Shelter Publications The Barefoot Architect: A Handbook for Green Building

I bought this when planning to construct a low-cost holiday home in a tropical country. It is great for that. In fact it has sections relating to the different requirements of several climate types - humid tropics, dry tropics, temperate zone. That is unusual - many books ignore climatic differences even though these should affect the design of buildings, especially if you want to avoid unnecessarily large heating or cooling costs. As well as basic design ideas, there are lots of practical suggestions for construction materials and techniques.Highly recommended.

Here's a book for armchair builders and for the real thing. Lots of handy tips (waterproofing with cactus juice recipes) and useful ideas on planning and design. Some of the stuff I have never heard of, like 'sea-crete' which is a way of making forms using electricity and salt water! It is very well illustrated and put together.

A book which has big amount of information. It is full of drawings and pictures, so the reader can have a better image of the stuff described. A must have in your collection if you are interested in permaculture

perfecto

Brilliant book by an amazing man! I had the pleasure of meeting him in Brazil and he is inspiring - now I want to build my own house!!!