Related ideas and strategies development a Natural Building
Other concepts, methods and strategies often (or sometimes) associated with natural building include: building “underground,” earth sheltering, or berming, “green” or “living” planted roofs, thatched roofs and cement-free earthen floors, rubble-trench, or gabion foundations.
To increase sustainability, various approaches to lower energy consumption are used in conjunction with natural building: sun-shading or other passive cooling techniques, passive solar heating, geo-exchange heating and cooling, “short-cycle” and “annualized” passive (and PV-assisted) solar space and water heating, hot water heat recycling, biologic air purification by indoor plants, passive or air-to-air/heat-recovery ventilation, solar or annualized cooling, insulated glazing and selective glazing films, night and cold-weather “movable” insulation, or on-site electric power generation by renewable energy in the form of photovoltaics (PV), wind generators, or micro-hydro (either with fully independent systems referred to as “off-grid” or with “grid-tied” systems feeding into the public electric network), low-voltage electric and avoidance of electro-magnetic and other possibly harmful forms of radiation.
Other green building strategies that improve conservation of resources include: rain-water catchment, storage, and purification; waste-water separation; biological waste-water purification and grey-water reuse; composting toilets, on-site snow/rain-water run-off management, bioswales, permeable paving, native or low-water-use (“xeriscape”) landscapes, and accommodation of alternative-fuelled/powered and human-powered vehicles.