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Comment by Ecolocitizen on November 6, 2009 at 10:09am

Building With Whole Trees

Roald Gundersen built his home and greenhouse using whole tree for structure and support.

By ANNE RAVER
Published New York Times, November 4, 2009

STODDARD, Wis.
ROALD GUNDERSEN, an architect who may revolutionize the building industry, shinnied up a slender white ash near his house here on a recent afternoon, hoisting himself higher and higher until the limber trunk began to bend slowly toward the forest floor.

“Look at Papa!” his life and business partner, Amelia Baxter, 31, called to their 3-year-old daughter, Estella, who was crouching in the leaves, reaching for a mushroom. Their son, Cameron, 9 months, was nestled in a sling across Ms. Baxter’s chest.

Wild mushrooms and watercress are among the treasures of this 134-acre forest, but its greatest resource is its small-diameter trees — thousands like the one Mr. Gundersen, 49, was hugging like a monkey.

“Whooh!” he said, jumping to the ground and gingerly rubbing his back. “This isn’t as easy as it used to be. But see how the tree holds the memory of the weight?”

The ash, no more than five inches thick, was still bent toward the ground. Mr. Gundersen will continue to work on it, bending and pruning it over the next few years in this forest which lies about 10 miles east of the Mississippi River and 150 miles northwest of Madison.

Loggers pass over such trees because they are too small to mill, but this forester-architect, who founded Gundersen Design in 1991 and built his first house here two years later, has made a career of working with them.

“Curves are stronger than straight lines,” he explained. “A single arch supporting a roof can laterally brace the building in all directions.”
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Comment by Ecolocitizen on July 2, 2009 at 4:27pm

This film shows how a pile of earth, dug out from the building site, is turned into a small house called Eco- Dome (moon cocoon model), using the Superadobe technology. It documents how professionals and students from many countries training at Cal-Earth Institute built this structure. It is intended for use with materials and tools developed for instruction during the apprenticeship retreat at Cal-Earth. Superadobe technology was first presented by the architect to NASA for lunar habitats, and can build single or clustered homes on earth which are resistant to fire, floods, wind storms and earthquakes.

Comment by Ecolocitizen on August 18, 2008 at 7:04pm

Here's an informative website Greenhomebuilding.com