Thinking of designing and building your house yourself? Here are a good book and a good blog, packed full of ideas and useful information, to have a look at before you start.
Hot Dirt Cool Straw “Nature-Friendly Houses for 21st century Living” by James Grayson Trulove.
The book is a catalogue examining the functional as well as the aesthetic properties of 25 ecologically designed homes. The houses are made out of straw, mud, recycled wood� and are all low environmental impact and low cost houses. The book is packed full of photographs, plans, drawings and schematics. Architects featured include Obie Bowman, Fernau and
Hartman, Hanrahan and Meyers and Lake/Flato.
� A must-see for future off-grid architects
Hardcover �19.60 from Amazon. Also available in paperback
For practical information have a look at Glen Hunter’s blog. He and his partner built their off-grid straw house themselves in Canada – they’ve kept a diary since the beginning, have put their house plans online, where they got their materials from, links etc