Napa Restaurant Owner Connects to Earth with Home Made of SoilSF Chronicle: 04.12.08

Napa Restaurant Owner Connects to Earth with Home Made of Soil
SF Chronicle: 04.12.08

Last weekend's Chronicle included an article on a woman who made her house out of soil. Sandy Lawrence, the owner of vegetarian restaurant Ubuntu in Napa, built a 3,136-square foot house on 90 acres of land with a winery and gardens that supply the restaurant.

Rammed Earth Works made the home of recycled materials -- and Lawrence's earth, which is mixed with cement and water "into temporarily erected boxes that, when removed, hold 18-inch-thick walls that require no painting or finishing, not to mention no Sheetrock."

The home includes a pool, Buddha pond, meditation lawn, and yoga studio. It also has 33 doors. Oh, and caves were excavated to create garage space, a wine cellar, and guest quarters. Lawrence says, "I wanted to live outdoors and I wanted to have a simple lifestyle." Hmm, one person's simplicity...

Click here for Susan Fornoff's article.

Images: Eric Luse

Comments (3)

Sounds like a nice place.
One person's simplicity indeed...

posted by MoJonson on April 17th 2008 at 3:37pm
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On one hand I'm glad more and more people are trying to build or renovate green but I think they are missing the simplest principle of all which is smaller is better for the environment.

posted by http://badhuman.wordpress.com on April 17th 2008 at 4:23pm
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I love rammed earth, strawbale, and cob houses. I also love the more eco friendly prefabs. What are don't love are the pricetags and trying to get them past planning depts.

posted by Renngrrl on April 18th 2008 at 7:09am
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