earth bag round house

1 year after the untimely passing of Dr. Owen Greiger an earthbag structure is dedicated to His name.

Pictures     pictures



My name is Phillip Freiberg. I have been in e-mail communication with Dr. Greiger over a couple of years regarding building an earth baghouse. He advised me to start with a small project. After his death in 2018, I finally made up my mind on the starter project I wanted to put my theoretical knowledge into.

Dr. Greiger is no longer there to answer my e-mails, but his legacy is alive. Hopefully, people will be inspired by my experience and build their own structures.

I decided to build a round structure that could have several practical uses: shower room/bathroom/storage and rest area while constructing the actual house in the future. I like round shape because it is natural, strong and forgives mistakes. I rigorously followed the advice Dr. greager book and video gave on how to make the structure solid, but here and there I made mistakes that I intend to avoid on the more expensive actual house. After that, I plan to use it as a sauna.

Actual bag laying was done by myself with the help of 2 local farmers. Plastering and metal work is done by local professionals. I used the soil dug from a nearby mountain. The building is in the village of Mackok, subdistrict Pasang, Province Lamphun of Thailand. The interesting fact about this place-from my structure I can see the temple that John Rembo was building. I saw the movie in 1988 and never thought that I’d be there building my own house.  18°28'9.32"N  98°55'6.89"E

Glad to see you put to practice a building method outside the mainstream.

Congratulations on finishing this structure -that's some serious work.

I am curious why you did not do the roof with earth bags also?  

Thanks for sharing the photos. I saw the foundation diggings but I'm not sure what you used for the foundation: did you pour a conventional cement footer?

Is the upper level completely open?  I see the stairs go up, I see the metal cross members setting on the earthbag walls, but I cannot tell if there is a floor on between the metal roof and the top of the earthbags.

The tropics are very different from the dry climates I am used to: please update this post as you learn about all the pro's and con's of your first earthbag structure!

Great job!  I'd like to know about the composition of your plaster in that climate.  And what plaster reinforcement (if any) might have been used.  

John