Simple life Manhattan: a 90-square-foot microstudio by Kirsten Dirksen on October 7, 2010 By choosing a studio that measures just 12 feet by 7 feet, Felice Cohen can afford to live in Manhattan’s …
Natural building codes: some straw bale, but little for cob by Kirsten Dirksen on October 5, 2010 There’s plenty of historical evidence that natural buildings hold up to time- witness the adobe California Missions or the 13th-century …
Potty diaries: my European method & a slow, simple approach by Kirsten Dirksen on October 1, 2010 My 15-month-old asked to go poop yesterday. It sounds young, but I wasn’t really trying to train her yet. Though …
How to build a straw bale wall: natural building expert tips by Kirsten Dirksen on September 30, 2010 Bales of straw may seem a bit simple, but they’re very effective for building a home. “Walls go up very …
Building your own bioclimatic home from earth and straw by Kirsten Dirksen on September 27, 2010 With very little instruction, anyone can build their own home, or so argues natural building expert Michael G. Smith. Since …
Natural building vindication: climate, comfort, health, budget by Kirsten Dirksen on September 25, 2010 Until relatively recently we all built our homes from local, unprocessed materials (i.e. stone, wood, straw, earth). Then came the …
Cargobikes as business tool: an ice cream trike in Brooklyn by Kirsten Dirksen on September 19, 2010 An ice cream truck is to the suburbs what an ice cream trike is to New York City. The logical …
3D printers or the dream of machines that replicate themselves by Kirsten Dirksen on September 18, 2010 Now that the open-source concept has migrated from software to hardware- see open-source car (OScar), phone (Openmoko), house (OS-house)- it’s …
3D printing living up to its hype? Rise & fall of MakerBot by Kirsten Dirksen on September 14, 2010 Imagine instead of going to the store, simply downloading what you need from the Internet and printing it out on …
Crowdsourcing tiny home design (a 420-sq-ft Soho pad) by Kirsten Dirksen on September 11, 2010 The average home size in the U.S. doubled in the past century but happiness levels stayed flat. Serial entrepreneur Graham …
