nope, sorry... I know that the magazine Mother Earth News often has articles on this sort of thing in their mags... check it out...
The Solar Living Institute This site has books, etc. on building with straw bale, rammed earth, etc. The Farm They have workshops on eco building EarthHaven An eco-living center
Infact in the 'general discussion' section of my forum ( address in the signature below )theres a few posts on the subject kayte ( with a great pic of a cob house ) K
Gods, I'd love to do an earthship. I feel so comfortable being just below the surface but still with tons of light spilling in. I've kicked around having a home of straw, of Adobe and recycled everything. I guess that's why I'm looking to move outta calif someday were living a off grid solar power dream is more realized.
hmm...thanks for gettin back to me guys...i do receive mother earth news in the mail- it's been one of my inspirations thus far. i'm planning on moving out to the eugene area some day soon, and i know the movement is big out there. (bigger than it is in jersey at least!) check out: begoodfamily they are so awesome...came into contact with them at phish; they sell organically made clothes with conscious messages, and have all sorts of links to sustainable living on their website. i'm not sure what the web address is, but google it and you'll have no problem finding them.
Check out http://geocities.com/newlibertyvillage/earthstar.htm They have an awesome house by the sound of it.
i prefer cob housing myself. i have friends who built those recycled tire houses out in the desert, that really not my style though. i like cob, passive solar, solar, and biodiesel, and griesel. they make the most sense to me. if youre gonna do a workshop, make sure you research the place first, and get a couple of first hand stories about it. some folks wont teach you shit. some will. but all of em will take your money.
I agree cob is the way to go, quite easy to master and very freeform in application, and as goes with most ecobuilding extremely inexpensive.
Does anyone have any numbers on how much it would actually cost to build a nice cob house? I know it's cheap, I was just wondering if anyone here has built one or knows exactly how much it would cost??
The big three costs you have to looke at are probably roof floor and straw. Roof can run from 1500$ to 100$ depending on what you wanna put into it, the one I have planned is gonna run me about 1200$. Straw can be pretty sheap I think, and only run ya about 150-250 for your project. Foundation/floor is like the roof could be from 40$ to somethin like 250$ depending on where u wanna go with it. The design I have in the works right now I've estimated to cost about 1,600$ total but I've heard of them done for as little as 500$.
Sometimes we just gotta get our feet wet. Start small & learn from our mistakes. I built an 800 sq ft house with salvage materials which is powered by solar, heated (in part) with passive solar. It has vault ceilings 12 ft high, The big room is 26' x 16' with a step down (entire floor) part way in the room. The kitchen has a brick floor, also salvage. There's pictures here. The house isn't all fancy with trim and stuff so it doesn't look like $ as does the Earth star habitat. Your question was about ecologically correct building and I think it's harder to be more ecologically correct than to re-use resources.
