Roxy Piper tells us all about this year’s Off Grid Festival, taking place from 9-12th August in the historic Tapeley Park and Gardens in North Devon, with the theme of Seven Generation Stewardship. Read more

Rowland ran rammed earth building courses with us for years. He said then that a C-shaped, rammed earth house with straw-bales for external insulation, and as much glass on the south side and as little glass on the north side as possible, wouldn’t need any heating. We wanted to catch up with him to learn… Continue reading A south-facing, rammed earth, straw-bale-insulated house doesn’t need heating; why aren’t all new houses built this way? Read more

Natural building company Hartwyn are pleased to announce their summer 2018 free natural building internship programme is now open to applications. It’s over to Joe Duirwyn from here to tell us more. Read more

This is a REAL, FULL BUILD on-site, so we need everyone taking part in this free build camp to be physically fit, strong and competent with tools. You will also need to be robust and self-sufficient as we’ll be living outdoors in basic conditions. 18yrs +. Read more

Jeffrey Hart of SBUK shares news about The Big Straw Bale Gathering speakers. A first of its kind event for all things straw-bale building related, find out who’ll be heading to Down to Earth near Swansea from 10-12 August 2018 below. Read more

Visual artist Emma Moody-Smith shares the story of how she and her partner Shawn have spent the past 9 years downshifting, swapping suburban England for life in a motorhome and, crucially, embracing exchange. Here she offers insight and advice to others looking to do the same. Read more

Inspired by the magic of traditional Japanese clay plastering, USA-based natural builder Ziggy Liloia of The Year of Mud shares his step-by-step guide to making a Japanese plaster hawk. Read more

Some great ideas from Adrian at Wholewoods. Below are several ways that you can get your hands dirty and gain natural building skills for free, whilst helping to erect beautiful, affordable, natural buildings for schools, charities or educational organisations. Read more

We were approached by Peter to ask if we would help promote a proposed eco-holiday complex and permaculture settlement in Portugal. I replied that I didn’t think we could, as I have strong reservations about this kind of eco-hotel development, and explained why. Peter came back with some counter-arguments, and I asked him whether he’d… Continue reading Debate: how sustainable can an eco-hotel and permaculture community be if it’s for Brits in Portugal? Read more

Perhaps these days most commonly associated with the garden, there’s more to the humble wheelbarrow than you might think. Sophie Paterson explores its potential, past and present, as a low-impact form of transportation. Read more

Straw-bale Building UK (SBUK) presents The Big Straw Bale Gathering 2018 with the theme of sowing the inspiration, growing the industry & harvesting the knowledge of all things related to building with straw. Read more

In this post, Jeffrey the Natural Builder shares his top reading recommendations based on an original natural building books post on his blog. It’s over to him from here. Please note that this article contains affiliate links to bookshop.org – if you purchase we receive a small percentage. Thanks!  Read more

Two years ago, we blogged about Anna and Pete’s experience in obtaining planning permission for a self-built, off-grid home in the woods in Devon. Here’s the story of what they built and how they power and heat it. Read more

Once a mainstay of households in times gone by, the humble larder provided a practical storage solution for foodstuffs requiring storage over a longer period of time. Read more

Downshifting means working less, earning less and spending less and it’s what Lowimpact.org’s Sophie Paterson has spent the past year attempting to do. She shares what she’s learnt so far and why she’d encourage others to embrace downshifting too. Read more

A volunteering event to make beautiful natural buildings affordable for schools, charities, community groups, trusts and pubic organisations who put other people and the environment first. Read more

Using salvage building materials brings new life to otherwise discarded items.  Reusing materials can inspire creativity and reduce construction costs. But you need to have a plan, or you risk spinning your wheels and burning out from all the leg work involved. Read more

I am seeking venues around the country to run an exciting course that will help participants prepare for starting and living on a One Planet Development. Read more

Last month, Lowimpact.org’s Sophie Paterson, a trainee with the School of Natural Building, took a hands-on approach learning how to construct recycled car tyre foundations on a Straw Works course at Holy Trinity Church in Tulse Hill, London. Read more

In response to the pervasive reach of the global agro-industrial complex, growing numbers of farmers across the world are coming together as co-operative organisations to promote and protect small-scale organic food production and environmental stewardship. We take a look below at some of the groups promoting open source agriculture with farmer driven technologies, spearheaded by the… Continue reading Farm Hack : growing innovative open-source agriculture Read more