More and more people are flocking to the warm, sunny states of the American South, but the hot, humid climate presents a unique set of challenges to those building or renovating a home. Fortunately, veteran architects Jane and Michael Frederick are sharing the knowledge they've accumulated through nearly four decades of designing homes in the Coastal South, offering accessible guidance to anyone looking to create their dream home.Key Features:• Displays how the precepts of S...

See the world around you in a whole new way with this inspiring guide to nature drawing, urban sketching, travel drawing, drawing from memory or photos, and sketch journaling.In Draw Your World, Samantha Dion Baker gives you everything you need to begin a new art practice or enliven an existing one. She shares her favorite tools and materials, simple technical lessons such as composition, shadows and light, symmetry, and perspective, plus fun motivational ...

You can have your very own home for about the price of a brand-new car. In these days of cash crunches and economic recession, that is very enticing to a lot of people!In this book, you'll learn about building a functional and comfortable home for very little money, and you’ll start with one or more shipping containers.Shipping container construction is not brand-new – people have been building homes and other sorts of enclosed structures out of shipping containers for seve...

"P ractical advice . . . from the farm field to foraging in the forest . . . a must-have for anyone looking to transition from homeowner to homesteader. "— Scott Mann, host of The Permaculture PodcastBuild your homesteading dreams with all the affordable DIY innovations, tips, and stories you need to...

An in-depth look at the strategies employed in sustainable home design.

Author Rachel Preston Prinz and contributing authors discuss the history, research, design issues, and evolution of Earthships, drawing on the knowledge of thousands of builders, craftsmen, and designers who have mastered the art of earth sheltering. Then, they walk readers step by step through design, offering a wealth of resources that can inspire, inform, and educate. Within, readers will find the tools needed to understand their place's culture, architecture, and climate... and the ide...

Make Your Green Home a Reality!Building the right-sized green home involves making eco-smart decisions. In Building Today's Green Home, you will learn:• How to choose the correct location of your building lot and what is the optimum placement of your house to take advantage of solar energy• How to design the right-sized home for your needs now and in the future• What are the best sustainable construction materials to...

“Easy ideas . . . . The kind of guidebook we reference again and again. . . with recommendations for every single room in the house.”—Real SimpleLearn how to make planet-friendly choices at home with the design experts of Remodelista.comRemodelista: The Low-Impact Home gives clear guidance and inspiration for creating a home that’s both sustainable and stylish. The book features room-by-room tips for reducing your e...

Here is a revolutionary approach for heating rooms and generating hot water. Author Gaelan Brown has worked with engineers and compost scientists to refine methods of composting that can heat greenhouses, barns, buildings, and hot water, all without combustion.It seems almost too good to be true: make high-value organic compost while generating reliable combustion-free heat. But it works, and this book is your practical introduction. With detailed case studies of l...

Passive House Details introduces the concepts, principles, and design processes of building ultralow-energy buildings. The objective of this book is to provide design goals, research, analysis, systems, details, and inspiring images of some of the most energy-efficient, carbon-neutral, healthy, and satisfying buildings currently built in the region. Other topics included: heat transfer, moisture management, performance targets, and climatic zones. Illustrated with more than 375 co...

Save money, avoid costly mistakes. Written by design experts in a concise, condensed format that covers home decorating, remodeling, and staging your home for sale. Includes more than 100 designer sources that you can use. Designer secrets about color, lighting, furniture, accessories, how to work with a contractor without getting ripped off and much more.

Sustainable Preservation takes a nuanced look at the hundreds of choices that adaptive reuse requires architects to make—from ingenious ways to redeploy existing structural elements to time-honored techniques for natural ventilation to creation of wetlands that restore a site's natural biological functions. In addition, Sustainable Preservation presents 50 case studies of projects—schools, houses, offices, stores, museums, and government buildings—that set new standards f...