Berm Shed-Style Structures - Let's get these ideas some traction in other climates!

So, first off let me say I love the berm shed.  I love everything about it - how it functions as a beautiful green screen and sound block, how it gives plenty of open-bay access on the storage side, and how it looks and feels all around.

What I'm fishing for here is a discussion about ways to make it a design that is achievable in as many different climates and zones as possible.  

In properties without an abundance of straight trees, you could use milled lumber for roof decking.  But that's a lot of money/time/energy resources, so I'm wondering what ideas people have for other possibilities for easy, abundant decking solutions that can stand the load of earth above. What are existing traditional methods for decking on an earth-sheltered structure that might be suitable for a berm shed style structure?  Has Sepp used anything other than logs and stone in his earthen shelters?

Similarly, what other materials could serve for the walls?  Stone is one obvious choice.  Perhaps rammed earth, or tires (earthship style) though tires have their drawbacks.  

One other design consideration - in wetter climates, you probably couldn't get away with posts in the ground, so they'd have to go on stone plinths or piers, or similar.  Which is fine, except then you have all the racking and sheer forces to deal with.  Is this just a simple matter of additional angle braces?

Let's get these ideas some traction in other climates!

The Berm Shed movie trailer is a great, quick reference for the basic idea of the existing berm shed.

One of my projects this year is to create a a shaded area to store materials, mainly wood for drying. Here in the dry tropical jungle we get very serious storms with high winds every year during the changing seasons, specially from dry to rainy, and it’s inevitable for some of our trees to go down on their own. After years of harvesting them we’re about to ran out of roofed space for the processed timber cause we’re collecting more than we use.

The original design I got for this structure only contemplated bamboo, specifically guadua and palm thatched roof. I’d separated a plot just for this but the berm shed design completely shifted my perspective! It’s lengthy shape fits my main access road to add adjacently, specially a portion that’s on a ridge (which would really help to reduce the runoff during the rainy seasons). I’m still in the redesign process but I’m leaning towards a strong round wood timber structural base and then use bamboo poles for back walls and for the eave. Rammed earth also sounds like a good possibility since this will be a very dry space. Maybe even create in time a twin opposite berm shed on the other side of the road. Oh, and maybe even connect the eaves with a roof so no water falls on the road at all!

We’re on presidential and congress elections around here and the madness should be done in a couple of months, meaning a great opportunity to recycle the plastic banners all around town to use for the roof. Thatched roofing is beautiful and if done right can last up to twenty years but the insulation the dirt behind the berm shed can offer is way better while at the same time gathering water downhill to a food forest.

It’s awesome how adaptable this structure can be to a climate so different at the other side of the globe and how many more functions can be stacked to it. I’ll post my design once it’s done and eventually the construction process.

Thanks Paul and the bootcamp team behind this awesome structure for the inspiration and guidance!