Lowtech Graph lists low-tech options for every need of a home. Here you can compare them, find tutorials to build them, and link them together into a circular system. Why low-tech?

Building form (shape and compactness)

The shape of the building itself, decided before any material or layer: how compact it is (the volume it encloses for each square metre of outside surface), and whether it is rectangular, round, a vault or dome, or sheltered by earth. Form is not a free win: each shape also decides the openings, the waterproofing, the furniture that fits and what planning will accept.

Solutions

• Compact rectangular footprint: A simple, compact house plan, close to a square or a short rectangle, without wings or recesses. For the same floor area, a compact shape has less outside wall
• Vault or dome shell (walls and roof in one): A building whose walls curve over to form the roof, as one self-supporting shell of earth: a Nubian vault of sun-dried bricks, a vault of compressed earth block
• Kerterre (small hand-sculpted hemp-lime building): A small round building sculpted by hand from hemp soaked in lime, with no frame and no moulds; the wall closes over into the roof. It can be a garden shed or on
• Roundhouse (round timber frame with a reciprocal roof): A round building on a ring of timber posts, with walls of straw, cob or logs and a roof where each rafter rests on the next, so no central post is needed. A cir
• A-frame house: A house whose steep roof comes down to the ground on both sides, so roof and walls form one triangle. The triangle is strong and sheds snow, and it is simple en
• Geodesic dome: A dome made of a lattice of short timber triangles, light but strong because the load spreads over the whole shell. It encloses the most space for the least sur
• Earth-bermed house (earth banked against the walls): A house built at ground level with earth banked against three of its walls, the roof and the south side left clear. The earth keeps the covered walls at a stead
• Yurt (round lattice-frame dwelling): A round home of a folding wooden lattice wall and roof poles meeting at a central ring, covered in felt or canvas. It needs no foundation and can be put up in a
• Underground courtyard house (sunken pit dwelling): A house dug below ground around an open courtyard, its rooms opening off the courtyard walls for light and air. The surrounding earth keeps the rooms at a stead