We Share Earth logo
We Share Earth Home Alternative Fuel Organic Food Permaculture Water Resources Green Buidling, Eco-Housing, Sustainable Shelter Permaculture, Sutainability, Eco-Systems

Sharing Solutions for a Sustainable Planet
 
we share earth home submenu
 

shelter (n) -
a structure or building that covers or provides protection from heat, cold, wind, rain. [wikipedia]

green building (n, v)-
increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials, and reducing building impacts on human health and the environment. [wikipedia]

 
Links Shared

Earth Skills Shared

Mentoring Our Children

 

Link Sharing

Quail Springs

Oasis Design
 

Shelter: Building with the Earth

Sustainable ShelterShelter is our number 2 survival need after oxygen. Without the proper insulation from the elements, our bodies can perish from exposure. Our first level of shelter is closest to our skin - our clothing. But what we often most often think of as shelter is our home. The evolution of shelter in the past 2000 years has transitioned from living in symbiosis with our environment and creating shelter that works in conjunction with nature, weather, and water to an entirely cookie-cutter approach that ignores factors like climate, sun exposure, and local materials in order to space ourselves neatly into rows, columns, and fit neatly into the grid.

Building Green

Green Building is a movement towards more eco-friendly construction and landscaping practices brought about by a consciousness that is becoming more eco-aware. Although the idea is a step in the right direction, in many cases, the implementation of green building, known as the LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) rating system, does little more than add more already environmentally unfriendly fiberglass insultation to a house, plant a tree in the front yard (often ignoring whether that tree is water / food / shade appropriate), and in many ways, encourages the already destructive and wasteful building practices of our modern culture.

Natural Building

Natural building takes home living design to a new level. Factors such as summer and winter sun exposure, passive heating and cooling, site location, local building materials, renewable resources, and natural materials (earthen plaster, cobb, strawbale) are at the core of natural building. The approach is to create a home that exists in harmony with its immediate environment and climate, and is centered in using all natural, non-toxic materials, little energy for maintaining comfortable inside temperatures, and incorporating technologies such as solar panels, passive solar water heating, and mass heaters.

Urban Hubs

Some of the earlier civilizations in europe centered their cities around a central gathering spot (plaza, etc) and setup the city to grow from this center in concentric rings with radiating roads (hubs) from the middle. Most current cities, especially in the US are setup like a grid, with no common center; over the years, urban and suburban alike have transitioned from neighborhoods where people knew each other, to cubicles of isolation. It is our hope that we can once again create urban and suburban hubs for gatherings, celebrations, food exchanges, and re-creating community

Cobb & Strawbale

Cobb is a mixture of sand, clay and straw (similar to adobe bricks) that can be molded like clay into walls, shelves, ovens, and homes. The insulation, maintanence and cost of these homes are far superior to the common construction approach. Strawbale construction uses bales of straw as insulation, and creates a higher insulation, lower cost, and more aesthetic & symbiotic feel than modern houses.

Recycled Shelter

Using entirely recycled materials to build a home is an increasingly popular approach to building. Whether it uses slightly used materials, such as Habitat for Humanity, or salvages old buildings, dump sites, or city scraps, the artistic, creative, and financial rewards of creating a home for little to no cost brings the possibility of owning and building shelter to almost everyone.