Observation Tower (click to enlarge)
Observation Tower
Specifications: 123 sq. ft. interior, 104 sq. ft. 2nd story, 86 sq. ft. upper floor, total = 313 sq. ft. interior, plus roof deck, Footprint: 15′-6” diameter
Description: The Observation Tower for my Dome Fort (coming soon) could also be used for other purposes such as an office, pantry or even spare bedroom. The kids would love it. A spiraling staircase joins the first three floors, and a ladder provides access to the roof deck. Total height is 31’. The same tower is used in my Native Spirit home design.
Round Guard Tower (click to enlarge)
Specifications: 123 sq. ft. interior, 104 sq. ft. upper floor, total = 227 sq. ft. interior, plus roof deck, Footprint: 15′-6” diameter
Description: This guard tower for my Dome Fort could also be used for other purposes such as an office, pantry or even spare bedroom. The kids would love it (and big kids, too). A spiraling staircase joins the first and second floors, and a ladder provides access to the roof deck. Total height is 22’. The Round Guard Tower is the same as the Observation Tower except it is one floor (9’) shorter.
Observation Tower and Round Guard Tower plan
Earthbag House Plans 
Do you think the observation tower could work as a cistern/water tower? Could it withstand the pressure if it were hollow and coated with pool plaster or something similar? Obviously the 2 floors add structural integrity, do the stairs as well? Maybe leave it all for maintenance? Or seal them off for 3 sections? It would have to have plumbing fittings with some sort of valve. Pressure is the main concern, in your opinion do you think it would hold? If not is there a good way to reinforce? Maybe some earth berming steep and high? Thanks for any feedback or discussion from anyone
Interesting idea. Yes, it could work with some proper detailing. I would bury the first few feet in the ground to make sure the base is stable. Add plastic plaster mesh on both sides tied together through the wall. (Add lengths of baling twine after each course.) Use tubes instead of bags so it’s more integrated. Two strands 4-point barbed wire. Berming around the base is good where the stress is greatest. Hire expert pool plasterers at least on the outside. Stabilize the bags with lime or cement. Delete the stairs. Plumbing is relatively easy. Include a drain at the very bottom for cleaning/draining the cistern. Add a hatch on top for access so you can clean the inside. Build a simple tool shed, etc. to first develop your skills. Have the best worker supervisor/check every step to make sure there are no soft spots or other errors. Use a center pole to guide the construction.
Since the two larger towers with the dome fort would already make great guest houses, I was thinking of making one of the observation towers a smokehouse and the other a sauna. If it was all built as planned, however, it would make a great theme B&B. 🙂 Come spend the night at an off-grid, earth friendly, working farm that looks like a castle!
Yeah, the possibilities are endless. Lots of resorts and eco resorts build innovative structures to attract guests.
I am interested in building the fortress tower. Where do I begin?
Plans are available from Dream Green Homes: http://dreamgreenhomes.com/materials/earth/earthbags.htm
Only the most popular plans are listed, so write Kelly if you don’t see what you want.
We have thousands of pages of free building information on our various websites, including Earthbag Building.com and Natural Building Blog. We have free videos showing every step on YouTube, detailed Instructables at Instructables.com, etc. You can search our sites (slow and sometimes inefficient) or use a major search engine with a phrase such as earthbag videos Owen or something similar.
Or you can buy my ebook and DVD to save time and effort. All the most important information is distilled for convenience.
http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/owens-book-dvd/
Read How Much Will My House Cost? http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/how-much-will-my-house-cost/
Other FAQs: http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/faqs/
What about building a smaller version of this for the kids to play in? I need a small practice project before we build our house.
Great idea. Sounds fun. Please document your project and share with others online.
I have a blog that I document all my projects on so I will be sure to share it! I wish more people shared their projects, then we might not have such a hard time finding the information we need. What we have to go on right now is the dvd we got from you and a couple books really. Hence the practice project.
Good on you for making this contribution. I look forward to following your blog.
In addition to the DVD and earthbag ebook, we also have nearly 3,000 pages of free information at Earthbag Building.com and Natural Building Blog.
We have read quite a bit on this site. Lors of good information. Thanks for helping us so much!
I would probably use post and beam and strawbale in a cold climate such as NY. This will also facilitate code approval. It’s faster, easier and more insulating. See: http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/post-and-beam-hardware/
We are building an earth-bag home in a remote village in Kenya. We hope to use this methods to build churches and schools after we learn more about it. We are particularly interested in building round rooms and using domes. I am interested in buying a house plan that shows how you join round rooms together and especially making a half moon room on the side of another round room. Can you suggest some of your plans that would show me how to do those things? Also we plan to sink our home 4 feet so that we come up with enough dirt to build the whole house from the excavation and so that it will be cooler. If you have any plans that speak particularly to sunken earth-bag homes I would like to look at those as well. Thanks, Leah
See the Double Unit Ecoresort. https://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/double-unit-ecoresort/
Joining Walls with Buttresses http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/joining-new-walls-with-buttresses/
Transforming Buttresses into Walls http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/transforming-buttresses-into-walls/
Building below ground can work great. Just be careful because the home will be vulnerable to flooding, so build on high ground, use wide roof overhangs and slope the land away from your home.
I have a new drawing of how to join roundhouses that will be in my upcoming house plan book. The book should be finished in about 3 weeks. Just watch our Natural Building Blog for the announcement. Or I’ll send this drawing as part of the package if you buy a house plan.
Where we are building is pretty flat with a very slight downward slope towards the river that is 1 1/2 miles away.Since we are building domes we won’t have any roof over hangs. Do you thing that will be a problem? We planned on berming the house with another row of bags about 2 feet up and all the way around. (I hope that is the right term) And we are going to make the door way so that you have to go up two feet of steps to get in. Ware hoping this will eliminate the chance of flooding. Do you think those two things will do it. Since we can’t really do any of the 3 things that you suggested. Thank you so much for your quick response to our earlier question.
This can work, although I don’t know all the details. So start small and experiment.
Thank you. I have another question. We have dug a pit latrine that is 15 feet deep and 3 feet x 4 feet. We want to build a round earth-bag structure around it. We plan on using a domed building design. Do we need to be worried about the weight of the wall being too close to the hole and causing a cave in? What diameter of dome would be safe? How far from the sides of the hole do the walls need to be in order to be safe?
Yes, the latrine can cave in. Be careful. I can’t give you a definite answer because it largely depends on soil type. Some soils are more stable than others. Sandy soils are the least stable. One option is to build a lightweight structure over the hole so there’s less risk of collapse.
will this tower do well in Chiapas mexico where we have rain season. or should a roof be built on top the deck to protect from rain?
If in doubt, add a roof or the walls will get black with mold. But first, look at other buildings in your area that are not protected with roofs (privacy walls, etc.) Are they turning black with mold? Maybe you have some rain but if the humidity is mostly low then the walls may not get moldy.
[…] Here is a link to the site where we found the idea for the observation tower. We aren’t really planning to build with cob because it isn’t the best choice for our very wet climate and we have more resources for building with cordwood. We may very likely end up with something that looks a lot like this. […]