From the experts at Living Earth, this comprehensive guide offers proven advice on layout, decoration, and maintenance to help you create a truly healthy and natural home environment.
Research increasingly reveals that indoor pollution extends beyond visible dirt or odors—it's generated by everyday items like furniture, paints, and candles. Building material manufacturers have historically overlooked human and planetary health, leading to homes tainted with harmful substances such as CMR agents (carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic), aldehydes, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), halogenated hydrocarbons, and more.
As an eco-conscious builder or renovator, this guide equips you to sidestep these toxins. Learn practical techniques for installing partitions, flooring, insulation, and more using natural, inviting materials like wood, hemp, and cellulose wadding. Discover lime-hemp plasters in warm ocher tones, clay heat-storing walls, whitewash, chestnut parquet, and smooth tadelakt finishes—all achievable with hands-on DIY projects.
Comfort and health aren't at odds; they complement each other, potentially lowering your energy costs. The materials highlighted here are renewable, reusable, health-safe, planet-friendly, locally sourced, low embodied energy, durable, ethical, high-performing, and vibrant.
For interior finishes, opt for the book's natural paint, coating, and stain recipes over toxic store-bought options. Once installed, maintain your space with simple, 100% natural, budget-friendly cleaning products using the provided recipes.
A standout feature: This isn't just for ecology experts. The authors focus on accessible, market-available materials and techniques suitable for beginners and pros alike, including non-industrial options.
Rest assured, eco-building delivers cozy, stylish, vibrant, creative, welcoming, and livable spaces.
Drawing on the deep knowledge of five specialists in eco-construction, Living Earth delivers a goldmine of practical info for novices and experienced DIYers alike.
Jean-Claude Mengoni is a journalist dedicated to ecological housing. Manuel Mengoni consults on ecology and sustainable development. Bruno Gouttry, artisan painter, founded Anachromie, specializing in natural paints and coatings, and offers workshops and training. Laetitia Royant excels in plants, herbalism, aromatherapy, and naturopathy, crafting effective natural cleaning recipes. Christelle Auzias, decorator and founder of Terra Originalis, teaches courses on healthy materials.
The Living Earth Guide to Healthy and Natural Habitats – Living Earth Guides Collection, released October 24, 2014 – €32
