$15 earth berm eco house filmed 30 years later

[paul wheaton]

Another Mike Oehler creation. This one is called "the sleeper". Mike if famous for his $50 and up underground house book. This house is an above ground earth berm house. Very small, but a family of three did live in the house recently for 18 months. There are cedar trees growing out of the roof.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTL0dkadocQ

[Don Hansford]

Dunno if I'd call it "earth-berm" - it has a living roof, that isn't leaking though, which is a damn good achievement after 30-odd years :)

[pebble]

What's earth berm?

[Don Hansford]

Push up & compact a heap of earth - almost as if you were building a big pad for a shed or something. The ones I've seen them do are about 30m long, 20m wide, and 5m high. Then you go in with an excavator (or a lot of people with shovels & buckets) and dig out the middle, leaving 3 - 5m thick walls. Put a roof over it, and you have anything from a big workshop (or jet / helicopter hangar) to a large meeting hall, or anything else you can think of. Originally a military idea, for quick revetments for ammo dumps, or for high value items like planes, choppers, generals, etc.
You can add rip-rap (rocks to you and me) or sandbags to the outside walls, or plant grasses & shrubs through haybales/mulch to stop erosion for long-term usage.