Natural Building Overview
Humans have been creating their own shelters for at least 23,000 years, and probably much longer than that. The fact that we can not trace human shelters back farther is a testament to how lightly those structures tred upon the earth. Their shelters were no doubt adapted to their environment and used locally available materials, and when a shelter was abandoned it quickly returned to the landscape.
It is only recent history that our construction techniques create vaste amounts of waste and toxins. Ancient techniques developed over tens of thousands of years such as passive solar design, which could easily be incorporated into modern designs to greatly reducing heating and cooling energy use, have been disregarded.
Building materials such as clay, sand, rock, and straw which can last many centuries with proper construction and minimal maintenance are frowned upon as primitive, sub-standard, or weird. Modern stick-frame constructed homes will likely only last 50 years before it needs major repair work. Cement, which is a very durable and useful material, is only made possible through huge expenditures in energy and massive releases of CO2. In fact, the creation of cement is second only to electricity generation in terms of CO2 emissions.
Natural building is about merging ancient techniques with modern knowledge to create structures that not only provide comfort from the elements, but comfort in knowing that we are setting an example of how our children and children's children could live indefinitely on this planet. It's about our homes showing the world literally what we stand for, that through thoughtful hardwork we can create healthy, beautiful, and durable homes without sacrificing the natural world to which we owe our very existence.