Archive for the ‘Healthy Building’ Category

EcoNest Builders Training July 2010- Chiseling & Timber Frame

Monday, July 12th, 2010

I’ve been training with my friends Paula & Robert of www.econest.com for the past few weeks. I’ve found my niche! I feel great joy when crafting, working with my hands, building a beautiful, healthy, holistic house with them. I will be documenting the many learning experiences I’ve had over the next few weeks…stay posted…

Here are some pictures of me working on sawing and chiseling my very first timber frame member…

Timber frame sawing with a special Japanese hand saw

Here I am chiseling the surface perfectly flat – 90 degrees in both x and y axis. It was so hard to do that I had to do it 2x and cut the whole thing back half an inch before I got it right.

Chiseling at 90 degrees perfectly flat to 1/32′ of an inch

Here you can see special markings indicating where and how the beam should be placed

Look at the cool suction marks that happened - looks like a tree branch...

I spent hours sanding my chisel on progressively finer japanese water sanding blocks – from 600 grit, to 800, to 1200, to 2000, to 8000 grit. Phew! That was intense!

Here you can see how dull it is after only the first level of sanding (half an hour or so of work)

Here finally after about 3 hours or so, you can start to see the reflection of the trees above through the shine – WOW!

Even the insects are 'green' & sustainable!

Sometimes, the coolest bugs would drop by….

Laying out the timber beams to cut the mortise & tennon joints

There were about 20 of us, off and on, cutting, sawing, chiseling the joints in many pieces of timber – it was a joyous experience for several days….

Taking a break for lunch and giving thanks for the scrumptious meals that I helped Paula Baker Laporte make as well each day

Detail of Japanese Timber Frame brace - one of the pieces that I made...

Detail of a timber frame joint connection in process of coming together

Standing in front of a great accomplishment finally with the team – Feeling the satisfaction of one beam integrated with 2 posts and the second horizontal member ‘Japanese Brace’ all in place finally on the first side of the square – Yeah!!!

Posted in Building Biology, Building SOUL, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Sustainable | No Comments »

Oval Strawbale House gets an Award

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Oval Strawbale House

The Oval Strawbale House has been given an AWARD on April 8, 2010, in the FOUNDING CUSTOM HOME category by the Home Sweet Home Competition;

“The idea for Home Sweet Home sprouted in 2008 during the research and development of OntarioGreenSpec.ca. OntarioGreenSpec.ca is an online directory that was founded by Mindscape Innovations Group (Mindscape) in response to the overwhelming demand for information about green building products and services to serve Ontario’s growing green building market. Mindscape, experts in green building consulting and certification, developed OntarioGreenSpec.ca as a free directory for use by the public and industry.”

“OntarioGreenSpec.ca exists to shine a bright light on the great products and services available to Ontario’s high performance builders, and to serve Ontario’s green building sector. As such, Home Sweet Home promotes the use of “home-grown” materials. Not only does a competition entrant need to be located in Ontario, the judging criteria also gives cumulative points for Canadian, Ontarian, and local (within 800km) content, with triple points when the products in the home come from your region of Ontario.”

Elegant. Efficient. Ecological.

From early design considerations of habitat preservation and geopathic energy assessments through to the final stroke of paint, all features were considered for their effect on human health, environment and of course, comfort and beauty.

In our opinion, the Oval Strawbale House exemplifies that which soma earth ARCHITECT and the builder, Evolve Homes, strives to embody in every one of their projects, a home that is all of elegant, efficient and ecological.

Rear View

Elegant

With its elliptical shape borrowed from the natural contours of its surroundings, the house gently perches on a hillside and also based on the sacred geometry of the vesica piscis. The curved walls welcome the sun’s rays into more rooms, for more hours each day than traditional straight walls while simultaneously promoting views of a neighbouring pond. Adjacent shade trees are carefully maintained ensuring seasonal shading and provision of privacy.

Prior to construction, eco-architect, Ingrid Cryns, dowsed for the geopathic earth energy lines to find the best place to position the house to clear the bed, sitting areas for the couch & office as well as the kitchen sink. The architect and owner also identified a very large, three foot diameter, beneficial energy spot on the site and the house was placed so that this energy spot was located just inside at the corner between the living room/mediation room window and upstairs bedroom walls. A plastic line was embedded into the concrete floor slab to connect this spot to the centre of the house at the fireplace to secure the energetic centre of the house with the land. This was the most critical & significant energy enhancing aspect that was implemented. The design of the house with the two curves in plan creates an extremely strong beneficial energy. All together, this creates a very strong sense of well being, joy and calmness when inside the house that is very noticeable to anyone who visits.

Sitting Room with FSC maple floor

Inside, soft finishes including customized sculpted relief work emerging from walls and fireplace surrounds together with luxuriously deep window sills replete with tiled mosaics, complete the unique look and allow personal expression for the Owner, who assisted with design and implementation of such details.

Efficient

Careful attention was paid to sealing of all joints in the building envelope and upgraded conventional insulation. Low- or no-VOC sealants and recycled under-floor insulation, instead of virgin polystyrene, was used. Additionally, this home’s strawbale insulated exterior walls, at + R30, offers significantly better operating performance than ordinary conventional construction methods.

While insulating is important, so too is the notion of massing: using dense materials in which to store and then slowly release heat. A heavy concrete subfloor as well as 1 ½” of plaster on the interior of the bale walls, combine to provide excellent thermal storage capacity. This mass absorbs heat when it is generated via the sun or the radiant floor heat distribution system, and then gently releases this heat again as the air temperature declines. Strategic use of mass provides comfort and efficiency. Working equally well in the summer by robbing the air of its heat as well as humidity to maintain user comfort, this home has no need for mechanical air conditioning.

Masonry Heater - Designed by the Client & Architect

Integration of an historic “kachelofen”, or masonry fireplace, expands the use of mass in this home. Ordinary fireplaces or woodstoves regularly burn uncomfortably hot while also consuming wood inefficiently as up to 70% of the heat escapes through the chimney. Kachelofens incorporate many small channels into specially constructed masonry masses between the firebox and the chimney. These channels absorb the generated heat before it escapes to the chimney – improving efficiencies by a factor of 2x or 3x.

Better still, this mass radiates the captured heat for hours afterward at a slow, gentle pace, allowing the users to bask in a soft, warm glow with all the visual pleasure of an ordinary fireplace.

Meditation room fireplace

Ecological

Local sourcing and use of naturally occurring materials are vital components in reducing the impact of this home. And what could be more local then felling trees from the owner’s surrounding woodlot, milling them on site, having them kiln dried nearby then turning the finished boards into all of the interior doors, cabinet doors, window sills, stair treads and baseboard. To top it all off, literally, natural oil finishes are applied and offer long lasting protection in lieu of ordinary petrochemical based urethanes.

More than simply “low-VOC”, silicate dispersion paints – Canadian manufactured using silica sand and natural mineral pigments – are used throughout to provide rich colour and naturally mildew-free painted wall finishes. One room was even more specially treated with a clay veneer instead of any paint at all, leaving a suede-like texture that immediately attracts attention. Additionally, some baseboard was sculpted and the fireplace face’s constructed using only earthen based plasters prepared on site from locally available clays. No cement, no polymeric binders…just rich, durable, natural materials.

Kitchen with paperstone counter

Kitchen

Additional Project Details

Energy Savings

• Typical heating energy reduction of 30-50% compared to conventional construction

• Integration into landscape and existing mature trees to provide seasonal shading

• Orientation of major windows primarily toward south & east (primary view of pond) for as much passive solar gain possible through the dense forested site

• No mechanical air conditioning required

• Significant free “daylighting” through strategically located windows to reduce light use

• Further savings in heating costs achievable by owner use of Kachelofen enhanced further if using deadfall trees from own property

• Reduction in embodied energy in building materials through combination of: local sourcing, use of reclaimed/recycled materials and materials requiring fewer processing inputs

• Fibreglass framed windows provide longer life and higher insulating ratings

• Low E coatings on window glazing reduce heat energy from the sun in summer only

• Thermal edge spacers between window panes reduce thermal bridging

• “Massing” strategically used for efficient thermal storage and heat delivery

• Efficient radiant floor heat distribution on main floor and hot water radiators on second storey

• High-efficiency condensing boiler for domestic hot water and all space heating

• High efficiency Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV), professionally balanced on start-up

Stairs

Environmentally Preferred Materials

• Local, reused and reclaimed materials and minimally processed materials reduce embody energy inherent in ordinary construction

• Reclaimed wide plank beech flooring

• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified flooring

• Clay veneer wall finishes

• Earthen-based plaster fireplace facing and embellishments

• Strawbale exterior walls complete with hand-applied plaster finish

• Solid wood flooring

• Natural oil wood finishes

• VOC-free mineral based naturally pigmented paints

• Soy based polyurethane vaulted ceiling insulation

• Simulated, long lasting (50yr warranty) cedar shake roofing invented in Canada (Enviroshake)

• Locally made mineral wool attic insulation

• Interior doors, baseboard, window sills, kitchen cabinet doors and stair treads all made by local craftspeople from trees felled adjacent to house

• Kitchen counter top made from pressed and recycled post-consumer paper waste into resilient, satin finished surface

Wood trim & door detail

Waste Reduction

• Lumber off-cuts stored and sorted for reuse later in project

• Construction waste streamed appropriately for local municipal recycling programs

• No general waste construction bin used on site

Transportation

• House is walkable to community centre, shopping, banks and other amenities

• Staff carpool to site to reduce commuting energy costs; some staff stay temporarily on site during construction, eliminating the need for daily commute

• A south facing Potting Room will enable off-season vegetable greens and fruit to be grown while annuals get a head start on the outdoor planting season thereby reducing reliance on shipped in foodstuffs

3Rd Party Labeling Programs Utilized

• Eco-logo™ certified drywall

• Energy Star™ rated windows

• FSC™ certified hard maple flooring

• HRI Institute™ approved heat recovery ventilator (HRV) unit

Technical Repeatability

• All materials selected currently available in the Ontario market

• Traditional trades can use existing skills applied to alternative materials

• Design strategies customized for this site and user though same rules can be applied differently as appropriate for varying circumstances

Affordability

• Super insulated, environmentally preferable straw bale wall system comparable price to ordinary frame wall with brick or stucco finish

• Site felled trees were prepared for use at similar cost to purchasing raw material with unknown provenance from ordinary lumber suppliers

• Mineral wool batt insulation costs just 5% more than fiberglass though with a higher insulating rating, easier & much healthier to install and advantageous hydro-phobic properties

• Sustainably harvested hard maple flooring with consistent clear grade ordinary maple from unknown sources at traditional retailers

• Quality, durable materials and careful construction detailing will ensure longevity of house to reduce ongoing repair and maintenance

Technical Innovation

• The builder, Evolve Builders, has strategically systemized construction processes and details for straw bale walls to make this labour intensive building method cost-competitive with ordinary construction

• Simple, successful, repeatable “technologies” borrowed from historic building techniques then reformulated or adapted for modern expectations including: natural finishing oils for wood treatment, clay binders for wall finishes, mineral pigments for paint tinting

Tags: Building SOUL, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Sacred Geometry, Sustainable
Posted in Biogeometry, Building SOUL, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Sacred Geometry, Sustainable | Comments Off

Ontario Strawbale Building Coalition (OSBBC)

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

OSBBC Board Members - from left to right, Tina Thierin, Ingrid Cryns, Deirdre, Adam Krop, Frank Tetiner, David Elfstrom

OSBBC Board Members - from left to right, Tina Therrien, Ingrid Cryns, Deirdre McGahern, Adam Krop, Frank Tettemer, David Elfstrom (and Jup Bhasin - absent)

www.osbbc.ca

I am currently a board member fo the OSBBC and have truly enjoyed working with the dedicated team of volunteers who are passionate about supporting and encouraging the growth of Natural Building, including Strawbale biofibre building. Here is some detailed info. from the website – PLEASE SPEND SOME TIME VISITING THE SITE – YOU WILL LEARN A LOT!!!

The Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition (OSBBC) was formed to serve several purposes:

To provide information for people with an interest in building and/or owning a straw bale home. These services include general information, facilitating training courses, and providing testing data for building designers and building inspectors.

To initiate and support efforts to further the base of knowledge about straw bale building, including studies and tests leading to the building code acceptance of straw bale building techniques.

To foster a community of builders and owners involved in straw bale building to promote the exchange of ideas, resources, and social opportunities.

The Goals of the OSBBC

The OSBBC believes in the need for a movement towards a more environmentally responsible built environment. By using materials with the lowest possible embodied energy and toxicity and employing them in buildings designed to maximize the potential for renewable energies and minimizing the use of fossil fuels, we can make a substantial positive change in our impact on the environment. For the same costs as typical homes and buildings it is possible right now to create similar spaces from environmentally sound materials and to lower energy consumption dramatically. We hope to promote these strategies by assisting builders and owners to adopt them and to help to introduce them into the mainstream building world.

There is fantastic comprehensive listing on the website of sound technical documents that have been culled from various sources, mostly elsewhere on the web and on email lists.

Click this LINK FOR STRAWBALE TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS

Membership in the Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition has many benefits:

free admission to the Annual Tour of Straw Bale Homes and Buildings

reduced rates for selected OSBBC workshops

reduced rate for The Building Official’s Info-Package

inclusion in a volunteer on-call list

financial support for testing and code-acceptance of bale building

helps the organization promote straw bale building to building officials, the general public, and children through displays, speaking engagements, the web, and a toll-free number for inquiries

www.osbbc.ca

Tags: Healthy Building, Healthy House, Natural Building, OSBBC, Sustainable, Sustinable Building
Posted in Building SOUL, Energy, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Sustainable | No Comments »

Sustainable Organic Farm & Educational Centre

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Front Entry View

Sustainable Organic Farm

Design description

2009

Purpose

The Farm Buildings have been designed to accommodate a family and staff, as well as occasional guests. It has been designed to provide a working example of a high performance, low embodied energy building which could easily be replicated on a larger or smaller scale.

Cross-section at Round Centre

Side Elevation

Design

Main House

Access to the houses is from the Northern corner of the land. A road lined with native new-plant woodland & fruit trees leads south from the bottom of Albert Street and then curves east, along the top most west/east ridge to a crossroads centered within a large residential garden & pond. An west/east foot path track provides access to the house buildings as well as the east plots.

The house has been designed on an east-west axis to maximize passive solar gain. The house is a timber-framed or recycled steel building with a sedum/ herb roof.

Barn

The Barn is located near the house on the top ridge, central to the land, and is constructed mainly of timber and strawbale infill.

Educational Learning Centre/Storage Garage

The Centre/Garage is located in the northwest quadrant and is constructed mainly of timber and hemp/strawbale infill.

Services

There are water, sewage & electrical services accessible at the entry to the site, at the bottom of Albert Street. These services will be utilized as needed on the site.

Electricity

Electricity will mainly be supplied to the buildings from onsite solar panels, wind turbines & possibly micro-hydro from the nearby Beaver River.

Residential town hydro access to the site may be initially utilized to supplement this supply as well as selling back power to the town through this source.

Ground Floor Plan

Materials

The structure is either a roundwood timber-frame or recycled steel structure using local timber from the Site and/or nearby properties. The external walls of the dwellings are hemp/strawbale on a stabilized earthbag stem wall or concrete mix foundation. The floor is of FSC wood or rammed earth that will provide a large thermal mass which will serve to regulate the internal temperature conditions. The loading on the roof will be carried by trussed rafters or recycled steel. The roof will be insulated using a combination of solid and loose hemp fibre or blown cellulose insulation.

Materials are dependant on approval by Ontario Building Code regulations.

Farm Buildings Construction

Design

The House has been designed using a modular scheme which allows for a high degree of flexibility in the design of the individual dome units whilst specifying a common approach to the construction. The intention is to create a design that can be replicated easily and that is simple to construct.

Element	Material	Reason	Role	Source
Foundations	Concrete (Mix with pumice, flyash, lime…..) Hempcrete EarthBag Recycled Masonry	Environment Environment Natural Recycled	Structural Structural Structural Structural	Local/Ontario Local/Ontario From site/local Recycled/Ontario
Floors	Compressed/Rammed Earth Wood Adobe Brick Concrete (Mix…hemp)	Natural Natural Natural	Finish Finish Finish Insulative	From site/local From site/local Local Local/Ontario
Walls	Timber, wood frame Recycled Steel Earth Bag Strawbale Plaster – Earth, lime Rammed Earth Earth bag Recycled Denim Hemp Sheep wool Cob Eco-drywall	Natural Natural Recycled Natural Natural Natural Natural Natural Recycled Natural Natural Natural	Structural Structural Structural Skin Skin Skin Skin Insulation Insulation Insulation Interior Eco-drywall	Local Recycled/Ontario From site/local Local Ontario From site/local From site/local USA UK Local From site/local USA
Windows Skylights	Double Glazing Solartube EFT	Recycled Manufactured Manufactured	Natural Lighting Natural Lighting Natural Lighting	Recycled/Ontario USA UK
Roof	Metal geodesic frame Trussed joists Plasterboard Vapour barrier Hemp Insulation Green plywood Wood boarding Butyl Membrane Soil [Green Roof] Sedum/ Herb [Plants]	Recycled Manufactured Natural Manufactured Natural Natural Recycled/Nat. Manufactured From Site From Seed	Structural Structural Skin Membrane Insulation Finish Structural Membrane Environmental Environmental	USA Ontario UK USA Recycled/Ontario Local Local
Element	Material	Reason	Role	Source
Mechanical	Composting Toilets Radiant Floor Heating Solar Hot water heating Wetland grey & blackwater waste management Rainwater collection Biomass heating stoves (per room) Masonry Fireplace
Electrical	Building Biology principles of installation Biogeometry EMF protection Low energy/high efficiency bulbs Candles
Alternative Energy Systems	Geothermal Solar Wind [Micro-hydro]

Construction

The foundations will be made from a concrete mix of possibly hemp/limecrete with high flyash and/or pumice stone as well as possibly using recycled masonry (subject to building regulations approval).

The main structure will either be recycled steel or timber posts which will sit on pad foundations. They will support recycled steel or timber beams which will in turn support the roof. The floor will be insulated with hempcrete and above that will either be rammed earth or FSC wood. The external walls will be straw bale with earth plaster on the inside and lime plaster on the outside. The internal walls & finishes will be earth plaster, cob, eco-drywall with recycled denim, hemp or sheeps wool.

The roof will be supported either with recycled steel or trussed joists. These may be lightweight timber I-section beams made from recycled woodchips or local lumber. A possibility is to construct them on site using local wood from on near the site. This may eliminate the need for a large section timber roof structure. The roof will be insulated with hemp fibre or blown cellulose insulation and boarded with local or FSC wood planks or lined with [plasterboard to provide a fire retardant layer]. An EPDM membrane will provide a waterproof layer for the 70mm deep sedum/ herb roof.

Glazing will be double or triple depending on aspect. Windows and doors will be

either of softwood (FSC), recyled or local hardwood depending on their aspect.

Reversibility

The building is reversible insofar as the site could be restored to its former condition

with relative ease. After dismantling the structure the small masonry elements could

be dug up and removed. The concrete slab would need breaking up and removing

from the site. There would need to be some minor earthworks to return the site to its

previous incline.

Passive Solar Design

The Farm Buildings have been designed to maximize passive solar gain. The southern glazing

will capture the sun’s heat and this will then be stored in the massive floor.

Active Solar Design

The roof of the buildings will also incorporate solar water panels. This will be used to heat water for domestic use during the summer. Solar Water heating is technologically simple and works excellently to heat water in the summer. Water Accumulators will store this solar heat. We plan to be able to harvest all of the building’s hot water needs from the sun for 6 months of the year from the sun.

Ventilation and Infiltration

The buildings will be designed to minimize infiltration. The main entrances will be designed as airlocks.

Ventilation is provided in all of the ‘living’ rooms. In most cases this will take the form of

openable windows and trickle ventilation.

Natural lighting

All of the rooms have been designed to be lit under ordinary daylight conditions. Solartube ceiling lights will be added to supplement lighting into the rear hill side of the rooms as needed. Geodesic skylights will also be utilized in various feature areas.

Space/ Water Heating

The buildings will be designed to be super-insulated and thus require minimum heating. Heating will be provided by means of under-floor, radiant heating. This will be sourced from a large super-insulated water tank.

Heating Fuel

Fuel for heating will be sourced from a variety of different methods. Biomass stoves will be located in rooms with highest uses. A large central masonry fireplace with a significant thermal mass container will be utilized for the main rooms.

Tags: Farm, Healthy Building, Natrual Building, Organic Farm, Sacred Geometry, Sustainable, Sustainable Farm
Posted in Building Biology, Building SOUL, Eco-Village, Energy, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Retrofit, Sacred Geometry, Spirituality, Sustainable Farm, Uncategorized, Vibrational Dowsing | No Comments »

Oval Strawbale house

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Entry detail

Oval Strawbale House - GF Plan

Here is the ground floor plan of a 2 storey, 2000 SF, OVAL STRAWBALE HOUSE that started construction April 2009! We have been so inspired by the gentleness and awareness of our client who is studying Reiki & Permaculture. The curved shape grew out of our many design conversations together and also creates an extremely high vibrational energy with this simple plan shape. Using my special Biogeometry BG3 pendulum, I am able to test vaiours levels of design to continuously enhance & balance the quality of energy in each room. This building will be entirely non-toxic with 95% all natural, building materials. A combination timber post interior with balloon wood frame strawbale wall is our main construction system.

Oval Strawbale House - Elevation

Oval Strawbale House - Detail at 2nd Floor window

Strawbale walls have a unique vapour permeability that allows minute water vapours to pass through the unique porous crystalline structure of the plaster skin and can have anywhere from .10 to .50 ACH (air exchanges per hour) (with no mechanical assistance/technology). Strawbale walls don’t actually ‘breathe’ which is a common myth, rather they “respire” which favourably impacts on the indoor humidity and which in turn provides comfort by adding/removing moisture in the winter/summer as needed.

This creates an extremely healthy living space and air environment that surpasses, in my opinion, any standard, stick frame home. Also, a typical brick/wood stud 2×4 wall usually has less than an R20 insulation whereas strawbale walls have a continuous monolithic insulation of a R30 to R40 value. And, the thick plaster on the inside of straw bale walls acts as a thermal mass and has been shown to play a significant role in stabilizing indoor temperatures. A strawbale house is simply a smarter house!

Oval Strawbale House - Foundation Prep

Plotting the geopathic earth energy lines

Geopathic earth energy lines dowsed and located – Hartman (yellow) and Curry (Red) lines

Foundation formwork starting

Poured Concrete Foundation with Insulation

Wood sill plate base for strawbales

16' long Larsen Trusses delivered to site

Framing started (larsen trusses on right)

Framing started (larsen trusses upright on the left)

Round log posts & timber beam for interior only

Framing at 2nd floor

2nd Floor Window Framing

Larsent posts base at corner

Ballon Wood Framing

All finishes will be natural with ‘0′ VOC’s (volatile organic compounds). We are looking at reclaimed timber flooring, papercrete countertops, milk paint stains as well as milling wood from directly from the site.

As the site has a great supply of wood and our client would like to use some of the maple, cherry, ash and ceder wood in his house. We visited the site together before any clear cutting was done for the building site and talked with the trees to let them know they will be needed in the house. This was a tremendous experience for both of us that I wrote a lot about in my blog here….

The house will also have radiant heating in the floors, a tankless water heater, and a masonry heater fireplace as the main heat source with propane back-up as needed.

Oval Strawbale House – Exterior plaster started

Exterior plaster

Long view of house from driveway

Front of Oval Strawbale House

Sustainable builder, Ben Polley of Harvest Homes is a leader in the field of natural strawbale construction. His depth and breadth of experience is absolutely wonderful to work with. We highly recommend him for any projects. He works in the Guelph/Kitchener-Waterloo, Grey-Bruce, and Orillia-Muskoka area. From these three locations, they service projects north to Lions Head and Huntsville, east to Highway 400 and most areas south-west within a one to two hour distance from Guelph. In my opinion, there are very few Natual Builders as highly qualified as Ben is. Please contact me if you want names of green, strawbale contractors in other areas of Ontario as well or visit my website for more detailed info here….

This is what Ben has to say about working together on this project;

“I really appreciate your manner of expressing the values important to you and expressing also the defense of things you imparted into the plan on [your client's] , behalf all the while leaving it open to [him] to consider, weigh and decide or defer as necessary. I am very much looking forward to this and future projects working alongside you!”

Tags: Healthy Building, Healthy House, Natural Building, Sustainable, Sustainable Building
Posted in Biogeometry, Building SOUL, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Sustainable, Vibrational Dowsing | No Comments »

HEALING THROUGH VIBRATIONAL DOWSING & RESONANCE: New Methods for Human Beings, Buildings, & the Earth

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Dr. Robert Gilbert

I recently took a course with the above title, with Dr. Robert Gilbert. Here is Robert’s Bio. from his website;

Dr. Robert J. Gilbert has a multi-faceted background in both spiritual and scientific studies. He is a former U.S. Marine Corps Instructor in Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Warfare Survival; since leaving the service in 1985 he has conducted independent research into the Geometric basis of modern science and new technologies. Dr. Gilbert is also a Rosicrucian with more than 20 years of experience in Sacred Geometry and its hidden uses by the world’s great spiritual traditions. His non-sectarian approach is inclusive of individuals from all spiritual traditions. Dr. Gilbert holds a Ph.D. in International Studies and is a published academic author in that field, contributing to the first academic textbook in the new field of Transformational Politics.

In 1997 Dr. Gilbert began for the first time to teach publicly the results of his two decades of intensive research. Today he teaches both publicly and privately in Asheville, NC. Dr. Gilbert also offers a small number of his VESICA series of special seminars throughout the United States every year. He is currently completing his first book 7 Keys to Creation: Sacred Geometry and the Patterns of Life.

The course was FANTASTIC! Robert is truly a pioneer in researching energy balancing, healing & protection methods for human beings as well as for buildings. He has recently been involved in helping to develop several new products for this using vibrational dowsing principles. Based on the preliminary foundational science of Biogeometry, Robert’s work develops this with another level working with the 12 bands of the colour spectrum. Here is a small sampling of what I learned in the course from the syllabus;

The “Life Energy Spectrum”: A Master Key to Holistic Healing
The Cutting edge of Detox Protocols for restoring health even in “terminal” cases (including both Medical and Holistic protocols)
Critical Differences between Electro-Magnetic and Life energies (including how some Electro-magnetic healing devices harm the human energy field)
Keys to Energy Balancing entire cities (with examples from completed projects in 6 U.S. cities plus European projects)
Dowsing methods to apply Light and Color within energy meridians & centers
New Modular system to Test and Apply needed Energy Qualities (including many currently unknown even to advanced Dowsers and nergy Healers)
Essential Principles and Methods for Healing the Earth
Earth Energy Discoveries from Europe (including the critical Resonances needed in addition to the Atmospheric ‘Schumann Resonance’)
Using precise Minerals as “anchors” for vibrational information on the physical plane
The Critical Difference between Vibrational and Mental Dowsing (and how to combine them into a more powerful system)
Transmitting Holographic Vibrational Patterns with Light

All I can say after spending a couple of days with Robert -

WOW!!!

Egyptian Architect, Dr. Ibrahim Karim dowsing with a vibrational pendulum

So……what is VIBRATIONAL DOWSING you ask?

There are 3 types of dowsing. Mental, Sensitization and Physical or VIBRATIONAL.

Mental dowsing is the more commonly understood form of dowsing where people hold a pendulum in their hands and asking a simple yes or no question, the pendulum with move in one direction or another. It is a form of reverse self-hypnosis that breaks through the conscious mind to get answers out of the subconscious mind or even sometimes the universal or collective stream of thought. Mental dowsing is the hardest to teach as it is difficult to quiet the mind and let go of any attachment to the outcome, which can influence the end result. You can learn it quickly, but it takes years to really do it well and with any consistent accuracy.

Sensitization dowsing is a method that sort of falls in-between mental and vibrational dowsing. Some people have a gift in that their entire body is high attuned or ’sensitive’ and they can feel a variety of subtle energies with their physical body or their hands. This is not the best way to approach energy quality management as often people have no idea how to distinguish if what they are ‘picking up’ is a toxic form of energy or not.

Vibrational dowsing is a method that developed from the work of the French Radiesthesiasts. Radiesthesia is a term coined by Balzac and Chaumer, two scientists who developed a high sophisticated pendulum and science to be able to measure subtle energetic qualities. Of the three forms of dowsing, Radiesthesia is the easiest to learn. It is like a simple biofeedback tool, using your own body as an energetic vibrational link to test varieous energies. The more you learn how to work with it, the better you become attuned to these subtler energies and you become more able to distinguish the beneficial energies from any toxic energies – in the human body or on the land or in buildings.

Tuning Forks - When you tap one, the other one begins to ring as it is in RESONANCE with the other

And finally, what is RESONANCE - you ask again?

Resonance is the aspect of when one sound or vibrational frequency is in harmony with another. Here are a few ‘technical’ definitions;

a vibration of large amplitude produced by a relatively small vibration near the same frequency of vibration as the natural frequency of the resonating system
Acoustic resonance is the tendency of an acoustic system to absorb more energy when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system’s natural frequency of vibration (its resonance frequency) than it does at other frequencies.
rapport: a relationship of mutual understanding or trust and agreement between people

Here is a description of RESONANCE from Dr. Ibrahim Karim’s website; www.biogeometry.org;

Where vibrations are, resonance can happen. The encyclopaedia gives: “relatively large selective response of an object or a system that vibrates in step or phase, with an externally applied oscillatory force.” Resonance was first investigated in acoustical systems such as musical instruments and the human voice. Mechanical resonance, such as that produced in bridges by wind or by marching soldiers. Somewhat analogous resonance exists on the nuclear scale. This occurs when atoms or their nuclei respond to the application of various magnetic fields by emitting or absorbing electromagnetic radiation of radio and microwave frequencies. Resonance in electrical systems makes it possible for certaincommunication devices to accept signals of certain frequencies while rejecting others.

On a separate page, you find a summary of what Ibrahim Karim told during a seminar about resonance. The story about “The Caveman” given by him is a nice illustration of resonance.

An interesting book (in Dutch) about resonance in nature is that of Hans Andeweg. It covers resonance in a broad sense and related subjects.

Resonance can occur between different types of vibrations such as between colour and sound. Colour is an electromagnetic vibration that can transfer energy in a vacuum, without a medium. Sound waves (compressional waves) are much slower than light waves.

Tags: Biogeometry, Dr. Ibrahim Karim, Dr. Robert Gilbert, EMF, Energy Balancing, Resonance, Vesica, Vibrational Dowsing
Posted in Biogeometry, Building SOUL, EMF/Electricity, Eco-products, Emotional Healing, Energy, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Natural Healing, Resonance, Sacred Geometry, Spirituality, Sustainable, Vibrational Dowsing | No Comments »

Building a HOGAN

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

I refer to a Hogan in my new book [soma earth HOME ENERGETIC BALANCING]. The below link is a fabulous slide show, showing how to construct one yourself! The pictures of the round wood frame structure are beautiful!

Building a Hogan - SLIDE SHOW LINK

For the Navajo, the spirit of the home is called a Hogan, and is treated like a living object by its inhabitants. It needs to be taken care of and loved to sustain the harmony of the Navajo home life. Historically they were originally a separate hut in the community and were used for ceremonies and to keep themselves in balance. Often built in a teepee shape or in a rounded mud shape, they were constructed out of wood poles and straw, clay and/or stones, either a 5 or 8 sided, usually facing the east.
“Hogan’s are personified in ordinary conservation – they are alive; they need to be fed, cared for, spoken to, and shielded from loneliness”

Frisbee, Charlotte J., The Navajo House Blessing Ceremonial 1980, p.166

Hogan round wood structure

The house blessing ritual aims to “feed the house, show proper treatment and respect to it, prevent timber breakage, and remove the Hogan’s loneliness” (Frisbie, C., The Navajo House Blessing Ceremonial, 1980, p. 176). A sacred song called the Blessingway is chanted during the ceremony. The Hogan’s loneliness, before the ceremony is performed, is a dangerous thing as it can attract evil spirits; “every new house is taboo until, by appropriate rites, it is made noa (secular or profane)” (Van Gennep, A., The Rites of Passage, 1960, p. 24).

The house blessing ceremony of the Navajo is performed so that the Hogan may be lived in by its designated inhabitants. When the built Hogan is finished, the medicine man blesses the home in beauty, invites happiness from the 4 directions as well as from the earth & sky, and asks for protection from illnesses and evil. The home is marked inside on the 4 walls with a sacred symbol to remind its inhabitants that it is graced with the blessings of the Great Spirit.

A finished HOGAN

Tags: Building SOUL, Healthy Building, Hogan, native american indian building, Natural Building, Sacred Geometry, Spirituality
Posted in Building SOUL, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Natural Healing, Sacred Geometry, Spirituality, Sustainable | No Comments »

Green Living Show Booth 2009

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

Green Living Show Booth 2009

We just came back from a fantastic experience at the Green Living Show at the Direct Energy Centre, CNE, Toronto, April 24 – 26, 2009, where I launched our new book, soma earth HOME ENERGETIC BALANCING. As part of this launch, we opened our booth with a special blessing ceremony at 10 am. We created a temporary alter on the reclaimed wood bench in the centre of the booth. We laid sacred cloths with intricate gold patterns from the finest weavers in Bali, laid out in a specific pattern to attract ALL POSSIBILITIES. We began by smudging ourselves with sage and then smudging, clearing the booth of any left over detrimental energies. I then used my sacred shamanic rattle to clear another finer level of energy in the space in a counter-clockwise direction. We stated our specific and personal intentions of what we wanted to attract during the 3 days of the show. Then I rang a sacred bell (also from Bali) to ring with clarity and clear all that is not beneficial from the space along the perimeter. Afterward, we added joyful and playful energies to invite the positive beneficial energies through a special metal chime ball around the perimeter of the booth, now in a clockwise direction.
It was so much fun creating the booth with the Fourth Pig Workers Co-op. Glen and Mick did a great job building the booth with us for 2 full days before the show started. If the Green Living Show were to give out an award for the best, lowest embodied, most sustainable booth – I’m sure we would have won. I made a conscious choice to ‘hand build’ our booth, to emphasize the art and craft of natural building and to showcase how the SOUL of building can come through the design of spaces like this. As we were hand crafting our booth, we were astounded at how many booths were being built in non-sustainable methods. I guess it continues to be a slow growth process to get everything you do on-line with green building, no matter how ‘green’ your product might be.

‘Better than Platinum LEED’s’

Eco-Architect, Ingrid Cryns at Green Living Show Booth 2009

Our booth at the Green Living Show was made entirely from materials directly from Nature, recycled or re-used. It had the lowest possible embodied energy and is all 100% locally sourced. The logs were hauled by myself and staff from a client’s forest who was felling trees to be made for the Oval Strawbale House.

Hauling logs out of the woods

Natural round wood column detail, lashed with jute rope and supported with hand hewn wood pegs

Round post BASE detail, with natural jute rope

The pergola structure was assembled without any nails, lashed with jute rope and supported by pegs. The one large vertical round log post was stripped of bark and painted with ‘O’ VOC paint by soma earth ARCHITECT staff. The infinity loop, figure 8 design, was painted 5 times, going under and over, like a Celtic pattern. The number 5 can mean harmony, balance and divine grace. There are 5 fingers, 5 toes and 5 senses of our bodies to emphasize the ’sensuality’ of handcrafting and adding artistic hand touches to the booth design. And, the number 5 holds the other numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4 within it’s form, containing them and expressing them in it’s ability to remind us to know ourselves as an integration & interaction of all of our essential parts. A reminder that our spaces can be a living container synthesizing an expression of all that we are.

Hand stripping the bark off the logs

Painting the natural wood post with 'O' VOC paints

Painting the natural wood post with '0' VOC paints

We had three sample ‘wattle and daub’ walls that were constructed from ½” – 1” diameter saplings or branches from the same clients’ property. The 2 x 4 wood frames where made from wood found in a neighbour’s dumpster. They were doweled together with the occasional re-used nail (bent back into shape with a hammer) to ensure stability. Throughout the show, we had demonstrations by Glen of the Fourth Pig, of ‘daubing’ the wall. Daubing is a term to describe applying natural earth plasters to the stick frame structure of interior partition walls.

Wattle Walls

Detail of wattle wall

Strawbale table support

The table top is solid teak and ‘borrowed’ for the show from my dinning room. The original strawbales underneath & supporting the table, were from the Fourth Pig Workers Co-op. All cloth material is 100% cotton, was re-used from previous shows, and painted with ‘O’ VOC paints by myself and staff. The walls were hung with unbleached 100% cotton material, the ceiling had a natural orange die, re-used from a previous trade show, and the floor cloth was painted with a mixture of 3 left over ‘0′ VOC paints in a unique SACRED GEOMETRY pattern of a combination of VESICA PISCES overlapping circles and occasional random spirals throughout and at the beginning of the patterns. The geometry circles were purposely painted as going under and over, like a Celtic pattern to encourage the ‘chi’ or energetic flow into and throughout the space.

Sacred Geometry Floor pattern

...more Sacred Geometry floor pattern.....

....and more Sacred Geometry patterns

LED light wrapped in seagrass rope

All lighting was LED lighting from IKEA with seagrass rope wrapped tightly around it to add to the Natural effect. The majority of the construction of the booth was by the Fourth Pig Workers Co-op.

The booth was surrounded by six 2′ x 3′ posters displaying our natural building work – all graphic design & layout by Ingrid Cryns. Staff member, Joanne, built a small Strawbale wall model with real straw and earth clay plaster at a 1:20 scale to display at the show.

Strawbale wall model, before plaster applied

Strawbale wall on booth table with books for sale

Strawbale wall model on top of booth table with various books for sale - Including LAUNCH of soma earth Home Energetic Balancing Book (left) by Ingrid Cryns.

Green Living Show 2009 Booth Construction TEAM:
soma earth ARCHITECT

Ingrid Cryns
Daniella Lucas
Joanne Swisterski
Rebecca Logan

Fourth Pig Workers Co-op

Glen Byrom
Melinda Zytaruk
Matthew Adams
Mick Paterson
James Davis
Shannon Muegge (+ 2 Friends assisted in constructing the wattle wall)

Tags: Booth Design, Green Living Show, LED lights, Living Geometry, round wood logs, Sacred Geometry, Strawbale
Posted in Building SOUL, EMF/Electricity, Energy, Green Living Show, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Natural Healing, Retrofit, Spirituality, Sustainable, Uncategorized | No Comments »

To LEED or not to LEAD?

Monday, March 30th, 2009

What is LEED?

LEED is a rating system that promotes the design and construction of high-performance buildings. The letters stand for;

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

It is a Green Building Rating System™ that “encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.”

It is mainly used for commercial projects and is slowly coming on line for residential buildings. There is currently a R2000 national standard voluntary program & a USA, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system that evaluates the environmental performance of a building against a set of criteria that act as a benchmark for comparison of projects. This system should be available in Canada in 2008 or 2009.

A LEED Green Home

A green home uses less energy, water and natural resources; creates less waste; and is healthier and more comfortable for the occupants. Benefits of a LEED home include lower energy and water bills; reduced greenhouse gas emissions; and less exposure to mold, mildew and other indoor toxins. The net cost of owning a LEED home is comparable to that of owning a conventional home.

For more detail, here is a link LEED for Homes Rating System

: Madoc Performing Arts Centre, Project Architect: soma earth ARCHITECT

To LEED or not to LEAD?

The Madoc Performing Arts Centre is sure to be one of the most sustainable buildings in Canada, completed in September, 2008. Sustainability has been the key factor in every aspect of the design and construction of this remarkable building. Only the lowest-impact and longest-lasting materials have been chosen. From the compacted stone of the rubble trench foundation, up through the load-bearing round straw bale columns, to the galvanized metal roofing, the building represents the best available choices for building with all natural materials in our northern climate>

Mechanical systems have also received a lot of attention. From the geo-thermal heating and cooling system that allows the building to maintain a comfortable temperature year round without relying on fossil fuels, to the PV panels that provide its electrical power, to the solar ventilation system that provides the building with pre-warmed fresh air, to the rainwater collection system that provides flushing water for the toilets, the building uses available technologies to drastically reduce its resource consumption and waste production.
For the Madoc Performing Arts Centre getting it LEED certified was discussed and in the end it was decided to not participate in the program for the following reasons;

This 2000 SF building was designed as a teaching project for the Flemming College, Sustainable Design Program. There was a preliminary investigation to see if LEED certification would be possible. The costs to assess for LEED were estimated at $20 – $25,000. There would need to be a LEED certified consultant as well as other consultants to test the heating, ventilation, etc, at about $5 – 7,000 each, to see how the building’s components would meet the assessment criteria. As the City of Madoc, did not need a LEED certification for any marketing promotion, it was decided to not spend the extra money to go through this process.

Madoc Performing Arts Centre, August 2008

Furthermore, the building has a number of unique sustainable components that in our opinion, goes further than a typical LEED project, which would not be able to be included.For example, LEED gives points for proximity to public transport, but has no criteria for the number of components that where chosen to be virtually fossil fuel free in it’s manufacturing or transportation (e.g. lowest embodied energy).Or points are credited for being energy efficient, but then no points are allowed for using local clay or no concrete for the floor.

Also, it costs the same amount of money for a huge Walmart store to go through LEED certification as it does for a small building. As well, there is no consideration for the size of project, or for small projects for that matter, to cost less to go through this process on a pro-rated scale.

Madoc, exterior flooring

More recently there is a more stringent qualification system coming through BC called the Living Building Challenge.http://www.cascadiagbc.org/lbl/about

They’ve created a program called the ‘The Living Building Leader TM program [which] consists of a series of intensive, advanced ‘virtual learning’ sessions in green building topics, taught by experts in the diverse fields that underpin the multidisciplinary field that is green building.”

In summary, it may or may not always be necessary for a commercial (or residential)l project to be LEED certified.It depends on a number of variables as to the reason why the certification is required.If there is a public need for marketing that the certification would establish, than a LEED project certification would be a necessary step.

Tags: Energy, LEED, LEED for Homes, Sustainable, Sustainable Building
Posted in Building SOUL, Energy, Healthy Building, Natural Building, Sustainable | No Comments »

The Third Wave – Designing with EMF (Electro-Magnetic Frequency) & ELF (Electrical) awareness.

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Electrical EMF radiation towers - Never live closer than 500 m or more if you can, otherwise you risk a higher statistics to getting CANCER.

There are 4 waves or aspects that I feel encompasses the exciting & pioneering field of green sustainable building. The first wave is where most people are aware of sustainable design as an aspect of saving energy. The second wave is where more people are understanding that there is also an aspect of how design can include healthy, non-toxic use of materials and air systems. The third wave includes an awareness of invisible EMF and electrical toxicity and how to design for this. The fourth wave and in some ways a much less known aspect, is how to design buildings to work with invisible environmental energies and how to enhance the vibrational frequencies in a pro-active & protective manner.

Click here to read about The First Wave – Green, Sustainable Building as Saving Energy.

Click here to read about The Second Wave – Creating a Healthy Building too.

Electromagnetic Spectrum

The Third Wave – Designing with EMF (Electro-Magnetic Frequency) & ELF (Electrical) awareness.

Now, a third wave of building healthier is slowly emerging. Designing with EMF/ELF awareness. Many ‘green aware’ buyers already recognize EMF/ELF as an issue of concern, especially those people who would be interested in a “green” building, or a “healthy” building to start with. The perception of the public is that EMF/ELF is slowly becoming a real issue.

Cell phone radiation: According to a 1996 study by Om Gandhi at the University of Utah, radiation penetrates the brain of a child 4.2 times faster than an adult brain. It penetrates the fluid of the eye more than 12 times faster. It penetrates the lens of the eye 11.6 times faster. It penetrates the connective tissue of the eye 11.1 times faster.

There is an organization that originated in Germany over 40 years ago called the International Institute for Bau-biologie & Ecology (www.bau-biologieusa.com). They have been in Florida, USA, since 1987. They have developed very sound guidelines of what is a healthy building, from specifying non-toxic, healthier building materials to how to actually design for EMF/ELF protection. A handful of graduates have been gradually influencing the North American market and this general awareness is slowly filtering to the public.

“Organisms live in a delicate balance with their environment and are exposed to natural and man-made sources of energy. Electromagnetic energy can be classified into three categories based on its source: techno energy, earth energy, and life energy. Public concern is focused on electromagnetic energy generated by our technology and includes radiation and fields produced by power distribution networks, computers, microwave ovens, cell phones, wireless communication antennas, and satellite communication systems worldwide.”

- Magda Havas, B.Sc., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University

Example of Electromagnetic fields on a bed

There are three fundamental principles of field reduction when designing the electrical systems in a building. They are (1) distance, (2) natural field cancellation, and (3) shielding. A single plan review process will define the procedures for all units, and it then becomes a simple matter of adherence to the design and the exercise of best practices in wiring installation. Expensive magnetic shielding can almost always be avoided.

EMF Force Fields

EMF is an invisible force field that occurs naturally (e.g., lightning, the Earth’s magnetic field) and also is a byproduct of technology. EMF surrounds any electrical device including power lines, house wiring and appliances. As an electrical power frequency (60 Hertz in Canada/USA), EMF levels fall off very rapidly with distance from the source and have very low energy. Radio, television and cellular and microwave communication are electromagnetic in nature as are visible light, x-rays and cosmic rays. All these forms of electromagnetic energy are part of the ‘electromagnetic spectrum’ that describes the frequency and energy of both visible and invisible fields. Cellular communications, for example, operate at frequencies almost a billion times higher than EMF resulting from electric power, which means they are than much more powerful and can transmit signals over long distances, and as a byproduct can be very harmful for humans.

EMF Tri-Field Metre

The term “EMF” as used here refers to electric and magnetic fields at a frequency of 60 cycles per second or Hertz. EMF are commonly measured in units of gauss (G) by an instrument known as a gaussmeter. A milligauss (mG) is 1000 times smaller than a gauss. Healthy EMF & Electrical levels should be limited to a maximum of 3 mG in a home or workspace and that can even still be too high for some, more sensitive or seriously ill people. Some nervous system disorders, such as MS (Multiple Sclerosis) & some cancers such as Leukemia has been linked to EMF/ELF sensitivity for instance. Most homes average out in the range of 1-3 milligauss measured at a 60 Hz frequency.

Make sure you don’t live near or directly under any low or high voltage transmission lines though, as their frequencies can be anywhere from 10 – 100mg which is completely toxic and definitely cancer or tumor creating. But even in your home, 1 foot away from a TV will give off 10 – 80 mG, a microwave oven, 100 – 300 mG, a computer 10 – 20 mG, and a hair dryer, 10 – 700 mG. Without awareness, you can really scramble your own bio-energy system on a daily basis! This will detrimentally affect your immune system, your ability to think clearly, your emotional sensitivity, and so on. Through simple, straightforward intelligent planning & awareness, magnetic and electric field levels can be designed to be lowered quite a bit. Results can be calibrated with readings taken from small, hand-held, EMF/ELF reading machines.

Significant long-term exposures can be created by electrical wiring errors, grounding problems, and inappropriate placement of electrical equipment. Low-EMF/ELF design avoids this possibility, and produces uniformly good results. Home automation and communication systems (including Wi-Fi and BPL technologies) are another potential problem area. Whether you have a unique electrical sensitivity, or simply want to exercise a strong measure of caution in limiting exposure, designing in a way that includes EMF/ELF awareness will provide the ultimate in electromagnetic field protection.

Considering a LOHAS consumer target market, incorporation of a low-EMF feature would also offer a strong additional selling point. This is, in part, because it would round out the other environmental health issues addressed in a buildings design, and reflect a comprehensive approach that many buyers would recognize and appreciate. In addition, most other green builders have not adopted the concept except on an individual client and individual home basis, so incorporating this awareness in the design of your building would have a unique advantage.

Further Resources;

www.emfservices.com/electric.htm & www.emfservices.com/electrical-photos.htm

www.brain101.info/EMF.php

www.emfinterface.com/category/hypersensitivity/

This is a thermographic study showing how hot your face and ear get after 15 minutes of cell phone usage.

Tags: Electromagnetic Frequency, Electromagnetic Radiation, EMF, EMF/Electricity, EMR, Healthy Building
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Archive for the ‘Healthy Building’ Category

EcoNest Builders Training July 2010- Chiseling & Timber Frame

Oval Strawbale House gets an Award

Elegant. Efficient. Ecological.

Rear View

Elegant

Efficient

Ecological

Kitchen with paperstone counter

Kitchen

Additional Project Details

Energy Savings

Stairs

Environmentally Preferred Materials

Waste Reduction

Transportation

3Rd Party Labeling Programs Utilized

Technical Repeatability

Affordability

Technical Innovation

Ontario Strawbale Building Coalition (OSBBC)

www.osbbc.ca

The Goals of the OSBBC

There is fantastic comprehensive listing on the website of sound technical documents that have been culled from various sources, mostly elsewhere on the web and on email lists.

Click this LINK FOR STRAWBALE TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS

www.osbbc.ca

Sustainable Organic Farm & Educational Centre

Oval Strawbale house

HEALING THROUGH VIBRATIONAL DOWSING & RESONANCE: New Methods for Human Beings, Buildings, & the Earth

WOW!!!

Building a HOGAN

Green Living Show Booth 2009

To LEED or not to LEAD?

The Third Wave – Designing with EMF (Electro-Magnetic Frequency) & ELF (Electrical) awareness.

This is a thermographic study showing how hot your face and ear get after 15 minutes of cell phone usage.

Soma Architect

Soma Earth

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Archive for the ‘Healthy Building’ Category

Elegant. Efficient. Ecological.

Rear View

Elegant

Efficient

Ecological

Kitchen with paperstone counter Kitchen

Additional Project Details

Energy Savings

Stairs

Environmentally Preferred Materials

Waste Reduction

Transportation

3Rd Party Labeling Programs Utilized

Technical Repeatability

Affordability

Technical Innovation

The Goals of the OSBBC

There is fantastic comprehensive listing on the website of sound technical documents that have been culled from various sources, mostly elsewhere on the web and on email lists.

WOW!!!

This is a thermographic study showing how hot your face and ear get after 15 minutes of cell phone usage.

Soma Architect

Soma Earth

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Kitchen with paperstone counter

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