“Burkina Faso is by no means an area frequented by tourists, but at the base of a hill overlooking the surrounding sun-drenched West African savannah lies an extraordinary village, a circular 1.2 hectare complex of intricately embellished earthen architecture. It is the residence of the chief, the royal court and the nobility of the Kassena people, who first settled the region in the 15th century, making them one of the oldest ethnic groups in Burkina Faso.

   I came upon these rare photographs of the village from a dedicated Flickr user Rita Willaert who traveled to Tiébélé in 2009 (see all her photos of the village here). The village keeps itself extremely isolated and closed to outsiders, most likely to ensure the conservation and integrity of their structures and to protect the local traditions.  There is interest in developing the site as a cultural tourism destination to generate economic resources for conservation but it is a delicate process.…”

Click here.

Photo by Rita Willaert

I told Rod (from Australia) I’d post this in case anyone knows of fire-resistant building techniques.

Dear Lloyd,

…I wonder if you could point my attention towards any particular places where innovative building technology  is available for public access.  In particular, my concern is towards establishing a demonstration project of methods of building bushfire resistant, low cost, sustainable houses in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

   It would be good to know of any similar projects in other places. Australia, like California and other places in the US, has a perennial problem with bushfires, and the possibility of building with stabilised earth and other high thermal mass materials seems to be worth demonstrating again. 

Read More …

“…When clearing an old overgrown pasture, thick with alder and cherry saplings, we were left with piles of round wood.  Instead of burning them in a slash pile or as firewood, we took the straightest logs and built a round-pole goat barn, and ultimately an addition on that barn.  No building text would ever recommend building with structural alder, but that goat barn still stands, ten years later, and it cost virtually nothing to build, save for the cost of screws, reclaimed siding, free recycled roofing, and old windows and doors.…”

From homestead-honey.com here.

A great site by and for homesteaders

“I spend perhaps an inordinate amount of time looking at images of axes. There’s just something about them. I think that axes will never go out of fashion, nor will they cease to be useful in their multitude of functions. Over the hundreds of thousands of years they have been in use by humankind, any number of styles, shapes, and sizes have been made to perform a variety of splitting, chopping, and shaping work. It’s the sheer variety, and the craftsmanship that I am most attracted to, I think. Of course I love using them, too, probably more than any other hand tool.

To celebrate the axe and the people who continue to make them, here is a selection of 26 modern day (steel) axes made by a variety of craftspeople that are beautiful, functional, and swoon-worthy.…”  

   -Ziggy

Click here.

From Cheryl Long, Editor, The Mother Earth News

See also “Ziggy’s Cob Cottage,” pp.110-113, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter

This unique building is weathering the years beautifully. It’s a masterpiece of building with natural materials. It’s documented on pages 66-69 of Builders of the Pacific Coast.