Natural Building Styles and Techniques around the World, No.2

page 2 of 3

This is a collection of shortcuts to pictures of natural homes from all over the world. Click on any of the pictures below to visit the page, read more about the house, follow links to builder's or owner's websites and, if you are a Pinterest user, add the picture to your collections in Pinterest. When you visit the page you may also see some of the following icons:

You'll find an explanation for each on the about pages.

If you would like to learn how to build homes like these we have a list of Natural Building Workshops. If you would like to read in more detail about some of the natural homes and natural builders then we have a growing collection of articles about Natural Building. Select 'styles' from the menu above for different styles of natural buildings like straw bale and cob homes.

Natural living in fields of lavender in the Polish countryside

Natural living in Poland

Joanna grows lavender on her small farmstead in northern Poland. She makes creams, oils, scented bags, syrups and other beautiful crafts like felted clothes.

Ornee Cottage, Ireland

It was built in 1810, a fine example of a style called ornee, or ornamental cottage.

Chalk rammed earth building in Kent, England

Chalk rammed earth house, England

Depending on the weather and the time of day the building lights, warms or cools itself without producing a scrap of CO2.

Cob House Kitchen by Cob Cottage Company

Cob house kitchen, USA

This is Ianto and Linda's kitchen in their cob home in Oregon. They run the Cob Cottage Company and have inspired many of the world's natural builders.

Thatched Oak Frame Town Hall, France

It was originally built in the nearby town of Selles, 12Km away, in 1420 by English carpenters during the Hundred Years War.

Thatched oak framed house, England

This oak and wattle & daub cottage is already 500 years old and will most likely survive the next 500 too.

Natural homes of the USA

A collection of naturally built homes around the USA.

Pattern No.180 Window Place

Everyone loves window seats, bay windows and big windows with low sills.

Slip-straw house, USA

This tiny traditionally built timber frame slip-straw house was build by women for women near Asheville in North Carolina, USA.

Treehouse, USA

This is the treehouse at Turtle Island Preserve, an Appalachian farm in Boone, NC, USA

Cob school, Argentina

A cob waldorf school in Lago Puelo, Argentina.

Tiny straw bale house, Denmark

This is Poula's tiny straw bale Smurf House. She built it as a temporary place to live while she was building her straw bale spiral home.

Cob roundhouse. USA

This is Ziggy and April's cob roundhouse at Dancing Rabbit ecoVillage in Rutledge, Missouri, USA.

Stone, timber and turf building, Iceland

Stone and turf building, Iceland

"When one creates green roofs the houses themselves become part of the landscape." Freidensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000).

Thatched oak cottages, England

These are some of the oak frame wattle & daub cottages in Wherwell, England that were built in the early 16th century.

Treehouse, Canada

This tiny egg shaped treehouse shelter is hiding in the hemlock forests of Whistler, Canada.

Natural materials sculpture

This is 'Cedro di Versailles' by Giuseppe Penone in the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Dry stone water cistern, USA

This is 500 tons of Colorado sandstone, some gravity and Thea Alvin floating 12 feet (4m) down at the bottom.

Blackhouses, Scotland

These are the stone blackhouses of Gearrannan on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Originally built to share with farm animals.

Japanese joinery

This is the entrance to one of the 400 year old stone houses on the banks of the Vltava River.

Design for a natural building in Finland

Design for cob outhouse

Most homes start their life as a sketch on something or other. If you are an artist like Heidi Vilkman then you have a bit of an advantage over most of us.

Straw bale homes in an ecoVillage, Denmark

EcoVillage straw bale house, Denmark

This is a taste of Fri & Fro (Free and Happy) ecoVillage in Egebjerg, Denmark.

Straw bale house, Ireland

This is The Spiral House in County Mayo, Ireland. It was built in 2003 by Barbara Jones.

Straw bale spiral house, Denmark

Poula-Line built her straw bale house in Fri & Fro (Free and Happy) ecoVillage in Egebjerg, Denmark.

Oak framed medieval streets, France

This is Rue Haute Voie, one of the many oak framed medieval streets in Dinan, France.

Dogon clay granaries, Mali

These are Dogon thatched clay granaries (store rooms) in Songho, Mali.

Big Bale Straw Bale Hotel in Switzerland

Lisa and Louis took 250 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere when they built their straw bale guesthouse.

Straw bale bathroom, Wales

This is the door to Rachel's bathroom in her lovely straw bale home in Wales.

Bamboo roundhouse, Ethiopia

This is a traditional split bamboo plaited roundhouse by the Sidama people of Ethiopia.

Roundwood and barley bale house, England

This is Ben Law's roundwood and straw bale house and beautiful garden in Prickly Nut Wood near Lodsworth, West Sussex, UK.

Cob cottage at Cae Mabon, Wales

The cottage was built in 2004 by 25 people, on and off, over two weeks mixing cob early in the morning and then building with it later in the day.

Straw bale house, Poland

This is a straw bale home built by natural building architect Paulina. The cosy cottage is near Warsaw in Poland.

Cob house kitchen, England

This is the interior of one of the cob homes by Adam and Katy of Clay Works. Clay Works are based in the UK and supply beautiful clay plasters.

Treehouse, USA

The individual bits of wood [please use scrap heat treated HT pallet wood] are hinged on a column of elastic allowing you to change the shape of the walls.

Stone, timber and turf fishing station, Iceland

Stone fishing station, Iceland

This is one of Iceland's fishing stations under a big cold Icelandic sky. It's built using thick dry stone walls with a timber roof under thick insulating layers of turf.

Thatched homes around the world

Here's a collection of thatched homes around the world. Thatch can have an extremely long lifespan on a building.

Stone blackhouse, Canada

This is a traditional Scottish dry stone home called a Blackhouse however it's in Canada. Here are some in blackhouses in Scotland.

Clay obos, Cameroon

These are clay catenary domes, called obos, of the Musgum people in the Cameroon. They provide efficient cooling in the baking heat.

Arsh of the Toda People, India

In the Nilgiri hills of Taml Nadu, India live the Toda people in rolling meadows and shola forests.

Fulling Mill, England

This is the Fulling Mill across the River Alre in Alresford, England. Fulling is the process of removing natural oils and thickening wool cloth.

Straw bale living room, Wales

This is Rachel's living room inside her straw bale home in Wales. The home stands on a hill up a narrow path above the 12th century Abbey.

Oak thatched cottages, England

A natural builder will often reclaim good quality materials from homes at the end of their useful life.

Fire alcove, Spain

Gaudi, one of the first recyclers, used rejected and imperfect tiles from other projects for Casa Batllo.

Straw bale house, Wales

It took Charlie about a year to build his straw bale home in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Cob bathroom, USA

This is the bathroom at Laughing House, a beautiful cob house in Oregon, USA with a wonderful mosaic.

Cob houses around the world

Cob, a mixture of clay, sand and straw, is a sculptural building material that has been used to create beautiful natural homes.

Stone, clay and wood Chaitya, Tibet

The shape of the Stupa, for which there are 8 designs, represents the seated figure of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha).

Cob house, Romania

This is one of the cob homes build by architect and natural builder Ileana Mavrodin of Casa Verde in Banat, Romania.