SHELTER
About The SHELTER Section
When we think about solutions to climate change, one of the most fundamental areas in need of change is the place where we spend most of our time: home. The exciting part of this is that there are so many amazing ideas out there about how to make our homes more sustainable. And in looking at all of these ideas, we noticed that it was hard to find a one-stop-shop for the many different ideas out there. So in this journal, we are going to systematically explore the range of alternative shelters out there- and not just for those of you who are ready to go live in a hobbit hole, but also for you suburbanites and city folk. Here’s a sneak peak, below.
Architectural
We’ll take a look at architectural solutions that could make use of a variety of different materials, like passive solar, and tiny houses.
Upcycled
Upcycled houses make constructive use out of all kinds of materials that were otherwise destined for the landfill for use as building materials and interior furnishings and decoration. The most well-known example is perhaps the shipping container house, but upcycled houses have also been made from old buses, mishmashes of windows, bottles, and discarded construction materials, the list goes on.
Wood
Wood is perhaps the most classic organic solution for home building. In areas with plentiful access to trees or to wood ‘waste’ like pallets, this is a great solution. We’ll look at some more innovative solutions to wood-based homes than the typical log cabin, like this geodesic home.
Earth houses
Homes made of earth or built into the earth are perhaps the most eye-catching and fantastical of alternative homes. I mean, who wouldn’t dream of living in a hobbit hole? The truth is, earth homes are also total winners in terms of insulative capacity, and in a life cycle analysis- they are quite easily returned to the earth. We’ll check out a variety of earth homes, from the famous earthship to the simple earthbag house, and of course, the hobbit hole.
Innovative materials
The past decade or so has brought along some amazing innovations in sustainable building materials- solutions that are also relatively easy and possible to do yourself. Aircrete, for example, uses a simple DIY machine to mix soap with concrete to produce a much lighter material which is a great insulator and can be shaped into wonderous forms.
(sub)Urban
We hope the city folks aren’t feeling left out. Not all of us have a place, or the time, to make one of these amazing alternative shelters. So we’ll also cover solutions for the urban and subarban environments, which abound! We’ll take a look at things like roofs green and white, vertical gardening, ¼’ acre gardening, and retrofitting insulation.
