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?

Foundation design for soil conditions (e.g. clay shrink-swell resistance)

Founding the house on ground that moves. Clay swells when it rains and shrinks in a drought, and a foundation that ignores it cracks the walls above. The options differ in whether they reach below the moving layer or sit on top of it, and in whether the house can be levelled again once it has shifted.

Solutions

• Deep pile / screwed-pile foundation: Long piles, driven or screwed deep into the ground, that carry the house instead of a shallow footing. They reach below the clay that swells in wet weather and
• Skid or point-support foundation: A house that rests on skids or on separate pads instead of being locked to a continuous foundation. When clay soil swells or shrinks, the house is not dragged w