Cob homes and cottages are popular in the Pacific Northwest, according to wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(building)

In the Pacific Northwest of North America there has been a resurgence of cob building both as an alternative building practice and one desired for its form, function and cost effectiveness. There are more than ten cob houses in the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia built by Pat Hennebery and the Cobworks workshops.

If dancing in mud sounds like a fun way to build a home, you might consider building a cob home...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080425/news_1mc25cob.html

http://www.cobprojects.info/

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/cob.htm

Cob is a very old method of building with earth and straw or other fibers. It is quite similar to adobe in that the basic mix of clay and sand is the same, but it usually has a higher percentage of long straw fibers mixed in. Instead of creating uniform blocks to build with, cob is normally applied by hand in large gobs (or cobs) which can be tossed from one person to another during the building process. The traditional way of mixing the clay/sand/straw is with the bare feet; for this reason, it is fairly labor intensive. Some of the process can be mechanized by using a backhoe to do the mixing, but that diminishes the organic nature of it. Because of all the straw, cob can be slightly more insulating than adobe, but it still would not make a very comfortable house in a climate of extreme temperatures.

http://www.daycreek.com/DC/html/DC_cob.htm

A cob house is made of clay, sand and straw. The mixture is "kneaded" like dough before it is put into place by stomping on it with your feet or using a cement mixer for larger scale operations. The clay acts as the glue, while the sand gives strength to the mixture and the straw gives the walls tensile strength once hardened into place. Because cob is very flexible to work with, the builder is free to create just about any shape, so you won't find too many cob homes that look similar to each other.

Advantages of a cob home include:

energy efficiency, affordability, fun to sculpt and play in the mud, and owner building with a few workers.

Cons of a cob home may include:

difficulty in reselling, building permits, financing, and durability

Photos and resources including workshops and apprenticeship:

http://ilovecob.com/

http://www.cobcottage.com/apprentice

http://whatsuponplanetearth.com/cob.htm

http://radio.weblogs.com/0119080/stories/2003/04/09/theMythAndPromiseOfDirtChe.html

http://cobtogether.com/gallery/index.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_2153896_build-cob-home.html

http://www.cultureartist.org/cob.htm

http://www.barefootbuilder.com/others.htm

National Solar home tour

http://www.ases.org/tour/

Imagine the sun shining through the windows of your home heating your house. When many people think of homes powered by solar, wind and other renewable energy sources, we think of rustic homes in the woods where people forego modern conveniences and live and shiver by candlelight. The Solar Energy Home Tours inspires people across the country because it defies the stereotypes. When you walk into a neighbors home and it looks just like your own yet it is powered by solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources, uses energy efficient appliances and was built with green materials, can be a real eye opener. Seeing real world examples of the cost savings and applicability of sustainable homes changes lives.

Creating sustainable communities...

http://www.thesolarvillage.com/

The Solar Village is a documentary video that explores how we can create sustainable communities today. Rather than discuss these workable ideas in the abstract this documentary takes you to the people who are making our world work on solar power today. It is possible now to create communities that are more comfortable than our current ones while using clean reliable renewable energy...

http://www.solarvillagelife.com/strategy.html

http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/designing_remodeling/index.cfm/mytopic=10250

Passive Solar Home Design

Your home's windows, walls, and floors can be designed to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design. Unlike active solar heating systems, passive solar design doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices, such as pumps, fans, or electrical controls to move the solar heat.

Passive solar homes range from those heated almost entirely by the sun to those with south-facing windows that provide some fraction of the heating load. The difference between a passive solar home and a conventional home is design. The key is designing a passive solar home to best take advantage of your local climate. For more information, see how a passive solar home design works.

You can apply passive solar design techniques most easily when designing a new home. However, existing buildings can be adapted or "retrofitted" to passively collect and store solar heat.

It is recommended that 10-15 percent of the square footage of a home be glass and that the home have south-facing glass walls. That may seem like a lot of windows, and that heat would escape during the winter, but as long as the sun is shining and the windows face south, you should accumulate more heat than you lose. On cloudy days, many people use insulated draperies or blinds to keep heat inside. South-facing windows also prevent the house from heating up too much in the summer. Simply opening a window will let the heat escape.

Solar energy users are divided into three general groups. First, there are those who want to be completely 'off the grid' and want to utilize their own sources of energy independent from the power company. Then there are those who use solar or wind energy as a back-up
source in case of blackouts, storms and brownouts.The third group banks excess solar energy to save money. Energy obtained from the sun is stored in a battery inside the home
or sent back to the power grid for storage.

With the high cost of utility bills, solar energy users with a net meter can save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on power bills a year.

Solar Living Institute

http://www.solarliving.org

The Solar Living Center, serves as the headquarters for the non-profit Solar Living Institute. The Center is a world-famous demonstration site for renewable energy, alternative fuels, green building, permaculture, and sustainable living technologies. The 12-acre Solar Living Center is located 95 miles north of San Francisco in Hopland (near Ukiah) on Highway 101, approximately a two hour drive from the Bay Area.

Tours of the Solar Living Center allow people of all ages to learn about a wide range of fascinating topics, from solar and wind power, to environmentally friendly building materials, to passive and active solar design in architecture, to organic gardening and permaculture. Office hours are 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Time.

Self-Guided Tours
Self-guided tours of the Solar Living Center are always available during business hours. Stop by the office to pick up a free self-guided tour brochure.

Tours for Individuals and Families
Guided tours for individuals and families are offered Friday through Sunday at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Led by interns, these fun and informative tours last approximately 50 minutes. Groups with more than 12 adults or six children should arrange for a custom tour rather than attending one of these daily tours. Cost is $3 per adult and $2 per child with a $25 minimum.

To book a tour, contact:

Coral Mills
phone: 707-744-2017 x 2102
fax: 707-744-1682

http://www.solarliving.org/resources/

Remember, when you were a kid and built houses, castles and forts with plastic building blocks? These homes look like Lego blocks stacked up, in multi-colored orange, blue, rust and green hues. The homes can be as upscale as you want or as rustic as you please. Container architecture is evolving because there is a glut of shipping containers in places like Los Angeles, where there are ports and stacks of shipping containers are piled up wasting away. Some innovtive architects and builders are recycling these waste products and designing homes and low income apartments out of them worldwide.

Shipping container homes are inexpensive, transportable and stackable and able to survive most disasters but building codes can be bothersome depending upon where you live. They are structurally sound and in abundant supply, but before you buy, be sure to check with the local authorities.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0410,essay,51672,1.html

Containerization is the use of steel boxes that can be filled with virtually any commodity and loaded from a vessel directly onto a truck or rail link. The major effect of containerization was the elimination of the need to unload ships crate by individual crate, and the permanent decline of New York City's ports. Containerization also gutted the waterfront workforce. My father used to joke that the least they could have done was give us a free shipping container to live in. Well, now I can live in one. Globalization has littered the world with 40-foot-long shipping containers... there are plenty of cargo containers to go around. Twenty-one thousand containers hit American shores every day of the year, and tens of thousands reach the waterfronts of other countries, with many more at sea on any given day.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18475601/

America is exporting so little, shipping companies face the dilemma of what to do with these 32,000-pound containers. Increasingly too expensive to ship back overseas empty, these steel boxes, which can be as large as 20-by-48-feet, are stacked high, sitting in ports around the country. There are as many as 300,000 containers, by some estimates...

Generally, architects offer container homes for anywhere from $125 to $150 per sq. ft. There are container home kits from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet.

For instance, Adam Kalkin has sold a dozen of his so-called Quik Houses, each based on five shipping containers. These are two-story, 2,000-square-foot homes with skylights and enormous glass windows, equipped with three bedrooms and two baths. The price, which ranges from $76,000 for the basic kit to $160,000 (with all the bells and whistles like a stainless-steel kitchen and mahogany doors), is under $100 per square foot, not including land or foundation. His recent creation -- the "Push Button House" -- is an art installation of a "home" built inside a shipping container with mechanized walls that open like a blossoming flower.

Used containers can be purchased for $1,500 to $2,500 and can be modified to include insulation, lighting and other amenities. For instance, you can buy a used 40 foot container for $1,800 through companies such as OnSite Storage. If you want to buy a customized container with lighting, heating, insulation, and air conditioning, it could cost $7-13,000. Another option is to rent shipping containers for storage. According to Hector in Sales, the containers are rented from $150 a month, plus delivery charges, $300 and up, depending on location. They have offices nationwide, including Long Beach, California.

http://www.onsitestorage.com/?gclid=CLTi7-aE3pICFRpOagodHEFP-A

Other companies...

http://www.lot-ek.com/

http://logicalhomes.com/prelaunch.htm

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/01/really_its_a_ca.php

http://www.demariadesign.com/

Imagine living in a portable yurt dome, yurt treehouse or just plain yurt where you can become intimate with the elements of wind, earth, water and fire, enjoy the night skies with stars and moon above and wake up to hear the sounds of birds singing. Just like camping out but in your own affordable eco-friendly home.

Yurts have been utilized for a home, doctor's office, guest house, greenhouse, writer's retreat, teenage crash pad, field laboratory, storage space, to house animals, sun rooms, wedding tent or chapel, emergency disaster relief, movie and TV studio sets such as Star Trek, Flubber and 24 and artist's retreat.

First used by the nomadic people of Mongolia, who lived in round tents which they carried on carts, yurts are still used today throughout Russia, Mongolia and Siberia and have become popular in America, too. National parks in Utah, California, Oregon and other states have yurts for rent in campgrounds. These circular, domed, lightweight yet strong structures can be made of canvas, wood, vinyl and flame retardant and water resistant materials that allow the yurt to withstand heavy winds, rains, snow and extreme heat.

A typical yurt has doors, windows and skylights and can be wired for electricity or have solar panels installed for off the grid living. Camp and wood stoves can be used for heating the yurt. Plumbing hook-ups, compost toilets and solar showers can also be utilized. Swamp coolers and sun shade cloth can be used to cool the yurt. Yurts can be divided into rooms and furnished as you would a regular home.

Yurts can be installed on a platform or on a flat earth floor surface. You can install a waterproof floor covering in your dome to keep the dampness of the earth from entering your living space and condensing on your walls. A blue tarp will also work. They can be colorful, white, or drab colors, depending upon your preference and the company you purchase from.

In order to visualize what your yurt interior space will be, take a piece of string the size of the yurt's height, tie it to a post and then draw a circle, to fully sense the size of the yurt. Stand in the circle. An 18 foot yurt that is 9 foot high can accommodate four to ten people. A portable yurt can be put up in an hour or less by one or more people and fits into the trunk of car.

Building code requirements differ from state to state and even community to community. It is best to check with your local authorities prior to your yurt purchase. If you live in a rural area, your yurt may not need to be permitted. Yurts are classifed by permitting authorities in several different ways, including as a permanent structure or a temporary structure. They may also be viewed as an out building much like a garage or storage building. For specific information on building codes in your area, contact your local building official.

There are companies who sell pre-packaged yurt kits and a wide variety of prices from $500 to $75,000. Some offer financing, others don't. Below are some companies that sell yurts.

Shelter Systems offers portable winter ready Geo-Dome yurts from 8 foot to 31 foot diameter, from $350 to $3,260 including shipping with a 1-1/2 year guarantee. Most popular sizes are 18 foot, 20', 14', and 30 foot. Occasionally, they offer gently used yurts for a 10% discount. They are guaranteed to be leakproof, will not rot or mildew and are made from tear-resistant fabric. The white color of the covering defuses the sun and provides 40% shade. The covering is made from plastic that has no fumes and no outgassing. Shipping takes 2-4 days and customized special orders may take longer and are not returnable. These yurts may not require building permits, depending upon the area, and can be used in campsites or for special events as well as living spaces. http://www.shelter-systems.com Phone: 866-777-1066
Email: eleanor@shelter-systems.com

Ranier Yurts Price ranges from $3,000 to $12,000. Insulated structural panels for the deck are $5,000.00. Warranties are 10-14 years. These yurts are not as portable as the Shelter Systems Geo-Domes. http://www.rainieryurts.com/ Phone: (866) 839-8787 Email: sales@RainierYurts.com

Colorado Yurt Company also offer tipis and yurts from 16 foot to 30 foot diameter. Their yurts are featured in state parks from Colorado to Texas. The fabric cover of the yurt will last from 8-15 years. Takes a few days to erect and 3-5 people, depending upon the size and must be transported with a truck. Cost of these yurts range from $5,300 to $18,000, depending upon size and upgrades. Phone: 800-288-3190 http://www.coloradoyurt.com/ Email:
info@coloradoyurt.com

Pacific Yurts manufacture yurts from 12 to 30 foot, prices range from $$4,375 to $10,000, platform not included. They offer a snow and wind kit, dome opener skylight and other upgrades. VInyl covers and windows. Offer various warranties from 5 to 15 years. Shipping is $200 per yurt. A 30' yurt takes a couple of days to set-up. A 12' yurt takes a few hours. http://www.yurts.com/ Phone: 1-800-944-0240

Did you know that you can build a dirt cheap economical and healthy three bedroom home using the four elements of earth, water, air and fire, your own hands and labor, and the innovative methods created by a world- renowned California architect from Iran named Nader Khalili? His methods, Ceramic Houses and SuperAdobe, are taught at Khalili’s school Cal-Earth (The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture) in Hesperia, California.

If interested, you can sign up for a tour and/or an attend an apprenticeship program. to learn how to build a low-budget, bare bones replica of his 2,000 square foot, three-bedroom, family room, living room, kitchen, two-bath, two-car garage house.

Tel: (760) 956-7533 or (760) 244-0614 Email: calearth@aol.com

There are also plans for emergency shelters at :

http://www.calearth.org/emergshelter.htm

Visit the website below for more information... or call

http://www.calearth.org/EcoDome.htm

Books, videos and DVDs are available online at:

http://www.calearth.org/products.htm

A documentary video shows how to:

Use the materials of war (sandbags and barbed wire) to create a safe shelter in most regions of the globe as well as in your backyard.

Utilize minimum amounts of purchased product and maximum amounts of the free earth under your feet.

Participate in a family or community activity by building a shelter, or a sustainable community.

Create a shelter with maximum protection against natural and man-made disasters.

Help for Homeless?

http://www.calearth.org/SBSunArticle.htm