Greening the Grid

Back to Nature

Replacing cement and bricks with a combination of straw, soil and wood allows architect Ales Brotanek to design eco-conscious houses that are the perfect symbioses of nature and functionality.

Using local materials that will one day be returned to the Earth, home-owner Michal Navratil and his family create their dream house in Hradcany U Tisnova in the Czech Republic.

Visit with Michal and his family as they finish building their house.

A New Life for an Old Home

By moving homes imperiled by gentrification to a new location, Builders of Hope, a non-profit organization in Raleigh, North Carolina, not only gives the homes second lives, but also offers working-class families chances to live in affordable houses in good neighborhoods.

While preserving as much of their original wooden structure as possible, the organization upgrades recycled houses and utilizes green techniques. All houses are sold at prices high enough to recapture the building costs, but below their new appraised values.

Tour a neighborhood of recycled homes.