The Barefoot Architect: A Handbook for Green Building

The Barefoot Architect: A Handbook for Green Building
By Johan van Lengen
Bolinas, California: Shelter Publications
Published 2008, 720 pages, 5.5" x 8.5" paperback, $18
ISBN13: 978-0-936070-40-7

While working in Mexico in 1982, Johan van Lengen wrote and illustrated Manual Del Arquitecto Descalzo, a comprehensive guide to building simple houses using both traditional and modern methods. The Mexican government bought was so impressed, they bought 40,000 copies and placed one in every library in the country. The book went on to sell over 200,000 copies in Latin America.

Now available in English for the first time, The Barefoot Architect describes in simple language the process of building housing and providing a healthful environment.

This comprehensive book clearly explains every aspect of the endeavor, including design (siting, orientation, climate consideration), materials (sisal, cactus, bamboo, earth), and implementation, foundations, walls, partitions, floors, doors, and windows. Special attention is paid to ecotechniques. The author emphasizes throughout the book what is inexpensive and sustainable.

Another section of the book discusses small-scale energy production through the use of water and wind mills, solar heating, and wood stoves and ovens. A final section shows how to obtain and store clean drinking water, and how to deal with septic waste safely. All information is applied to three distinct tropical regions: humid areas, temporate areas, and desert climates, and hundreds of explanatory drawings by van Lengen allow even novice builders to get started.

Although geared towards the southern latitudes (with passive solar gain coming from the North, for example), The Barefoot Architect contains a wealth of information about natural materials, passive design strategies, and design for different climates.

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