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Earth Sheltering
An earth shelter, also called an earth house, earth bermed house, or underground house, is a structure (usually a house) with earth (soil) against the walls, on the roof, or that is entirely buried underground. Earth acts as thermal mass, making it easier to maintain a steady indoor air temperature and therefore reduces energy costs for heating or cooling. Earth sheltering became relatively popular after the mid-1970s, especially among environmentalists. However, the practice has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelters. Definition * "Earth-sheltering is ../nowiki> a generic term with the general meaning: building design in which soil plays an integral part."
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Earth House
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar energy is rec ...
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Earth Lodge
An earth lodge is a semi-subterranean building covered partially or completely with earth, best known from the Native American cultures of the Great Plains and Eastern Woodlands. Most earth lodges are circular in construction with a dome-like roof, often with a central or slightly offset smoke hole at the apex of the dome. Earth lodges are well-known from the more-sedentary tribes of the Plains such as the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara, but they have also been identified archaeologically among sites of the Mississippian culture in the eastern United States. Structure Construction materials and techniques Earth lodges were typically constructed using the wattle and daub technique, with a thick coating of earth. The dome-like shape of the earth lodge was achieved by the use of angled (or carefully bent) tree trunks, although hipped roofs were also sometimes used. During construction the workers would dig an area a few feet beneath the surface, allowing the entire building ...
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Earthship
An Earthship is a style of architecture developed in the late 20th century to early 21st century by architect Michael Reynolds. Earthships are designed to behave as passive solar earth shelters made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires. Earthships may feature a variety of amenities and aesthetics, and are designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of a desert, managing to stay close to 70 °F (21 °C) regardless of outside weather conditions. Earthship communities were originally built in the desert of northern New Mexico, near the Rio Grande, and the style has spread to small pockets of communities around the globe, in some cases in spite of legal opposition to its construction and adoption. Reynolds developed the Earthship design after moving to New Mexico and completing his degree in architecture, intending them to be " off-the-grid-ready" homes, with minimal reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels. They are constructed to ...
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Dietikon
Dietikon is the fifth biggest city of the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, after Zürich, Winterthur, Uster and Dübendorf. It is the capital of the same-named district of Dietikon and part of the Zürich metropolitan area. Geography The industrial city Dietikon is situated at an elevation of at the confluence of the Reppisch and the Limmat, located in the Limmat Valley (German: ''Limmattal''), along the railway line from Zürich to Baden. Here and in the neighboring region, Spreitenbach, is also the large Limmattal rail freight marshalling yard. Dietikon has an area of . Of this area, 17.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 27% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 49.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (6.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). housing and buildings made up 33.8% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (15.3%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 4 ...
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Ken Kern
Ken Kern was a builder and author who devoted himself to aiding owner-builders, and believed strongly in living on the land. He lived outside of North Fork, California at the time of his death and lived for many years on a self-built homestead outside Oakhurst, California Despite being an experienced builder and proponent of earth sheltering An earth shelter, also called an earth house, earth bermed house, or underground house, is a structure (usually a house) with earth (soil) against the walls, on the roof, or that is entirely buried underground. Earth acts as thermal mass, making ..., Kern was killed when an earth roof he designed collapsed on him. Written works Writings by Kern include: * ''The Owner-Built Home'' * ''The Owner-Built Homestead'' * ''The Owner-Built Pole Frame House'' * ''The Earth Sheltered Owner-Built Home'' * ''The Owner Builder & the Code: Politics of Building'' * ''The Work Book: Personal Politics of Building Your Home'' * ''The Healthy House: An Owne ...
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Peter Vetsch
Peter Vetsch (born 14 March 1943) is a Swiss architect, known for building earth houses. Life Vetsch was born 1943 in Sax, Switzerland. He attended public school in Sax from 1950 to 1956. He then attended an agricultural school in Cernier until 1962, where he graduated. Afterwards he was an apprentice in structural design in Winterthur and worked for an architecture office in St. Gallen. In the following years, Vetsch attended the academy of arts in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he graduated in 1970. After his diploma he worked for architecture offices in Germany and Switzerland. Occupational activity Peter Vetsch has run his own architecture office in Dietikon, Switzerland since 1978. Vetsch has built over 47 earth houses in Switzerland and around the world, and also a number of conventional houses. Vetsch’s Earth houses represent his conception of an environmentally conscious, ecological and progressive architecture. Using sprayed concrete construction, he creates b ...
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Malcolm Wells
Malcolm Wells (March 11, 1926 – November 27, 2009) was an American architect who is regarded as "the father of modern earth-sheltered architecture." Wells lived on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in a modern earth-sheltered building of his own design. Wells was also a writer, illustrator, draftsman, lecturer, cartoonist, columnist, and solar energy consultant. Wells retired from architecture in June 2004, but continued his advocacy for underground living to the end of his life. Wells' work in architecture and design began in 1953. After 10 years "spent spreading corporate asphalt on America in the name of architecture," he began to feel that the Earth's surface was "made for living plants, not industrial plants;" and went into underground architecture. This was reflected in his semi-underground offices at the corner of East Cuthbert Blvd and North Park Drive and at 6 Dale Avenue in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, adjacent to the Cooper River. His interests were in energy efficiency, aesthe ...
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Mike Oehler
David Michael Oehler (; January 2, 1938 February 2, 2016) was an American environmentalist and author. He was a proponent and designer of affordable and sustainable alternative forms of housing. He became well known for his appearances in episodes of Louis Theroux's BBC documentary series '' Weird Weekends'' (1998). Early life David Michael Oehler was born in Chicago on January 2, 1938, the son of Polly and Chet Oehler. He grew up in nearby Wilmette and had three sisters named Patricia, Gretchen, and Sioux. He graduated from New Trier High School but dropped out of college to pursue his writing career, then served in the U.S. Army before working on fishing boats. He then worked in gold mines in Alaska, joined the U.S. Forest Service, cruised around Mexico, and finally ended up in San Francisco, where he embraced the hippy movement and lifestyle. Career Oehler partook in the 1960s back-to-the-land movement. He lived on a 40-acre homestead in the Idaho mountains. He wrote numerous ...
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Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. The brainchild of Sir Hugh Beaver, the book was co-founded by twin brothers Norris and Ross McWhirter in Fleet Street, London, in August 1955. The first edition topped the best-seller list in the United Kingdom by Christmas 1955. The following year the book was launched internationally, and as of the 2022 edition, it is now in its 67th year of publication, published in 100 countries and 23 languages, and maintains over 53,000 records in its database. The international franchise has extended beyond print to include television series and museums. The popularity of the franchise has resulted in ''Guinness World Records'' becoming the primary international authority ...
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Underhill, Holme
Underhill at Holme, West Yorkshire, is a modern house designed by Arthur Quarmby in 1969 and built from 1973 to 1975. Underhill has been Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England since July 2017. Underhill was the first earth-sheltered house to have been built in Britain in modern times. Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ... described Underhill as "representing a significant milestone in the development of ecological and sustainable architecture". It was built at a cost of £50,000 and was constructed by J. B. Kenworthy of Holmfirth. The house features a hourglass-shaped swimming pool centrally located in the main room, with a large octagonal pyramid conservatory-style skylight window in the ceiling above the centre of one of i ...
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Back-to-the-land Movement
A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree of self-sufficiency, autonomy, and local community than found in a prevailing industrial or postindustrial way of life. There have been a variety of motives behind such movements, such as social reform, land reform, and civilian war efforts. Groups involved have included political reformers, counterculture hippies, and religious separatists. The concept was popularized in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century by activist Bolton Hall, who set up vacant lot farming in New York City and wrote many books on the subject;
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1973 Oil Crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The initial nations targeted were Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, though the embargo also later extended to Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa. By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen nearly 300%, from US to nearly globally; US prices were significantly higher. The embargo caused an oil crisis, or "shock", with many short- and long-term effects on global politics and the global economy. It was later called the "first oil shock", followed by the 1979 oil crisis, termed the "second oil shock". Background Arab-Israeli conflict Ever since the recreation of the State of Israel in 1948 there has been Arab–Israeli confli ...
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