A Simple Roundhouse Manual


Book Description

The author designed, built and, with his partner Faith, lives in a simple, turf-covered, wood and cobwood, low impact roundhouse. He wrote a book Building a Low Impact Roundhouse (Permanent Publications) to describe the process. In the fifteen years that have elapsed since the roundhouse becoming known about, Tony has been asked several times to run and supervise courses in which participants build a simple roundhouse over two to four weeks. In this book he uses the experience of those courses and other builds to produce a thorough 'How To' manual covering Site, Design and Planning, Drainage and Stem Wall, the Henge, the Reciprocal Frame roof, Walls, and Roof covering. From the words, diagrams and over one hundred colour photographs here, you will be able to design and build your own simple roundhouse. Preferably in a group, because that is more fun. The tips in this book will enable you to build a simple roundhouse very cheaply and quickly. This manual should be a part of your toolkit.




Building a Low Impact Roundhouse


Book Description

In Building a Low Impact Roundhouse, Tony shares his many years of experience, skills, and techniques used to build this unique and affordable low-impact home. Always witty and inspiring, the author explains the process of visualizing and designing a house through to the practical side of lifting the living roof, infilling the walls, laying out rooms, and adding renewable, autonomous technology. Building a Low Impact Roundhouse has become a classic text sold all over the world. Tony's home and lifestyle have attracted much media interest, and he and his partner continue to inspire many individuals and communities to seek out ways of living more sustainably. Now in its third edition, with a fascinating ten-year update including a major new section on the couple's marvelous straw bale den, Tony also includes sections on the physical design, and he writes about the lifestyle required for living in a roundhouse. He offers advice on roofs, floors, walls, compost toilets, wood stoves, kitchens, windows, and planning permission. There are additional photographs of life in and around the dwelling and illustrations from the construction plans for one of the UK's most unique homes. This true and captivating story covers the realizing of a lifetime's dream as well as being a practical how to manual for anyone who loves the idea of low-impact living and wants to self-build an affordable, organic home.




Cordwood Building


Book Description

Dreamers, owner-builders, natural and sustainable building contractors, modern homesteaders Cordwood construction - log-ends set in insulated mortar - is a versatile, economical, low-impact, and beautiful building method. And while cordwood construction’s durability and performance has been proven in beautiful, centuries-old buildings in North America and Europe, there has been no trusted, practical and comprehensive book on cordwood construction methods using cordwood in a wide variety of cordwood masonry construction projects. Distilling decades of experience, best practices, and innovations in cordwood construction, Essential Cordwood Building is the first fully illustrated, step-by-step comprehensive book on cordwood construction. Ideal for the DIYer, professional designer, and builder alike, this comprehensive book on cordwood construction covers: Wood species selection, log-end length, and seasoning New mortar options such as cement, lime putty, and cob mortar Wall cavity insulation options Budgeting and estimating for your cordwood construction Highly illustrated, step-by-step cordwood masonry construction methods and techniques Window and door frame installation Painting and chinking, finishing, and plastering your cordwood construction Special designs and decorative features Code references, code compliance, building science, and best practices for cordwood masonry construction methods Troubleshooting and maintenance. Written by the world's leading sustainable builders, designers, and engineers, these succinct, user-friendly handbooks are indispensable tools for any project where accurate and reliable information is key to success. GET THE ESSENTIALS! Rob Roy is widely recognized as a world leading authority on cordwood masonry construction methods. Rob has authored and edited 15 books including Cordwood Building and Stoneview . He lives in West Chazy, New York.




Beti and the Little Round House


Book Description

From beloved storyteller Atinuke comes an enchanting new collection of stories featuring an endearing new character. Beti lives in a little round house in the green woods under the mountains with Mam, Tad, baby Jac, and her very own tiny goat named Naughty. Beti loves the little round house, where there is always the promise of adventure with Naughty, Jac, and her friends--whatever the season! With charming black-and-white and color illustrations throughout, this warm and lyrical collection is alive with themes of endurance, friendship, and the power of self-belief. It celebrates the gift of the seasons and the art of living simply and joyfully in nature.




Housing for Degrowth


Book Description

‘Degrowth’, a type of ‘postgrowth’, is becoming a strong political, practical and cultural movement for downscaling and transforming societies beyond capitalist growth and non-capitalist productivism to achieve global sustainability and satisfy everyone’s basic needs. This groundbreaking collection on housing for degrowth addresses key challenges of unaffordable, unsustainable and anti-social housing today, including going beyond struggles for a 'right to the city' to a 'right to metabolism', advocating refurbishment versus demolition, and revealing controversies within the degrowth movement on urbanisation, decentralisation and open localism. International case studies show how housing for degrowth is based on sufficiency and conviviality, living a ‘one planet lifestyle’ with a common ecological footprint. This book explores environmental, cultural and economic housing and planning issues from interdisciplinary perspectives such as urbanism, ecological economics, environmental justice, housing studies and policy, planning studies and policy, sustainability studies, political ecology, social change and degrowth. It will appeal to students and scholars across a wide range of disciplines.




Natural Building Techniques


Book Description

Natural materials are increasingly being valued for their use in a wide range of techniques and solutions, not just for building cabins in the countryside, but also for housing, schools and city structures. As the need to respond to climate change becomes a serious requirement for all building projects, so too does our understanding of how these bio-based and renewable materials can help to reduce carbon emissions. With convincing evidence that natural materials work as well as, if not better than, conventional materials, this helpful guide offers an outline of many of the materials, products and methods of construction that are available, equipping readers with confidence to create healthy, ecological homes. This comprehensive book will be of interest to self-builders, home owners, architects, housing developers and specifiers, as well as environmentalists, eco builders and campaigners who want to reduce the impact of construction on the planet.




Roundhouse


Book Description

Tom Barker originated the Roundhouse Column for S Gaugian Magazine in 1973. He wrote that column for 15 years. This book is a compilation of those 50 contributions to the preservation of the American Flyer trains made by The A. C. Gilbert Company from 1946 to 1966.




Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual


Book Description

The first edition of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual was immediately recognized by novice and master alike as one of the best books ever published on the endgame. The second edition is revised and enlarged - now over 400 pages - covering all the most important concepts required for endgame mastery. "I am sure that those who study this work carefully will not only play the endgame better, but overall, their play will improve. One of the secrets of the Russian chess school is now before you, dear reader!" - From the Foreword to the First Edition by Grandmaster Artur Yusupov "Going through this book will certainly improve your endgame knowledge, but just as important, it will also greatly improve your ability to calculate variations... What really impresses me is the deep level of analysis in the book... All I can say is: This is a great book. I hope it will bring you as much pleasure as it has me." - From the Preface to the First Edition by International Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard Here's what they had to say about the First Edition: "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual ... may well be the chess book of the year... [It] comes close to an ultimate one-volume manual on the endgame." - Lubomir Kavalek in his chess column of December 1, 2003 in the Washington Post. "Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual is quite simply a masterpiece of research and insight. It is a tremendous contribution to endgame literature, certainly the most important one in many years, and destined to be a classic of the literature (if it isn't already one). The famous trainer Mark Dvoretsky has put together a vast number of examples that he has not only collected, but analysed and tested with some of the world's strongest players. This is a particularly important book from the standpoint of clarifying, correcting, and extending the theory of endings. Most of all, Dvoretsky's analysis is staggering in its depth and accuracy." - John Watson, reviewing DEM at The Week In Chess 2003 Book of the Year - JeremySilman.com 2003 Book of the Year - Seagaard Chess Reviews: "This is an extraordinary good chess book. To call this the best book on endgames ever written seems to be an opinion shared by almost all reviewers and commentators. And I must say that I am not to disagree." - Erik Sobjerg




Building with Straw Bales


Book Description

Straw bale building is a radically different approach to the process of building. Like all innovative ideas, it has been pioneered by the passionate, and used experimentally by those with the vision to see its potential. It is firmly based in that sustainable, 'green building' culture that has brought to the construction industry many new and useful ideas about energy efficiency and responsibility towards the environment. As a building material, straw excels in the areas of cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency. This practical guide has been written by the most experienced straw bale builder in the UK. It gives details of all the main construction methods, and includes: * bale specifications * plans * walls and foundations * doors and windows * plastering * building regulations and planning permission * frequently asked questions * construction drawings. This fully revised and updated edition includes new construction drawings, standard details for best practice design, examples of off-the-peg drawings for small buildings such as summer-houses and studios, and designs for affordable houses. These designs meet Building Regulations Code 6 for sustainable homes, and have a carbon rating of less than zero.