Voting is heating up at The $300 House Open Design Challenge. This design challenge started out as an idea described by Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar in a blog post at the Harvard Business Review. They proposed that it might be possible for a simple home to be built for less than $300.

After looking through all the designs I can’t imagine any of them costing less than $300, except for some of the earthen homes.

Vote for Owen!

Earthbag design-build expert Owen Geiger has two three designs entered in the competition and they are doing well, but every vote gets him closer to winning. Can you spare a vote?

• $300 Earthbag House — What the World Needs Now – An expandable design easily built by novice owner-builders.
• Stone Dome — $300 Geopolymer Earthbag Dome – My personal favorite, a synthetic-stone earthbag dome (pictured here).
• Update: $300 Geopolymer CEB House – Just hours after posting this article Owen let me know of a third entry. CEBs are compressed earth blocks.

Geopolymer Stones & Earthbags

While I’m a big fan of domes, what caught my eye was the building material - a geopolymer earthbag.

The Geopolymer Institute has been trying to recreate a building method they suggest was used to build the pyramids of Egypt. What they (re)developed (depending on your point of view) was a way to build artificial limestone stones from a mixture of limestone, kaolin clay, sodium carbonate, lime and water.

You basically mix the stuff up, let much of the water evaporate, then tamp the semi-moist mixture into a form – or earthbag! After the stuff cures you’d have something as strong as stone – without the need to quarry and sculpt blocks. You could also think of geopolymer as a cement, but without the large amount of energy input required to make modern cement.

While the whole Egyptian pyramid piece would be an incredibly important historical puzzel to solve, I really think the value of (re)discovering this low-cost & low-tech building method could far outreach solving the mystery of the Great Pyramids.

Owen Geiger’s adaptation, packing earthbags with a geopolymer material, could make this building method even more accessible. Earthbags also provide more flexibility than wooden forms because all sorts of shapes and structures can be built by stacking up earthbags.

Below is a video from the Geopolymer Institute that shows how a giant synthetic limestone block is made. The jury in my head is still out on the whole pyramid debate – so while this building method seems so much more plausible,I’m not going to let it distract me from the material itself.

Malcolm is putting his prefab experience and designs to the test with a 12′ by 12′  backyard storage shed project. Instead of using standard framing methods he’s building individual 4′ by 8′ wall panels on a prefabrication table that had alignment blocks attached to make assembly of the wall panels quick and easy.

In this particular situation the panels are being built and raised into place at the same time, but the same technique could be used to prepare panels for later assembly at a remote building site.

In no time at all Malcolm has the basic structure up and roofed. I’m looking forward to seeing how the finished project will look. Great work Malcolm!

To learn more about building your own prefab building visit DIY-Prefab.com. Also see the finished shed.

Heather Levin over at The Greenest Dollar shared a copy of a new ebook with me that she and Alex Klein recently finished called, Introduction to Container Homes & Buildings. It’s not a complete how-to book (that’s their next book) but it is an excellent overview of building homes from ISBU containers, and Alex is a true expert on the topic. Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this ebook:

• Why ISBUs are one of the most frugal ways to build a home
• What’s possible with ISBU construction
• The benefits of living in an ISBU home (including how much you can save living in these structures)
• How to make your ISBU home look just like any other home
• Roofing options that will save you literally thousands of dollars on your build
• 20 house plans that illustrate what you can do with ISBU containers (plus the build budget for each design)
• Options for insulating your ISBU
• What you’ll face when you go get financing for your ISBU build
• The benefits of using 20′ containers instead of 40′ containers

The ebook is just under 100 pages and costs $9.95. Visit Alex’s blog or  The Greenest Dollar to learn more about Introduction to Container Homes & Buildings. Below are three of the 2o floor plans you’ll find in the ebook.

The other night I confessed my personal aesthetic preference for earthen structures over modern prefab, while also admitting that those shiny metal boxes always catch my eye. Homes made from manufactured parts will never be as sustainable, low-impact, or low cost as earthen homes but they can provide some benefits earthen homes would be hard-pressed to deliver.

I was reminded of this by several of my regular readers, including Malcolm. The process of prefabrication isn’t really the problem with metal box homes. I should know this well since I designed a do-it-yourself prefab system and put it in an ebook called, Tiny Prefab, A Do-It-Yourself Prefab Building System.

So, I thought I’d do a follow-up post to clarify that prefabrication definitely has it’s place. Here are some of the things prefab can do better then earthen homes.

• Off-Site Construction – By definition prefabrication means that the individual components are built before the assembly process. This manufacturing process usually happens away from the actual construction site which can speed the production of the individual pieces, lowering cost, and increasing quality.
• Transportability – Often the parts of a prefab home can be moved by truck and lifted into place by hand or crane. This can be especially handy on a remote site.
• Rapid Installation – Once all the parts are on site assembly usually goes quickly which can save money on on-site construction costs. It can also reduce the construction impact on the construction site.
• Repeatability – Once you have a design for common components you can rapidly create multiple structures without a lot of additional effort. This can be especially useful if you want to shelter a lot of people quickly.
• Flexible Aesthetics – The aesthetics of a prefab home aren’t limited to metal boxes. The final appearance is simply a design decision.

Comparing earthen homes and prefabrication was really like comparing apples to oranges. Both techniques will result in very different homes with their own strengths and weaknesses, but this diversity is necessary to fullfil our diverse needs.

I’ll still chuckle when I see shiny modern prefabs on Dwell and Inhabitat, but I’ll temper my laughter with the knowledge that one size (or approach) doesn’t fit all.

If you want to learn more about do-it-yourself prefab visit Malcolm’s blog, DIY Prefab.

Thanks again to everyone who commented and kept me on track!

The construction technique used to create this tiny space might set a new standard for alternative in the world of alternative housing. You have to watch the video below to understand how this unusual cave-like building was put together.

In a nutshell the Truffle is an amorphous concrete blob that was poured in layers with hay bales placed to make it easier to hollow out the cave-like interior. The front, and a few other parts, were then cut off with quarry machinery to expose the interior. To remove the hay inside a calf named Paulina was left to feed for a year.

By no means does this seem like a do-it-yourself project or a very efficient use of building materials but it is an extremely clever way of enclosing space and the final building is as interesting as it is unusual. The exterior is intended to blend into the landscape like rock.

Photo credit Roland Halbe & Ensamble Estudio. Read more at Arch Daily and Dezeen

This was sent to me by Joseph Sandy, who has also helped me out a bit on my Who’s Next entry.  It’s a house in Buzen, Japan designed by the architects at Suppose design office that’s more like a cluster to tiny homes.

The ‘streets’ have glass roofs and exterior walls to help strengthen the idea of narrow paths between the different ‘homes’. Using so much glass in a roof doesn’t seem like a very practical approach but I really like the effect it creates. There also seem to be a lot of good ideas here for the tiny house designer/builder.

Great find Joseph! …and thanks for the hands-on help with the Who’s Next entry! Read more about this house at ArchDaily.

I was looking through all the amazing ways the folks at the Phoenix Commotion are reusing junk to build artful homes in Texas. This technique jumped out at me as an especially clever and beautiful way of reusing what is normally discarded as trash. This is a wine bottle cork floor. Each cork is carefully nailed to the floor in an organic pattern.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Phoenix Commotion this is what they say about themselves:

The Phoenix Commotion is a local building initiative created to prove that constructing homes with recycled and salvaged materials has viable place in the building industry. This process uses only apprentice labor and teaches marketable skills to anyone with a work ethic who is willing to swing a hammer. By keeping labor costs low and using donated or found materials, the homes created are truly affordable. No two are alike due to the myriad of materials used, so there is an artistic element that makes Phoenix Commotion homes truly unique. We target single parents, artists, and families with low incomes. We require the homeowner to be involved with the planning and construction of their own home. The result is a person who is empowered, not only by the use of knowledge and building skills, but by the opportunity to become part of a community as a vested participant.

They offer some building workshops and tours if you want to get a first hand look at how discarded junk can be turned into beautiful small homes. You can also learn more about them from the videos below:

One of my regular readers, Mark, sent me a link to this great Strawbale construction portal. The website is packed with great information including some plans. Below is an example from a set of free plans they offer for a 10×14 strawbale building. Mark is working on converting them to metric and is considering building one himself. Thanks again Mark!

Strawbale Construction Portal

The more I learn about earthbag homes the more they seem to be one of the most sustainable and safe ways of building a home. The most recent evidence is a small earthbag home that survived the recent earthquakes in Haiti. I found the story of the Sun House at the Eathbag Building Blog as well as research data that shows how earthquake resistant earthbag homes can be.

Earthbag Building Blog

My brother Eric spotted this pallet playhouse and the perfect inspiration for me to kick off the new year because my first resolution is to finish my Tiny Free House in 2010! This fellow had a slightly different approach to working with pallets than I’m using in my pallet house. He took the pallets apart and built the playhouse from the individual pieces of pallet wood. I built up using mostly whole pallets and cut pallets into parts when I needed 2x4s and pallet slats. I’m not sure if one way is better than the other but it’s nice to see the alternative method in action. Thanks for passing this onto me Eric! … oh and before I forget… Happy New Year Everyone!

Pallet Playhouse Instructable