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Category Archives: Green Building

Natural Building at Kinsale College

The flagship project at the Kinsale College has always been the Cordwood Amphitheatre. This unique structure- the only load-bearing cordwood building that I know of- was constructed in about 2001 by Rob Hopkins and his permaculture students and has provided a wonderful venue for the drama course, lead by Belinda Wild, to perform their annual [...]

Humble Homes, Simple Shacks

Book Review: Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts by Derek “Deek” Diedricksen After seeing a short film by Deek Diedricksen linked on Energy Bulletin, which demonstrates his ultra-tiny dwelling called the Hickshaw, I was inspired to write to him for a review copy which, once he had had a look at [...]

Powerdown Toolkit #7: Shelter

Shelter- Future Proofing Our Homes and Buildings This is the introduction to  week seven of the Powerdown Toolkit 10-week community learning course created by the Cultivate Center in Dublin. It has an accompanying TV show with a 30-minute episode accompanying each week of the course, soon to be aired on Dublin Community TV. Energy and [...]

Kinsale College on YouTube

Kinsale College of Further Education has recently posted a new video promoting the course on You Tube. Click here to see the video which includes myself very briefly desribing the course modules, and a few shots of the college  gardens. The drama, art, multimedia and outdoor pursuits courses are also covered. There is also an [...]

Crash Course- Preparing for Peak Oil

Book Review Crash Course- Preparing for Peak Oil by Zachary Nowak Green Door Publishing 2008 Peak Oil is upon us, and collective action on a large scale seems unlikely. Technical solutions are chimerical. Each of us must decide what the future may hold and begin working on a plan to face that future. When Zachary [...]

Pizza Oven!

I am proud to present the brand new Earth Oven recently completed at Derryduff. Just last night Sherry and Andy joined me for the first trial run pizza making session, which was a great success and resulted in much happy chomping. We also enjoyed sitting around the ultra-hot oven for some hours afterwards and watching [...]

Help needed on Cord-wood House

Update October 7th 2007: Jackie and Emma are now close to completing the walls on the house and have enough help at the moment, so thanks to all those who responded, but they may still need a hand in November. Jackie and Emma, friends of mine in North Mayo, are urgently looking for volunteers to [...]

DIY Solar Panel

I have recently installed a DIY solar panel on the Permacabin (Timber framed cabin with all perma-cons): This has been constructed using clip-fins from CAT and following instructions in their booklet Solar Water Heating- A DIY Guide by Paul Trimby.

Timber-framed Cabin

Last summer I started the construction of a small timber-framed cabin here at Derryduff. Aided and abetted by specialist Sustainable Builder Dave Simmonds, we put the frame up and had the tin roof on in about three weeks work. A couple of months ago we started again, Dave doing most of the building with me [...]