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?

Load-bearing structure (foundation, walls, roof)

The frame that carries the house: what stands on the ground, what holds up the floors and the roof, and what the walls are made of. Everything else is fixed to it, so it is chosen first and changed last. The options differ in material, in how much of the work is skilled, and in how long each is expected to last.

Solutions

• Light timber frame construction: A house frame built from many light timber studs and joists, nailed or screwed together and then clad and insulated. The timber is common and easy to cut, so th
• Post-and-beam heavy timber frame: A frame of a few large timber posts and beams, joined at fewer points than a light frame. The big members carry the whole house, so the walls between them only
• Cob / monolithic earthen wall construction: Thick walls built up by hand from a mix of clay, sand and straw, layer by layer, with no bricks or moulds. The walls carry the roof and store heat. They use alm
• Compressed earth block (CEB) walls: Machine- or hand-pressed earth blocks laid like masonry; faster to build than cob, similarly low embodied energy.
• Rammed earth (pise) wall construction: Damp earth rammed hard, layer by layer, between temporary wooden boards, which come off to leave a solid earth wall. The thick wall carries the roof and stores
• Adobe / mudbrick walls: Walls built from bricks of earth that have been shaped in moulds and dried in the sun, laid with earth mortar. The bricks are made on site from the ground itsel
• Superadobe (earthbag construction): Long bags or tubes filled with damp earth, laid in rings and tamped firm, course by course, to build a wall or a dome. The bags hold the earth together while it
• GREB straw wall technique: A double timber frame filled with loose straw, bound and coated with a light mix of clay and lime poured in place. The frame carries the house, the straw insula