| Today's
natural builders look to ancient structures like these for inspiration.
Every indigenous culture developed a vernacular building tradition using
available materials in response to the local climate.
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At the UN-sponsored
Habitat II conference in Istanbul in 1996, a builder from Harran, Turkey
demonstrates the traditional method of mortaring adobes into a corbelled
dome. Some of the adobe bricks he is using are 2000 years old.
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The St. Francis
Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, was built of adobe bricks in 1815.
The massive earthen walls and structural buttresses create a dramatic
exterior, and a cool, comfortable interior in this desert climate.
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The Greek
village of Santorini was built of local stone, plastered and whitewashed
with lime. White walls and roofs help deflect the heat of the Mediterranean
sun.
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This Troglodyte
or "cave dweller" home is carved into the soft lime-stone strata of the
Loire Valley, France.
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