This book examines a broad range of traditional and modern natural construction methods, including straw-bale, light-clay, cob, adobe, rammed earth and pise, earthbag, earth-sheltered, bamboo, and hybrid systems. It also covers key ecological design principles, as well as current engineering and building code requirements.

Experts on each building system have contributed core chapters that explore the history, development, climatic appropriateness, environmental benefits, performance characteristics, construction techniques, and structural design principles for each method. More than 200 visuals depict both construction processes and completed structures. An extensive resource guide shows where to go for further information, training and research.

In an increasingly resource-conscious era, alternative construction is truly an idea whose time has come. Whether you're an architect, designer, student, or homeowner, this book will help you to combine indigenous building materials with modern construction systems and design standards to create low-impact, high-quality buildings that meet the highest levels of comfort, health, and safety.

Excerpt from the Preface
This book on alternative construction methods was conceived in response to the growing need for a single text on the numerous and proliferating earth- and straw-based building systems in the United States. It provides a guide to the non-industrialized materials and assemblies currently evolving as ecological, low-impact options for residential and low-rise constriction. Alternative Construction is not intended to replace the specialized technical manuals and books that have been published for some of these individual building systems, but rather to offer a full-breadth understanding of the various options for natural building in this country.

More than seven basic methods are addressed, with performance characteristics and construction techniques for each. The book includes, for each genre, a brief history of development, a review of environmental benefits, and considerations for application. For several systems the book also provides an analysis of bioregional appropriateness.

Each chapter has been written by an expert or team of experts in some instances the original pioneers in an individual building method. As such, this compendium work of more than two dozen contributors flows more like a natural builders conference than a highly structured textbook. While each author covers the essential aspects of building with one particular system, each emphasizes what he or she thinks is most important, maintaining the color and richness of his or her unique perspective.

These alternatives to conventional wood-frame and steel-frame construction include adobe, cob, rammed earth, earthbag, light-clay, straw-bale, and hybrid systems. A bonus chapter on bamboo construction suggests applications for its use in North American architecture.

The book opens with a report on recent reforms within international building codes that are moving toward more sustainable and performance-based building standards. This is followed by chapters on essential ecological design principles, including one on natural conditioning that features modeling and comparisons of the thermal performance of several earth, straw, and hybrid wall assemblies. The eight chapters of Part II, “Systems and Materials,” constitute the heart of the book.

Part III presents case study applications in the United States and other countries, including projects that have synthesized hybrid methods. Several chapters address the cultural challenges of introducing alternative systems in other countries, in some cases newly engineered versions of indigenous systems that had been abandoned and, in other, systems that are entirely foreign to the local culture. Here, too, can be found practical principles for such technology transfer. The book closes with two appendices: a substantial section on recommended references and a listing of domestic and international education centers for ecological and alternative building.

Table of Contents
DESIGN PRINCIPLES.
A New Context for Building Codes and Regulation (D. Eisenberg).
Natural Conditioning of Buildings (K. Haggard, et al.).
Structural Properties of Alternative Building Materials (B. King).
SYSTEMS AND MATERIALS.
Adobe (M. Moquin).
Cob (M. Smith).
Rammed Earth (D. Easton).
Modular Contained Earth (J. Kennedy, et al.).
Light Clay (R. Laporte & F. Andresen).
Straw-Bale (K. Lerner, et al.).
Bamboo (D. DeBoer & K. Bareis).
Earthen Finishes (C. Crews, et al.).
APPLICATIONS.
Integrated Systems with Rammed Earth (M. Webster-Mannison).
Straw, Clay, and Carrizo (B. Steen & A. Steen).
Light-Clay House Additions (L. Host-Jablonski).
Variations on Earthbag (K. Hunter, et al.).
The Value of Indigenous Ways (C. Nelson).
Building Technology Transfer (K. Lerner, et al.).
Epilogue: Finding the Soul of Natural Building (T. Bender).
Appendices.
About the Contributors.
Index.