I, too, would like any info anyone has. I am in love with the Solviva concept, but can't seem to find any floor plans or such. (They are offered at the website, solviva.com, for a hefty price) Right now, I am just dreaming. (living on fixed income, with parents) Floor plans (and garden plans for that matter) help me figure out what I want to do "when I win the lottery."
Thanks in advance,
Kay
(sorry to tag along with your request, Alaina:))

I'm not sure if you'd be interested or not but Cal-Earth has a great concept in house design. They build houses from sandbags and adobe or papercrete to seal them. They came up with the concept to help people in disaster areas rebuild their homes with the things they had available. They are earthquake and hurricane proof too. They are awesome and most are dome shaped but you can really make them any shape. They have a website www.calearth.org and there is a book written by one of their students called "Building with Earth A Guide to Flexible Form Earthbag Construction" by Paulina Wojciechowska. I would have to recommend the book. It shows how to build a great home for very little money (cost of sandbags and barbed wire) and it is built in a way that you become one with your home as you build it. It really blends into the landscape and looks like part of the landscape. There are several pictures on the CalEarth website and the book has all the instructions to build them yourself. Perfect for a fixed budget. We plan to build these structures in our planned eco-village we call Summerland in NW Arizona over the next year. You can even make the sandbags yourself if you know how to sew. You can't beat the cost or the spiritual way they are built. You really become one with the earth. We just love the concept.
Let me know if you check the site out and what you think.

Blessings,
Willow

Kay,
Tag along, the more the merrier!
Willow,
The site does look interesting. Something like you would see in Star Wars or the Hobbit. I wonder if you can plant on the house?
Another site I found is: www.enertia.com. Very interesting, but they're in North Carolina. *sigh*

Thanks for the word,
Alaina

Actually Alaina I did see one that they did plant on. They had grown grass all over it and it really blended in to its surroundings. They do look like Gnome Homes don't they? Gnomes were creatures of the earth so that makes sense.

Willow

found some links that may help you, there is also a book here in australia called 'warm-house cool-house' which is very usefull, i have a copy in new condition. we designed our own house and had it built.

links as follows:

strawhome

strawbale home

your home

the following link has lots of links to similar resources.

farm living

len

mail len

lens garden page

another link they may be useful:

eco design