Projects and Pictures
Kelly and Rosana Hart's earthbag/papercrete home completed in 2000. This 1250 sq.ft. home was made with the earthbags filled with socria (crushed volcanic stone) and covered with papercrete plaster. The passive solar design performs well at over 8,000 ft. in the Colorado mountains.
At the base of a lovely symmetrical hill we built a Glorieta, which means an arbor or shade structure in Spanish. This Glorieta would emerge directly from the soil beneath our feet. The plan was to terrace the hill in such a way that the soil removed in the excavation would be used to fill the bags. This terracing would then create a natural amphitheater, with the Glorieta serving as a sort of stage area for performances.
Baraka's House evolved after she asked me to help her design her custom earthbag home. She had very specific ideas about the shape and room arrangement, but wanted some input as to what was practical with earthbags and how to accomplish many details of construction. She also wanted a passive solar design and wanted my my advice about this as well. 
This tastefully designed home was built on a shoestring budget by owner/builder Alison Kennedy in Moab, Utah. The 1,000 square foot earthbag home is the first permitted earthbag house in Utah. Alison in-filled earthbags between concrete and wood posts. A concrete block bond beam was mortared into place on top of the wall. Described by Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer.
Featured are the Earthbag Domes of Akio Inoue of Tenri University, Japan. He assisted building these on the university campus, at an earthquake site near Jamnagar, India, and in Entebe, Uganda. These domes are being considered for use as refugee shelters in the region, because they provide good protection from bullets, fire, wind, and rain.
Steve and Carol Escott built a two story home on the remote island of Rum Cay, Bahamas, assisted by Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer. This Sand Castle features a first floor made with earthbags filled with sand and crushed coral, upon which a second story, framed house would be constructed and covered with a hip-style roof. 
Tatu Penrith's Sandbag Hideaway is a haven on top of the world and an appealing terracotta and green house with thick walls that give it an earthy, handmade look. 'Sandbags are much cheaper than bricks, as well as being warm in winter and cool in summer. You can use unskilled labour; we used the women from Sir Lowry's Village down the road, and they sang while they packed the bags.'
We made a 9-foot 6-inch diameter flexible form rammed earth structure for meditation purposes. We call it A Meditation Kiva, a hut, a dome, a wonder. We felt the deep connection to earth and people throughout history as we filled the bags and slapped on the staw and clay plaster. How peacefully meditative it was to work with this medium, without mechanization or complicated tools and sophisticated know-how!
La Casa de Tierra is a rental house located in Ojochal, also called Playa Tortuga (Turtle Beach), on the Southern Pacific coast in Costa Rica. 
Robin's House built near San Miguel de Allende in Mexico is based on a traditional Southwestern adobe and has an open floor plan. 
The Sandbag Shelters of Nader Khalili I will show you what to me, is an exellent way to made architecture, how we can make, with few and natural resources, great space design, and at the same time, solve differents social problems, one of the principal motives and preocupations of modern architecture. 
At Terrasante Village, in the fall of 2000, our first experiment with earth was a simple, partially subterranian adobe-in-a-bag (aka earthbag) 12 foot circular structure with interior ferrocement retaining wall below grade. We called this EarthDome House. Material for the bag walls was excavated from the interior space and the walls were stuccoed with 1” chicken wire mesh for extra strength.
The 750 sq. ft BLM Ranger Station located at the Sand Island Boat Launch along the San Juan River in Bluff, UT. The 9.5 foot tall earthbag walls took 570 man-hours to build. The earthbag walls were completed in 8 days with a crew of 5-9 people.
We will build a small extension to our cob studio using earthbags. The purpose of our small extension is to create a wind break for our entry door into our studio. We also want to use a small space for a bath area. We will enclose the south with glass to allow solar gain in for warmth. When the desired wall high is attained we will secure the top with a rebar-reinforced concrete bond-beam. 
Theo describes the building of The Sun House in Haiti. "Rice, barley, wheat all come in poly bags which we've saved. They will be used to hold a mix of moistened sand and clay. The bags will be laid out much like bricks or blocks and barbed wire will be used as mortar between the rows."
Two retaining walls and the beginning of an earthbag tube dome home in Midpines, California. "Michele and Sara-Ann standing next to our first window form. We're fast approaching 3000 feet as of April 5, 2007."
Kaki Hunter and Doni Kiffmeyer describe how they built their Honey House. The merits of "Flexible Form Rammed Earth" are in its use of cost-effective materials, simple construction methods and the durable resistance to the ravages of fires, hurricanes, flooding, termites and, as Nader Khalili has proven in Southern California, earthquakes. 
The OM Dome My inspiration for earthbag building was on the beach in Thailand. I was pondering the creation of a sound temple and looking for local building materials. While on the beach I watched fishermen fill used woven poly bags with sand and stack them into a retaining wall. Epiphany! I remembered a research paper I did in college on earthen building and Nader Khalili.
The Warsaw Dome project was built in Poland as a demonstration of inexpensive, sustainable building techniques that others might employ. This is one of many such projects initiated by the Earth, Hands, and Houses organization founded by Paulina Wojciechowska, author of Building with Earth: A Guide to Flexible-Form Earthbag Construction . 
Jorge Dominguez has been helping his friend Mark Hanson build the first Code Permitted Hawaiian Dome Home. This is a copy of a desert earthbag dome adapted to super heavy rain. It took Mark like a year to get his permit. Lots of patience required. This dome is going to be sold to a retired couple. It is not meant for a family with kids.