On September 8, 2008 at the Ars Electronica digital media festival in Linz, Austria, 170 people from fields spanning business, culture, arts and technology gathered at Mission Future to explore the power and potential of open innovation and collaboration. Under the theme „We’re Open“, participants spent the day immersed in presentations, panels, interviews, breakout sessions, Future Slams, a Future Hunt, music and interactive art.

Over 25 speakers lead discussion, sharing their expertise and opinions on topics including the future of intellectual property, open source, crowd-funding, social networking, the future of creation, open community, open business and open arts. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be posting video clippings and summaries of Mission Future 2008 sessions on the Mission Future website, so visit http://missionfuture.trendpool.com/ to find out what went on.

An enormous amount of gratitude is due to all the speakers for sharing their foresights and insights with us, and equally sincere thanks go to our participants, whose contributions were key to the success of the day, to Ars Electronica Linz for their support in realizing this first major undertaking of Mission Future, and to our sponsors, the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, Weingüter Retzer Land, Art Directors Club, Red Bull, Carpe Diem, Linz 09, Indigo, Der Standard, Linz Tourism, Groupile and rebell.tv.

Building on the success of the 2008 event, the goals for Mission Future 2009 are now far loftier. We intend to receive speakers of the same high calibre as those we were privileged to hear this year, to tap into the knowledge and experience of participants to even greater effect, and to further advance Mission Future’s initiative to create tomorrow’s economy.

(Photo: Oswald Schröder, Elizabeth Stark and Joichi Ito discuss the future of intellectual property. Credit: Ars Elelctronica)

To see complete inspiration library for MODERN WHITE view slide show
Today is a special October 12 - I share with you a MODERN INSPIRATION DEDICATION in honor of today's birthday. The birthday of a talented designer, artist, visonary, spirit and loving friend DONNA TOPPINGS.

• P&G’s Innovation Culture
  Good case on how the idea of a 'Blue Ocean Strategy' can be applied: "The heart of a company’s business model should be game-changing innovation. This is not just the invention of new products and services, but the ability to systematically convert ideas into new offerings that alter the very context of the business."
  (tags: Innovation P&G Blue Ocean Strategy applied research)

So what, if you were considered the "Father of Nordic Modernism," and if you are touted as one of the most influential architects of the 20th century? Ah, yes, and you were famous for using warm colors, undulating lines, natural materials... you end up dying like everyone else, and they get you THIS!_Thanks, Alex. (via flickr)

Finally an update! Well I’m glad that I revisited Week 1 again before going into Week 2. It got my system moving and I was starting to feel comfortable going through the routine 3 times a week. I must admit, getting comfortable with any fitness routine is an important plus to maintaining [...]

Another excellent program on This American Life today all about the financial crisis. If you remember back in May I recommended their program called The Giant Pool of Money which explained in easy to understand terms how the sub-prime lending debacle happened. Similarly today's program titled Another Frightening Show About the Economy explains in easy to understand terms how this all happened.

The financial players on Wall Street had essentially placed "bets" in the form of complex financial constructs called Credit Default Swaps. These were placed by the banks against one another making them all interdependent and likely to topple if one fell. These were first conceived as a form of insurance, later used as more or less a bet. There is no regulation of these financial devices, and hence no overall picture of how over leveraged the industry was. Incredibly irresponsible.

I highly recommend getting the podcast from their site if you have any interest at all in understanding what just happened to you and me - it is a free download for the first week following the show. Here is a link to their site:

http://www.thislife.org/

Or if you are an iTunes user you can subscribe and get the show from there.

The Damn You rubber telephone by Mingyu Jeung is an excellent tool for venting anger and the usual telephone frustration, but the Peep Show bookshelf by Alice Naylor is a civilized way of hiding one's low (or high) brow taste from the wrong prying eyes. Or just good for plain old tidying up. Seongyong Lee 's Colour Space is certainly sleek, but might not hold quite as many books. A folio storage option, perhaps? The Tea Handkerchief by Miho Kaneko is just as dignified, and an elegant way to enjoy tea anywhere. Pixie Vases from Wik & Walsøe were faves from the 100% Norway section, and the Wine Bottle Speakers by Sante Kim were a hit with everyone.

+ designersblock.org.uk

One issue we have not examined as we looked at the fabrication of houses in the factory is the foundation work that goes on in advance of the arrival of the house. The Swedes are using some innovative products for foundations as well, products that make there status quo houses much more energy efficient than ours here in the States.

New houses in Sweden are primarily built on slabs, partly because its expedient, but also because its naturally the best way to have in floor radiant heating. In a cold climate this is the only way to use a slab otherwise your slab will feel cold and uncomfortable. But a slab in a cold climate must be insulated from the elements or it will throw heat out its edges. There are typically two strategies to isolate your slab from the cold.

The first strategy is to make an insulation break between the slab and the foundation wall. This is typically done with a narrow insulation layer. In order to place this between the slab and wall the two structures have to be built in separate operations. First the wall, insulation break, and then the slab is poured inside the walls. Two steps.

The second strategy is to insulate the outside edge of the slab. This allows you to pour the slab and foundation wall in a single step, but you have to return and install insulation around the perimeter. Thats not the end of it though. This insulation is of course very vulnerable to damage. Its a soft material and it is right at grade, so it must be protected by something tough, usually the best choice is a cement board product. The insulation and protection board creates at best a second step.

Ok, what are the Swedes doing. First of all they are not building deep foundations. All buildings in cold climates should be founded on soils below the frost line. How do the Swedes avoid this then. I''ve not seen photos of their entire site prep sequence but they appear to be setting slabs on stone beds which may reach below frost, and prevent soil expansion if frozen. Furthermore they are building on slabs insulated at the perimeter which allows the radiant slab heating system to warm the earth below the center of the slab which prevents soils below the foundation from freezing and heaving. So suddenly they have eliminated the foundation wall and only need to build the slab on grade. A great savings in time, effort, and expense. Ok, but they still end up with the slab insulation issues described above. No. They use a foam formwork that forms the perimeter of the slab, and insulates it at the same time. And this foam formwork is coated with a tough cement finish coating that protects the foam and prevents it from being damaged. Even more important, its one step.

Laying out the slab - corner pieces are place first.

Ready for the pour, edge forms, wire mesh, plumbing, and heating loops all in place.

The slab poured. Once cured its ready to receive the prefab house.

Here is an example of a Swedish manufacturer of these foam forms:

Jakon Isolering

Previously:

Letters from Sweden - deliver and set

Letters from Sweden - plumbing the prefab

Letters from Sweden - wiring zen

Letters from Sweden - a windows tale

Letters from Sweden - panel building in Sweden vs the USA

Letters from Sweden - Europe is different, Sweden is not, sort of..

Letters from Sweden - land of modern, land of prefab

Letters from Sweden - conversations with an expatriate builder

Technorati Tags: modern design, modern house, prefab house

while the mp3 is the leading music format, there is still a passionate collection of vinyl record collectors
out there. while not all of these collectors are professional dj’s, a large majority are men. and while most
contemporary turntables are designed for men, the ‘diamond’ turntable by scheu ananlog is designed
for woman. the sleek design combines a curvy form and frosty record holder in a very non-traditional
turntable. while the main model comes in a very feminine pink, it is also available in black and wood grain.
despite the 3,900 euro price tag, there may even be a few guys waiting in line to buy one.

http://www.ladylikescheu.com







via luxist

• B_E_E | New Zealand | Branding Cleaning Products
  More and more I find that simple, clear & intenlligently designed concepts are the most convincing ones in our world of increasingly plurivalent and confusing messages: I'll make it all white!
  (tags: brands branding brandchannel typography design)

+ The new Ripple table from Jason Phillips Design is a smooth and inviting design that is bound to be a conversational centrepiece.

+ Among the new designs from Switzerland's 366cm are the flapacked Fibonacci silicone lampshade by Alain Jost and the PVC Cheers coaster set designed by Vincent Schertenleib and Sergio Streun.

+ LXL is the new extendable walnut table from Salamander Designs that opens to any size between 71" and 84".

+ Axis, from Australia's Snack On Design, is a laser cut fruit dish that comes with a serving tray in a contrasting colour.

+ The Sale Tag for luggage identification by Antrepo is light-hearted way to spot your baggage on the carousel.

+ Atlason, a new design studio based in New York, introduces the Victoria Butler coat rack above, a seemingly random arrangement of dowels that has been put together in perfect order and is as glossy as a grand piano. The Victoria Butler is joined by the slipcast porcelain Bomb Vase below, like something out of a cartoon.

We have an interesting Design Article contribution this week by Chris Nobles, an Industrial Designer working for HJC Design in the UK. He write today about Rapid Manufacturing and its impact on our product development process. A great read with lots of technical points, positives and negatives for our consideration should we need [...]

Consumer packaged goods makers enhance product designs with practical twists.

Always on the lookout for new ways to interest customers, packaging designers have found ways to enhance the pack’s contents, by using it to chill or make its contents more flavorful. No longer competing on aesthetics along, the new designs give customers a practical reason to opt for the packaging.

Cases

Fruit Stickles

Trying to help customers find new ways of getting their five a day in a less monotonous way, Fruit Stickles are skewers infused with a cinnamon or tropical flavor. The company has refrained from adding sugar to its recipe to attract a health-conscious customer base.

Robero Cavalli for Coca Cola Light

Enhancing its contents in a fashion sense rather than a functional one, these limited edition Roberto Cavalli designs have been commissioned by Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke). 100,000 bottles of each animal print will be released, bringing a sense of exclusivity, fashion and collectability to a readily available commodity.

Burn Energy Drink

Coke’s Burn Energy Drink, currently available in Europe, offers a can with a unique re-sealable top. A plastic cover can be twisted into place, with a design that is based upon the packaging of salt and other spices. With new energy drinks being constantly introduced, Coca Cola is adding special packing features to separate themselves from competitors.

Kyo No Matcha
With “fresh” and “local” being key words for food products these days, manufacturers of pre-packaged items are seeking ways to change the image of their traditionally less than healthy goods. While bottled green tea might be one of the already acceptable convenience store products, CIC Co. goes the extra mile with its Kyo no Matcha. With a twist of the air-tight cap, 1.4 grams of traditional Kyoto matcha (high-grade green tea) is released into the mineral water below, creating a serving of fresh (yet instant) tea with no added chemicals or preservatives. At ¥5,280 ($52) for a case of 24, Kyo no Matcha is nearly twice the price of regular bottled teas, but certainly within the acceptable range for products billed as healthy and natural.

Trend Impact
These products may not revolutionize the food industry, but they could inspire new approaches to packaging, putting the customer in control of the final stage of preparation before the product is consumed. It’s also possible this trend could inspire food wraps infused with certain flavors or cling film that absorbs certain unpleasant odors or bacteria.

Landscape is a term that has possessed a variety of related definitions in the past. At Sculpture Center’s group exhibition, Degrees of Remove: Landscape and Affect, landscape is “as an interpreted notion of space.” The exhibit questions how perceptions of landscape have changed since technology has made it possible to engage in landscapes far removed from our physical locations– or if we can really engage in them at all. Curated by Sarina Basta and Fionn Meade, the exhibition will run until the end of this month and has a corresponding film series at Anthology Film Archives.

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"Fifty years ago the Heineken Beer company looked at reshaping its beer bottle to be useful as a building block. It never happened, so Buddhist monks from Thailand's Sisaket province took matters into their own hands and collected a million bottles to build the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple." - We'll drink to that! (via treehugger)

As the summer vacation period is starting soon I’d thought I celebrate and share the 5th anniversary of this blog a little bit earlier than scheduled with you. If you have a closer look at the ‘Full Archive’ section of this blog you will notice that e very first posting is dated 29. July 2003! Wow ;-)

After all in the very first posting (still written in small caption only; huhu fancy ;-) I’ll give credit to Lawrence Lee (back in 1997) who inspired me to do a regular publishing service on the web for the Design Management community as well.

However if I carefully remember how it all started I must admit that it has been more or less a technical coincidence that ‘Vol. 2: design-management.de‘ emerged: I’ve simply played around the other day with a piece of software called ‘Movable Type‘ and after a long night’s playing I succeeded to have this software installed on my hosted webserver. And most important: It worked ‘Hello World‘ :-)

From there the whole thing slowly developed into a tool for making my life as a teacher & lecturer for Design Management far easier. And still today many people ask me what to read or surf and ever since it simply takes a URL to point them to this blog and hopefully address their question in one or the other posting.

For sure the blog also emerged into a means to brand myself and raise my voice in the mist. What I’ve also learned however was that the often advertised ‘conversation‘ for most of us bloggers is a sort of ‘myth’ ;-( the blogosphere is not too different from the rest of the web and people on the web (as in real life) rather like to ‘lurk‘ than to ‘invest’ in a conversation. However please do not misunderstand this as a negative criticism, on the contrary: It’s not! It is simply helpful to keep this fact in mind in times of demotivation when you wish someone would clap on your shoulder and tell you how brilliant your postings are ;-) So yes, blogging also taught me to remain humble and appreciate & respect the fact that people are visiting this blog and spend their precious time on reading my musings.

So some of you might be interested in who else and how many are visiting this blog. Well that’s hard to measure for several reasons. While the web provider statistics report visitor numbers between 35.000 - 40.000 per month (personally I love that number ;-) Google Analytics reports some 100+ quality visitors per day on average (which is still fine for a niche topic I think). Visitors tend to come from across the globe and I think Tibet or Nepal belong to the very few countries that haven’t been logged yet ;-) The majority comes from the US as well as Western Europe, but this varies also depending on the country/institution where I’ve lectured last ;-) After all an interesting side note is the fact that more visitors come from Asia (China, India, and South Korea at the lead) as well as the Far East like Saudi Arabia for example!

So the fact that visitor numbers increased from 10/month in July 2003 to more than 10×10 per day is a good motivation to continue. However one of the key moments that made me think was at a DMI conference back in 2006. While sitting at lunch with a bunch of Design Management professionals both from academia and practice one commonly acknowledged ‘authority’ (at least by the grey hair community mostly in the academic domain) asked me: “Why do you waste your time writing for free on this blog?”. My spontaneous reply has been: “Do I also ask you: ‘Why do you waste your time writing Books?’” Needless to say that the quality of our relation ever since has decreased slightly ;-) After all I’ve learned to live with that.

Let me close this posting with a short anecdote that is linked to the picture above: For the recent inauguration in The Hague the panel members have been kindly offered the opportunity to display any book or paper they have written on a table in the reception hall. Since most of my writing on Design Management has taken place on the web (blog postings as well as guest comments on other blogs) and not on paper I’ve had a hard time to raise attention in the concert of publications on the table. Therefore my (graphic design) wife has been so kind to make a display for me that triggers visitor’s attention and points to this blog (have you noticed the ‘laurel wreath’ she has made ;-). While I can’t prove a correlation I can confirm that visitor numbers have increased slightly for the last couple of weeks ;-)

So, thanks for accompanying me over the last 5 years and I hope you hang out with me virtually or physically from time to time! Feel free to spread the information that there is a blog out there on Design Management and drop me a note whenever you like to: blog (at) design-management.de. Thanks!

Here is an animation of the proposal for Slussen in Stockholm by BIG Architects of Copenhagen, Denmark, and NOD Landscape Architects of Stockholm, Sweden. By moving the public program towards the most attractive place, and integrating the heavy traffic under the cover of a public square, it is possible to regain the waterfront, and at the same time connect the city parts around Slussen. The edge towards the water is terraced to provide day light to the public and commercial spaces behind.

See the original post about the Slussen project.

Andra bloggar om: arkitektur, stockholm, slussen, stadsplanering, bjarke ingels

When they were first commissioned to create a “Bahaman” seaside cottage on secluded South Stradbroke Island, Brisbane-based Arkhefield was faced with a few interesting challenges. The design had to be livable all year round, made from materials strong enough to withstand the harsh climate conditions, yet remind its inhabitants of memorable vacations spent on exotic islands. The resulting design stands out as a modern, sustainable interpretation of a Bahaman cottage that capitalizes on the site and celebrates volume but is also capable of isolating, re-orienting and shutting down against inclement weather when necessary.

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Tactile surfaces are making technology and information much more accessible to people with visual handicaps

As a range of new interfaces and surfaces for digital devices are developed, it is becoming easier for visually impaired people to use devices sighted people take for granted. Tactile displays enable digital data to be felt rather than seen, making it easier for blind and partially sighted people to access the Internet, keep their credit card details secure, and take and archive pictures.

Cases

Touch Sight Camera

This Samsung design embosses 3D images on its flexible Braille display, turning images into a surface that can be felt. It also captures a few seconds of sound to accompany each picture, making them much easier to search and archive. Images can be shared online and downloaded to other Touch Sight cameras.

ReEnvision

Smooth touch-screen technology on debit card readers hinders visually impaired people by requiring them to give their PIN to the cashier. This design provides a low-cost solution, sitting flush on a debit card reader to provide tactile buttons.

Sentio

Although blind people can’t see, it doesn’t mean they don’t want to look good. This was Matthew Wagerfield’s approach when he incorporated tactile technology into this watch. The clock’s face features two seven-segment digital displays that rise 1mm above its surface, providing a tactile function for the blind and a visual spectacle for the sighted.

Saifu

Saifu is a tablet PC that uses a conceptual magnetized liquid material called magneclay. The oil based synthetic reacts to a magnetic charge, rearranging itself infinite numbers of times to display Braille or tactile 3D images in relief.

Trend Impact
These designs demonstrate many of the ways in which technology is making up for the difference in people’s abilities, leveling the playing field and making more activities and roles accessible to more parts of the population.

Of course, many of these technologies can provide benefits to sighted people. For example, a tactile surface could be applied to a bedside clock, enabling one half of a couple to find out what time it is without disturbing the other.

If you’re a fan of modern prefab architecture and you’re raising rugrats, now you can get your little ones on the prefab mod action with the Mini Modern Prefab Playshed. Part Case-Study home, part play-house, the Mini Modern Prefab proves that kid’s design can be fun and sophisticated at the same time. Architect Ryan Grey Smith, known for his adult-sized Modern-Shed is bringing prefab to preschoolers with his Modern Play Shed, a smaller but no-less awesome version of his original design. Better than any treehouse or playhouse we’ve ever seen, it comes fully loaded with a sloped shed roof, dutch doors, 12 windows, and more.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

A real treat today. I just received an email from Sara and David Sage, the owners of a modular house I helped them design back in 2004. They have been in the house for about 2 years now, and they are well moved in and at home. They shared many pictures of the house which I'm posting here.



A panoramic view of the Sage home interior.



Sara and David's big goal for this house was to bring it in for $100 a square foot, no small task in the expensive Los Angeles county construction market. But they had a plan, to do copious research on their own, to get the most value out of every consultant they used, and every vendor and contractor they engaged, they resolved to build the house modular, to source their modules from a market with much lower labor cost in Utah, and to complete a good deal of the work themselves as sweat equity. It was their dream to have a modern house and I must say they succeeded on every count. From finding the best materials and vendors, to researching planting material and submitting their own landscape plan for permitting, Sara and David did it all and tracked it in detail in their blog on LiveModern.com. It was a tremendous inspiration and people cheered for them every step of the way. Its hard to know how many other people they inspired to dig their heels in and pursue their own dream of a modern house.



When the work was done, well, almost done, and the smoke had cleared I believe Sara calculated that their cost worked out to about 114$/sqft. This was pretty remarkable at a time when there were literally dozens of prefab house start-ups trying to get traction. The lament was how everything was costing much more than expected, and much more than hoped. In that milieu of dashed hopes Sara and David fought and struggled to make their house happen at a cost that was a pipe dream for the rest of the market.



The house is a reasonable 1400 sqft, 3 bedrooms, with an open kitchen, living/dining, family room space, it really is a wonderful plan that lives much larger than it appears on paper. The modular units in different colors tell the prefab story. You should be able to orient yourself to the photos using the plan. The house site is unusual in that the back yard of the house is really at the side, so the front porch wraps around to the side, and that is the main back yard like space. The rear and other side have proximity to neighbors, more like a house typically has at the sides.
My favorite thing about the design is the three spaces you see in the photos - the kitchen, living/dining, and family room are each small square rooms that overlap at their corners, each space well defined, and very open to one another. It really walks the tightrope between open plan and discrete rooms. David and Sara brought a rough version of this floor plan to the table when they hired me, so they deserve the credit for its design, my role being more to refine, and adapt it to division into modules, and to resolve the plan into the 3d massing and window placement. It was truly a collaboration of the best kind. More photos in the browser below.

Technorati Tags: modern design, modern house, modular house, prefab house

I attended the Natural Building Colloquium held this year at the Orella Ranch overlooking the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara, California, at the end of October. What a magnificent setting this was to spend a fine week of connecting with fellow enthusiasts of the natural building movement. About 70 attendees shared our insights, stories, passions, songs, poetry, cooking, concerns, and labor. I came away with gratitude for the opportunity to interact with such caring people, and with a renewed sense of confidence that we will manage to help forge a sustainable future.

This year’s Colloquium was organized by the Natural Building Network (www.naturalbuildingnetwork.org) and was hosted by Gunner Tautrim, who represents the sixth generation of this family living on this land since 1866. The accommodations were primitive, with only a small kitchen as enclosed space; the rest of the facilities were rustic pit privies, temporary solar shower stalls, temporary bamboo and tarp meeting spaces, and a nice lawn area. We brought tents for sleeping. All of this was happening with the grandeur of the Pacific coast as a backdrop, and the elemental simplicity and beauty combined to create an appropriate mood for contemplating the benefits of building naturally. After breakfast each morning we would gather in a big circle on the lawn to review the various options for the rest of the day and share other thoughts. Typically the mornings were devoted to work on a sturdy, permanent, multi-stalled toilet facility that was already framed with wood. Gunner wanted the walls and a surrounding fence to be finished with natural materials, and there were many volunteers who formed teams to accomplish this. Mostly, split bamboo or recycled fencing was used for a framework, over which cob and clay finishes were applied.

Lunchtime often featured tables where specific discussions would occur, having spontaneously been announced at the morning circle. The afternoons were reserved for many concurrent presentations or discussions, so there were always hard choices to make about what to attend. During the course of the week, over forty different topics were explored, in a variety of meeting places. These ranged from the use of materials (such as bamboo, cob, adobe, and lime) to more theoretical discussions about engineering, thermal properties, efficiency, and design. One of the most popular forums was about codes and ways of improving the acceptance of natural building techniques by building officials. I will be writing about this topic in more detail in a future blog post.

I shared one two-hour presentation about earthbag building around the world with a woman architect from Israel, who had brought plans for an earthbag residence that she was designing for a client there. First I talked about the history and development of this technique, and then profiled a number of projects that have been completed (see www.earthbagbuilding.com). After this introduction, the architect laid her plans on a table and we all discussed specific questions that she had about them. This was a great way to learn some of the basics of earthbag building, and then apply these concepts to a specific situation.
I was very pleased that a discussion was convened to explore the role that natural building can play in what was described as the “long emergency,” or the compounded effects of climate change, peak oil and other resource depletion, population pressures, and financial crises. Without this discussion I would have felt that we were negligent in addressing these most pressing issues. I plan to write another entire blog post about this.

After dinner (which was always delicious and usually vegetarian), we were treated to a variety of programs or entertainment that emanated from our group. Mostly these were slide or Power Point presentations, but one night was devoted to a talent show with lots of music and some stand-up comedy…great fun. I showed lots of pictures I took when in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago where I had been invited to discuss sustainable architecture with the faculty and students at the King’s University (see www.greenhomebuilding.com/weblog for my essay about the situation there) .

One morning, about half of us opted to attend a tour of historic adobe buildings in the heart of Santa Barbara. The earliest remnants date to the 1780’s when Spain authorized the construction of a presidio and the Santa Barbara Mission. Much of this early adobe construction was toppled during subsequent earthquakes, but recent reconstruction, using stabilized adobes, has returned the area to its original presence. I chatted (in Spanish) with the Guatemalan and Mexican crew who were making new adobe blocks for further repair work. On the return trip to the Orella Ranch, several of us made a detour to the nearby beach to dip our feet in the ocean.

One of the delights of this event was the participation of James from Zimbabwe, Africa. This very engaging fellow brought with him pictures of a lovely little thatched cob circular building that he and some friends had made. He also brought his large thumb piano to serenade us with African ballads. This was a reminder of the deep roots that natural building has from all corners of the world.

All together this week of camping out in this spectacular place and connecting with these dedicated and compassionate souls has left me feeling heartened that we will find ways to overcome the enormous obstacles that lay ahead.

On a very foggy night before we were to disperse the next morning, during our closing ceremony, we arranged ourselves in two large circles that faced each other. We (on the outer circle) were asked to assume the role of addressing our ancestors (on the inner circle) from some indefinite time in the future. When I did this I felt strangely like I was really speaking from the future. I told the young woman who was sitting across from me that I did not blame her for the difficulties that she and subsequent generations had endured. I said that the pattern was innocently established well before she was born. Industrialization was fashioned to improve life, not deteriorate it, and the consequences were not foreseen. And then I told her how much I appreciated the hard work she was doing to address and correct the mistakes of our ancestors. I said that because of the actions of her generation, we in the future were enjoying a simple and healthy life based on ecological balance, and that we owe her and many of her generation our gratitude for all that they did to make this possible. We then stood and embraced, the Future and the Present, for a moment of true compassion.

To see more of my pictures taken at this event go to flickr.com/photos/kellyhart.

The idea of making walls by stacking bags of sand or earth has been around for at least a century. Originally sand bags were used for flood control and military bunkers because they are easy to transport to where they need to be used, fast to assemble, inexpensive, and effective at their task of warding off both water and bullets.

At first natural materials such as burlap were used to manufacture the bags; more recently woven polypropylene has become the preferred material because of its superior strength. The burlap will actually last a bit longer if subjected to sunlight, but it will eventually rot if left damp, whereas polypropylene is unaffected by moisture.

Because of this history of military and flood control, the use of sandbags has generally been associated with the construction of temporary structures or barriers. Using sandbags to actually build houses or permanent structures has been a relatively recent innovation.

It was an Iranian-born architect named Nader Khalili who has popularized the notion of building permanent structures with bags filled with earthen materials. Actually his first concept was to fill the bags with moon dust! Attending a 1984 NASA symposium for brainstorming ways to build shelters on the moon, Khalili coupled the old sandbag idea with the ancient adobe dome and arch construction methods from his homeland in the Middle East. He realized that bags filled with lunar “dirt” could be stacked into domes or vaults to provide shelter.

Khalili came up with a further refinement on this building concept on Earth: for a more permanent, shock-resistant structure, why not place strands of barbed wire between the courses of bags, thus unifying the shell into a more monolithic structure?

At first Khalili was filling his experimental bags with desert sand, but then he evolved his idea of “superadobe,” where bags or long tubes of polypropylene bag material would be filled with a moistened adobe soil that would dry into large adobe blocks. In this case the original bag material was merely the initial form and would not necessarily be an integral part of the eventual structure.

Soon after these first experiments, Khalili began publicizing his work through newspaper and magazine articles and conducting workshops and seminars on the techniques that he was perfecting. Many people who read about his work, visited his compound in Hesperia, California, or studied with him there, decided to go ahead with their own experiments with his ideas.

Among these “early adopters” were Joe Kennedy, Paulina Wojciechowska, Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer, Akio Inoue, and Kelly Hart. I believe that it was Joe Kennedy who coined the more general term “earthbag” to suggest that the bag could contain a variety of earthen materials.

Paulina Wojciechowska was the first to write an entire book on the topic of earthbag building: Building with Earth: A Guide to Flexible-Form Earthbag Construction was published in 2001. This featured some of her early experiments done at Khalili’s CalEarth, along with several other case histories.

Akio Inoue, from Tenri University in Japan, has done extensive experimentation with earthbag construction, both on the campus of the University and in India and Africa where many other domes have been built for assistance programs.

Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer (a couple) became enamored with earthbag construction after studying with Khalili, and worked on a variety of projects, both for themselves and for clients. In 2004 they wrote and got published another book, Earthbag Building: the Tools, Tricks and Techniques, based on their particular experience.

Kelly Hart (the author of this article) first began experimenting with earthbag building in 1997, after being exposed to the concept while producing his video program, A Sampler of Alternative Homes: Approaching Sustainable Architecture. He later documented his experience in actually building his own home in another program titled Building with Bags: How We Made Our Experimental Earthbag/Papercrete Home. Both of these programs are now available as DVD’s.

In the meantime, Nader Khalili was continuing the promotion of his “Superadobe” technique and eventually decided to patent the idea, which he obtained in the U. S. in 1999, using very general terms that cover using bags made of any material being filled with virtually any material, and combining these with barbed wired between the courses. While having made many public statements that this concept was his gift to humanity, he obviously wanted to capitalize on the potential economic reward.

Many of us who had been engaged in promoting earthbag building on our own were contacted by Khalili and asked to enter into contracts with him in order to continue our work. It didn’t take much research to discover that his patent could easily be disqualified because he had been publicizing his techniques through various media for at least four years before he even applied for his patent. Patent law clearly states that such publicity occurring prior to one year before the patent application would disqualify it for consideration.

So now the door is wide open for anyone to take this concept and run with it, and more people are doing so all the time, all over the world. While Khalili (and most of his students) have focused primarily on using the bags to form large adobe blocks, others have tried filling the bags with a variety of other materials, such as crushed volcanic rock, crushed coral, non-adobe soils, gravel, and rice hulls.

Earthbag building is unique among all other building technologies in that it can be either insulation or thermal mass, depending on what the bags are filled with. This is a very important distinction, because these characteristics of a wall greatly influence how comfortable, economical, and ecological any given system will be.

Safety is of prime concern with all building technologies, and much experimentation and testing has been done to establish guidelines for many ways of building. Khalili has established a relationship with the building department in Hesperia, California where CalEarth is located, an area where earthquakes are naturally a great danger. In 1993 live-load tests to simulate seismic, snow and wind loads were performed on a number of domed earthbag structures at CalEarth and these exceeded code requirements by 200%.

In 1995 dynamic and static load tests were performed on several prototypes for a planned Hesperia Museum and Nature Center to be constructed using Khalili’s Superadobe concepts with both dome and vault shapes. All of these tests exceeded ICBO and City of Hesperia requirements.

In 2006, at the request of Dr. Owen Geiger of the Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building, the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point conducted several controlled and computer-monitored tests to determine the ability of polypropylene earthbags filled with sand, local soil, and rubble to withstand vertical loads. Their written report concluded that “overall, the earthbags show promise as a low cost building alternative. Very cheap, and easy to construct, they have proven durable under loads that will be seen in a single story residential home. More testing should prove the reliability and usefulness of earthbags.”

Despite the success of these tests, earthbag building concepts have yet to be incorporated into the International Residential Building Code. Obviously more enlightened acceptance of the demonstrated viability of earthbag building needs to occur!

It is difficult to know how many residences and other earthbag structures have been made at this point, probably hundreds if not thousands. Many of us have been promoting the technique for use as emergency shelters, and certainly some have been built for this reason. It is easy for folks to accept this way of building temporary shelters because it fits the historical model of sandbag use.

But many of us have also built substantial homes using earthbags, and in the process realized how truly versatile and sustainable the technique is. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of these earthbag homes are still standing long after their conventional counterparts built contemporaneously have disintegrated.

When I initially designed www.greenhomebuilding.com I intentionally avoided advocating the use of much wood in building, because of my concern for the health of our forests and their ecosystems, with all of the over-harvesting of timber that has occurred around the globe. There is also the fact that forests help sequester CO2 (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere.

This was a difficult choice for me, since my father was a wood worker and I grew up learning many of these skills; I love working with wood and I worked for years as a carpenter. It is certainly one of the most versatile of all building materials, and is a renewable resource, when harvested sensibly.

I have finally come to realize that building with wood (at least partially) can still be a sound ecological choice, which is particularly true in regions where forests have regenerated to the point that they can be harvested sustainably. This means that the trees are carefully monitored to make sure that the health and character of the forest is maintained; only certain trees are culled periodically, leaving the remaining trees to grow and contribute to a healthy ecosystem. It is possible to buy wood that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), but if this means that you are buying wood shipped great distances, then this becomes a less ecological choice; use local materials!

Furthermore, with timber framing it is possible to use large wooden posts and beams in such a way as to create strong and versatile load-bearing structures, which can then be completed by either in-filling between the wooden structural members, or completely wrapping the timber frame structure with a variety of other materials (as is recommended in colder climates). Since this method of building has been recognized and approved by most code authorities, it is a way of approaching a natural building project that would otherwise be difficult for the authorities to sanction.

So I have now created a page about Timber Framing, greenhomebuilding.com/timber, with lots of media resources and informative links listed. I have also enlisted the gracious assistance of a preeminent timber framing specialist to answer questions from the public about this ancient art.

Will Beemer is a charter member and co-Executive Director of the Timber Framers Guild, and is owner of the Heartwood School for the Homebuilding Crafts in Washington, MA. For over 30 years, this school has been offering students a chance to improve their woodworking and timber framing skills.