As the temperature rises, so do our activity levels. Summertime can be hysterically busy as we juggle all of the projects and work commitments that we’ve taken on. This year is no exception. We’re at the brink of several exciting things here… but I digress. I know I’m being vague, but I’ll have more to say about all of that soon.
During our downtime at home, the newly released The Art of Natural Building has been inspiring lots of conversation. This new book release is a much improved second edition to the original published way back in 2001. The 2015 edition is a major and well-organized overhaul, containing a diverse spread of essays and articles about natural building materials and techniques, building history, best practices, and personal stories.
The Art of Natural Building Book Review
The Art of Natural Building contains a wide-ranging collection of essays and articles, drawing from the collective experience of many prominent natural builders across the world but mostly specific to North America. While this book may not teach you how to build a house from the ground up, it does provide illuminating insights into the realm of building with a variety of natural materials, which has been evolving rapidly over the past two decades or more. “Modern day” natural building has come a long ways even since the early 2000s, when the first edition was originally published.
Today there are countless more books and online resources devoted to cob, straw bale, timber framing, earthbag building, cordwood masonry, etc. and any number of schools that offer courses in natural building techniques. It’s both amazing and ironic that despite how simple these materials are that we’re so enamored with — clay, sand, straw, wood, stone — the bars are getting raised consistently about how to put these raw materials to their best, most beautiful, and most efficient possible use. I think the authors and editors of ANB make a strong case for that.
This book includes articles covering everything from basic introductions to the practice, life-cycle costs and comparisons between natural and conventional homes, essays about thatch, compressed earth blocks, passive solar homes, bamboo building, the evolution of timber framing, to straw bale homes in Pakistan, and others. The articles are concise yet informative, and each includes valuable references at the end where interested readers can delve deeper into any one subject — a nice feature indeed. This is a big book at over 450 pages, so there’s plenty to pore over on a rainy day or a sleepy Sunday morning. I enjoy the format, as you can flip to any individual chapter and learn something new and get the creative juices flowing.
Having read any number of natural building books, there’s still plenty in here to inspire and motivate me. Reading this book, I somehow feel the invisible thread connecting me to everyone else building, playing, and experimenting with natural materials growing stronger. I also expect this book would be a great gift to someone not totally familiar with natural building but wanting to increase their knowledge and feed their imagination. Check it out!
Image credit: New Society Publishers