What can be learned from a 17th century American town by Kirsten Dirksen on May 31, 2015 In Plymouth, Massachusetts- the site of the first English colony in America – Matteo Brault spends his days living a …
Lloyd Kahn on his NorCal self-reliant half-acre homestead by Kirsten Dirksen on May 18, 2015 At 80 years old, Lloyd Kahn is an icon of alternative housing. In the seventies he was a poster child …
A spaghetti western on lean urbanism (documentary) by Kirsten Dirksen on May 11, 2015 What makes a good shelter? For thousands of years we’ve been attempting to regulate the idea. Even the bible had …
A spaghetti western on lean urbanism (documentary trailer) by Kirsten Dirksen on May 3, 2015 It’s undeniable that building codes save lives, but something has changed in the past couple of decades. Now, thanks to …
West Texas ghost town experimental construction & revival by Kirsten Dirksen on April 27, 2015 A century ago, Terlingua, Texas was a bustling mining town (by 1922 it was supplying the nation with 40% of …
Urban self-reliance: homestead in Oakland’s small rented lot by Kirsten Dirksen on April 13, 2015 Sheila Cassani began farming her rental home while a college student. She started with a small vegetable patch, but it …
LA ecovillage: self-reliance in car-free urban homestead by Kirsten Dirksen on June 16, 2014 In urban Los Angeles, about 3 miles west of downtown, 500 people live on 11 acres priority is given to …
Prototyping cardboard dwelling for off-grid Australian outback by Kirsten Dirksen on April 7, 2014 When Link Knight saw the sturdy cardboard that came as packaging for his propane freezer, he began to wonder if …
Oregon “teens + dad” team build barge home and workshop by Kirsten Dirksen on October 21, 2013 Eddie Ebel wanted his family to be self-sufficient so he began designing a home and teaching his kids to build …
Off-grid self-reliance & survivalism in Australia’s outback by Kirsten Dirksen on October 7, 2013 When he was a teen, Link Knight saw his uncle go bankrupt and vowed to stay out of debt. Years …