You take 4 ingredients Water, Clay, Sand, Straw, mix & build. So simple, so abundant & so efficient! Because there is no need for weight structure support one needs no frame or load bearing implementations besides the cob it self. This basically means if you can build a sand castle you can build a house. What is also really nice is that these buildings are so unique & so so beautiful. I have seen so many beautiful cob homes & so many of them are very different yet still beautiful. There are so many people with very little to no building experience that have built their own homes.
So this gives us a cheap, easy to build complete building package that is totally sustainable & BEAUTIFUL!
There are hundreds of books on cob building & lots of videos free to watch online.

Straw bale is another very simple cheap & natural building source. There are applications where it could be more ideal than cob.
To me the properties of straw bale building are not ad ideal as cob in most cases so it would come down to material availability & ease.
Straw bale is much faster than cob as you can stack straw bales on top of each other until the walls are as high as you want & this is a very fast task. Where as with cob all the cob has to be mixed. added & then dried out a bit then mixed. added etc.
The aspects of straw bale that I really love are that is is very cheap, lots of natural materials, great insulation value, fast construction process.
It is really cheap because straw bales are very cheap & in many locations totally free. There are of course other expenses as you cant just build a house with stacked straw bales. The bales mack up most of the mass though so thus are a large part of the material needed.
Straw is a very sustainable & natural building material. It grows most parts of the world, it grows with little or no maintenance, it keeps growing & its totally biodegradable. Its so cool to think that you could be growing your house if a field, that if your house were to no longer be wanted it could be composted & you could grow your garden in it! This is an awesome and exciting dynamic to me. I love sustainability.
Straw bales are great insulation. They are thick & also create really good dead space. These are two major factors in good insulation. So by building all the walls out of straw bales the house is off to a good start in being well insulated. There are other important factors of course.
When the foundation & frame are built the process of building the straw bale walls is very fast. Much faster than that of cob walls. This is nice as cob as wonderful as it is, it is very labor intensive & very time consuming.

What I don't prefer about straw bale is that one has to build a frame as straw bale walls are not load barring. I don't like the idea of building frames out of lumber as it is cut un-sustainably, processed unsustainably & transported unsustainably. This of course is not always the case as one could make ones own lumber or buy it from someone who does this sustainably. Even if it were done in a more sustainable fashion I still feel that lumber is not a sustainable building material. I don't feel that trees are worth cutting down for all the buildings that we build.
A cool alternative may be building cob load barring pillars, or stone pillars, or something salvaged. Then creating the rest of the wall out of straw bales. As with everything there are so many ways to do & it is silly to say something is not doable or not right nor worth attempting. I fully support experimentation & exploration of new possibility in all areas of life.
The other aspect of straw bale that I don't prefer is that it is susceptible to mold & such. However when done right it is not much of an issue. There are many many beautiful sustainable & long lasting straw bale homes.
To me its just not as simple as other earthen building techniques & requires more expertise. Cob on the other hand anyone can do & do it beautifully of high quality.
What it comes down to me is what resources do we have available. If we do not have clay but have lots of straw & trees for lumber. Maybe its a good idea to do a straw bale. Or if I were going to be making a large house or many houses maybe straw bale would be better as it is much faster to build.
Its all relative & what is important is weighing the factors. Finding the most efficient & sustainable path. There are many factors, depending on the location & purpose of the building.

Rammed earth homes are pretty cool. Very similar to cob though instead of wetting and building it like clay it is rammed compressed into molds the shape of the walls one wants to build.
What like about rammed earth homes is that they are made from earth. By far one of the most full spectrum sustainable materials on earth.
Great insulation & heat retention. Because the walls are solid & thick the insulation value is quite good. Also when exposed to sun it absorbs the heat of the sun and because its so thick radiates that sun throughout the whole night and recharging the next day. This factor does require some building planning as in the summer the walls need to be shaded so that it is NOT absorbing that sun during the hot summer days. In the winter the wall needs to be exposed to the winter sun so that it utilizes this benefit.
Rammed earth walls are also load bearing. This makes construction design much simpler and the materials needed less.
These type of homes can also be built very fast. There are companies that build rammed earth homes in some parts of the country that have a bunch of pre made forms, power packing machines and dirt loading machines. This makes for about the fastest possible earthen building experience. Its really cool to think that one could pay someone to build a green, efficient, sustainable home of about the highest quality, really quickly for no more than a traditional built home.

The drawbacks that I see in rammed earth homes are that unless one has the forms & machines it is very very labor intensive.
Also it is not as adaptable as cob is as far as design elements. Because it requires forms this means you have to have lots of different forms for different angels and such or the house needs to be of uniform shape. Squares & such would work very well with rammed earth homes. Where as with cob you can do curves or any angle & dimension you wish with ease.

Salvaged material homes.
Sustainability to me incorporates any trash that is used for a purpose. Anything going to the trash is waste & when that waste is utilized sustainability is at work. I do not like the idea of building a timber frame house or a steel building. However if that timber were salvaged or the steel were salvaged then YES. When I say salvaged I mean from a source that would otherwise not get used.
To be sustainable the house would also need to be well insulated, utilize passive & active solar plus other various green/efficient/renewable/sustainable aspects.
I build lots of sheds & small buildings of salvaged materials. Tin & used lumber are easy to come by. Since insulation is not an issue in most sheds it is OK.
Whenever waste can be utilized I love and support this. Its important to utilize it an efficient way whatever that may be. A free building that is not sustainable is of little use. There are however many materials that can be salvaged & integrated into buildings or other projects in an efficient abundant fashion.

Hybrids.
I love cob/strawbale homes. I love cob for its dynamic sculptur and beauty possibilities. I love it for its load bearing preformance, green material, and simple method. I love that it retains heat from the sun and has great insulation value.
Straw bale is awesome because its fast and is really good insulation on say a north wall where there is no sun to warm the exterior. So a north wall of straw bale and the rest cob would be a nice choice. Or cob building and straw bale roofing insulation. Straw bale is an awesome roof insulation because it is very light easy to get in place and great insulation value.
A partial salvaged material house with the rest of an earthen building material is also great. Maybe a salvaged roof or frame. Salvaged doors and windows. Or whatever material that is abundant and can be utilized in a building.
There are lots of options here with many factors to work with.

These are my favorite Green Building realities though there are more. As I become framilier with other possibilities I will be sure to document them here. As we at Freedom Living are exposed to more possibilities and experience we evolve as well as all those who we facilitate.

Imagine living in a house of complete sustainability built of all green materials. Imagine how great it will feel to live in and to create in this way while supporting sustainability. Imagine the unique beauty that this house would have and all the special charicturistincs it would have. Imagine all the abundance that would be integrated derived from such efficient sustainability. All the bills, maitenence and stress of a conventional home disapear.
Oh what a wonderful dream!
Imagine