Jacob Deva Racusin - The Natural Building Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to Integrative Design and Construction

As the title clearly states, this book is a true companion to take along on one s natural building journey. A well-thought-out account of Jacob Deva Racusins and Ace McArletons experiences and the methods they have evolved over the years. Details that are useful in just about any climate, but particularly in cold climates. One of the best natural building books published in recent years.

Bill Steen, author, The Straw Bale House

The Natural Building Companion is a joy to read. The approach is holistic, the style is generous, and the authors gracefully balance technical details, beautiful spaces, and big ecological questions. This book empowers the reader to make choices that matterfor their own home and for the health of our planet.

Paul Lacinski, coauthor, Serious Straw Bale

This excellent and thoroughly researched book reflects the progression of natural building. It eloquently expresses the beautiful marriage between experience and experimentation, fact and anecdote, science and soul. Jacob Deva Racusin and Ace McArleton have built us a much-needed bridge between natural building and green building. The Natural Building Companion will transform how we build!

Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce, authors,
Using Natural Finishes and Building with Cob

A thorough treatment of both the context for and specifics of natural building, this book is a wealth of resources all in one place. Though geared to the Atlantic Northeast, there is still more than enough here to make it a must-read for natural builders everywhere.

Bruce King, author, Design of Straw Bale Buildings
and Buildings of Earth and Straw

The Natural Building Companion brings age-old building techniques and materials into the modern world. It is a comprehensive evaluation of natural building methods that shares results from up-to-date testing and monitoring, explains how these results apply to building codes, and covers new tools and resources that make installation more user friendly and durable. By combining a wealth of information in a single volume, this book is indispensable to anyone wanting to build a healthy home using natural materials.

Will Beemer, director, The Heartwood School for the Homebuilding Crafts

What is a high-performance building? Racusin and McArleton answer that question by taking a values-based approach that integrates social and ecological good with health, resource efficiency, and durability. Fusing the knowledge of the building-science community with the wisdom and experience of the best natural building practitioners, The Natural Building Companion provides plenty of detailed, how-to information to help readers create structures and communiti es that are, as the authors put it, worthy of our highest aspirations.

Marc Rosenbaum, founder, Energysmiths

This book is the result of many years work and dedication by many wonderful people. Those who contributed to its creation are too numerous to mention. The authors, however, would like to acknowledge the following individuals and organizations for their support:

The creators of the natural building and traditional building movements in both North America and across the world, whose courage and innovation enabled our own progress: Bill and Athena Swentzell Steen, Judy Knox (may she rest in peace) and Matts Myhrmann, David Eisenberg, David Bainbridge, Steve MacDonald, Ianto Evans, Bruce King, Catherine Wanek, Frank Anderson, Paul Lacinski, Clark Sanders, Michelle and Will Beemer, Jack Sobon, Stafford Holmes and Michael Wingate, and many others, including the thousands of owner-builders and professional builders who have taken great risks and made great efforts to create the path toward a just and sustainable future by walking it. Without their failures and successes both we would not know what we know today. Also the traditional craftspeople and indigenous builders whose techniques we use to this day, in large part for whom all building was natural building.

Our incredible clients, who have shown us unstinting generosity both during our working relationship and far beyond, allowing us to photograph and performance-test their homes, giving us feedback on our work, and hosting innumerable house tours: Maggie Cahoon and Joe Marks, Dylan Ford, Bobby Farlice-Rubio and Indigo, Jango, and Niobe, Mary Ellen Blakey, Will and Theresa White, Linda Ides and Brad Viatje, Lynne Hadley, Peter and Helen Forbes and Taz Squire of the Center for Whole Communities at Knoll Farm, Michael Brodeur, and Stephen Le Blanc and Kate Abbott.

Our brilliant colleagues and friends in Natural Builders NorthEast (NBNE), from whom we have learned and shared so much and without whom the advancement of this work would not be possible: Ben Graham, Josh Jackson, Stephen Dube, Mark Krawczyk, Mark Piepkorn, Sarah Machtay, Clark Sanders, Daniel Fullmer, Bryan Felice, Micah Whitman, Aaron Dennis and ej George, Sarah Highland, Brent and Diana Katzmann, Dave Lanfear, Kevin Connors, Dave Vail, Steve Paisley, Ben Simpson, Jim Luckner, Jonah Vitale-Wolff, Andy Mueller, Megan McNally, and Liz Johndrow. Also our beloved friends and colleagues beyond the NBNE fold: Tim Rieth, Jos Galarza, Sasha Rabin, Andy Burt, Danny Viescas, Adam Weismann, Katy Bryce, Skip Dewhirst and Lizabeth Moniz, Ryan Chivers, Thea Alvin, Patti Garbeck, Ben Falk, Keith Morris, Missa Aloisi, and William Davenport.