There was a time, before Green Building became a set of expensive international standards, when it just meant doing a lot of your own work with simple materials and tools that were close at hand. This was the start for many interesting owner-builder stories now told to grand children. The link below is one such story.
Article link: http://goo.gl/psWyh
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zALKAYvh-rI/UO9yzXQ6ImI/AAAAAAAAKVQ/YwK4oIXlOSI/s1600/MH+building+woodshed+in+1976-A.jpg)
I was at some used book store in Saugurties, NY years ago and they had a book called "Hippie Houses of Woodstock." Most of those houses were extremely creative. There is a lot of good information at that link.
Fun read. One of my favorite stories in the Whole Earth Catalog was about the oak beams of Oxford. A number of the guys I've worked with locally were the subject of an article on alternative building in TMEN back in the day. One remarked, "I can't believe people hired a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds to design and build them a house, we didn't have a clue." Trace the ridgebeam load path on Holladay's picture in John's post ;).
My Dad built a reproduction of Thoreau's cabin near Walden in the early 60's for one of his reasearchers, the amatuer archaeologist that found the old cabin site. The idea of hippy building is not new :). My parents still remark that I would come out of that pond blue and say "I'm not cold" and head back in, ahh to have that metabolism back :D. Several of my high school drafting projects revolved around Thoreau's concept. One of our first efforts was an 8x12 with a counterweighted bed that rose to the ceiling during the daytime. It's full of garden supplies now.
Someone mentioned Scott and Helen Nearing and slip forming a week or two ago... I've always enjoyed Wrights Usonian designs and have used that concept and modifications of it to build several foundations, even in stages under existing cabins.
http://www.prairiemodstuff.com/berger%20layout_final.pdf
I just picked this up for $9. "The Barefoot Architect" by Johan van Lengen.
http://www.shelterpub.com/_barefoot/BA-book.html
Has anyone else here read this? It's just packed with ideas - sort of like "A Pattern Language" is.
I had heard of this book but had not seen it. Great that it is now in a language I (pretty much) can speak!