Category

Media

Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter Book Due in February 2012

By Media

Lloyd Kahn, the man behind cult classics Shelter, Home Work, and the recent Builders of the Pacific Northwest has a new book coming out in February of 2012: Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter.

Lloyd’s previous books all feature the work of owner-builders with a natural flair. Many of his books have the element of travel in it, too, as Lloyd traipses around the country and beyond, meeting creative (and not too infrequently, quirky) builders that delve into natural and traditional styles of building. Shelter set the trend in 1973, and Home Work followed much later with more current day builders and their beautiful work, and Tiny Homes exposes the new exploding scene of tiny houses and small living spaces.

Actually, my cob house will be featured on two pages of the the book. Look for Tiny Homes in February 2012.

The Year of Mud on Facebook

By Media

The Year of Mud has decided to grace facebook with its muddy-fingered presence. Check out The Year of Mud page and do what you will as far as “liking” us and all that stuff… Expect news announcements, updates about our natural building workshops, and some other good stuff.

(I have been avoiding the site like the plague for a while now, but… what with our building workshops and all that, it seems necessary to break down and get our name out there through the beast that is facebook. So it goes.)

Thanks for supporting The Year of Mud!

My Cob House in Popular Mechanics Top 10 “Backyard Genius 2011”

By Media

Strangely enough, my house has been featured in another magazine — this one a rather strange one. Popular Mechanics recently interviewed me for their so-called “Backyard Genius” Top Ten. Alongside all the praise for gloss and high tech gadgets in the mag is a little piece about my house, built out of mud.

I like that its inclusion is kinda subversive, in a way. Ha!

A small blurb can be found in the latest issue (September 2011), and in their online feature.

Check it out.

My Boing Boing Interview: How to Build Your Own Hobbit House

By The Year of Mud Book, Resources, Media

Avi Solomon recently interviewed me for a bit on Boing Boing, titled Brian “Ziggy” Liloia on How To Build Your Own Hobbit House.

In the interview, I talk about my decision to build with cob, the great rewards and challenges in building your own home, the community building experience at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and more.

If you’re new to this blog (or even if you’re not), please check it out!

p.s. Want to learn even more about how to build your own cob house? Check out The Year of Mud: Build a Cob House book!

 

Natual Building Video Review: Mud, Hands, A House

By Resources, Video, Media

I recently had the fortunate opportunity to check out Mud, Hands, A House (or El Barro, Las Manos, La Casa, its original Spanish title), a great natural building documentary provided to me by the kind Max of Firespeaking.com.

It’s an educational, how-to focused natural building documentary with a wealth of instructional segments, led by Jorge Belanko, an engaging master natural builder based in Patagonia, Argentina.

Read More

Building My Cob House: Slideshow & More at Yes! Website

By Media

endofseason02I’ve mentioned before that GOBCOBATRON will be featured on the cover of the latest Yes! Magazine, issue #55. Well, in addition to that, the staff has created a slideshow of the building of my cob house for their website, and a piece of my writing accompanies it.

You can check out the Building a Handmade Cob House slideshow at the Yes! website. If you like it, maybe you’ll consider stumbling it and sharing with friends?

Thanks!

My Cob House Featured in Yes! Magazine

By Media
gobcobatron in yes! magazine

GOBCOBATRON in Yes! Magazine

Whoa! Yes! Magazine recently contacted me about a feature they were creating for their newest issue about resilient communities — they specifically had interest in covering Dancing Rabbit, but it turns out most of the article ended up being about my cob home. They even selected our photo for the cover shot! (Thanks to Stephen for the photo help.)

Read More