Customer Reviews

Building with Papercrete and Paper Adobe

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book's main strength is it introduces you to a new material to build inexpensively with. The main weakness is the fact that it is just an introduction, and doesn't give any real solid information or advice on which way to build. Even given the newness of this material, I felt more facts should have been given. The book gives you an brief overview of the ways different people have used this medium, and has many pictures where you can judge the results of their systems. Most of the example houses built using this material are not very inspiring. Mixer ideas are very good, but overall I didn't feel the book was worth what I paid for it.

I heard about papercrete for the past year, but have only seen bits and pieces about it in emails and on the web. This book is an excellent compilation of all the ins and outs of papercrete. What's really great is the creativity of its developers in constructing low cost machines to make this material. While the paper used in the book was a dissappointment (newsprint), the information it contained was wonderful. If the book was printed on normal paper, I would rate it a 5 star.

Also, when your done reading the book, you can always turn it into a papercrete brick.

I can't wait for the papercrete video to come out.

Papercrete has that elusive scent of being a truly revolutionary material. It is both new and old (a new twist on paper machee). For alternative builders, it is the bigest thing since Fuller's dome. The book is crude and basic which is appropriate for a new material right out of the chute. It is enough to make aspiring architects drool. Forget those bulky space robbing haybales.

I am DELIGHTED with the Papercrete and Paper Adobe book by Solberg! It is extremely informative and gives a very thorough idea of what is being done, directions for future research, etc. I had no hopes that it would be so good. The presentation is very well done, very graphic in the hallowed WHOLE EARTH CATALOG tradition.

As a collection of magazine articles, this book is a great first contact with PaperCrete and Paper Adobe. But its organization is that of a collection of magazine articles, and not that of a book. It is repetitive in many respects, and it lacks a coherent thread. The photos are photocopy quality, and not that of a printed book.

Author Gordon Solberg has compiled more than 20 articles from past Earth Quarterly issues along with introductory material, an assortment of correspondence, and some collected observations. The 96-page paperbound volume is filled with over 200 black-and-white photographs of various papercrete and paper adobe projects. This book is the kind of cozy reference you will probably find yourself going back to because it contains such an eclectic mix of how-to, theory, and positive attitude.