Clay, an eco-friendly building material that has been in common use for thousands of years is enjoying a resurgence in popularity even in industrialized nations. Clay offers numerous advantages over other materials, especially in hot and dry climate zones. Its particular texture and composition also holds great aesthetic appeal. Building with Earth offers a comprehensive overview of the many uses of and techniques for processing clay. Drawings and...

In this remarkable challenge to conventional thinking about the environment, David Owen argues that the greenest community in the United States is not Portland, Oregon, or Snowmass, Colorado, but New York, New York. Most Americans think of crowded cities as ecological nightmares, as wastelands of concrete and garbage and diesel fumes and traffic jams. Yet residents of compact urban centers, Owen shows, individually consume less oil, electricity, and...

For the first time, a design manual for practicing professionals, as well as teachers, is made available, drawing on the collective experience of the most senior and respected figures in the rapidly-emerging field of straw bale construction.

Though the median size of a new single-family house is back on the rise -- after a brief decline during the 2007-2009 U.S. recession -- many are now choosing to live small deliberately. They're building smaller, more environmentally and economically friendly homes. The New Small House presents small-house design strategies as well as whole-house case studies from across the U.S. and Canada for homeowners eager to simplify, and remodelers, builders,...