Natural building is a building with natural materials, usually found or produced on site or nearby. These materials are wonderful to use, even if only to build a garden shed or playhouse or gazebo. Regardless of where you are in the world, you can build a building with natural, freely obtained materials that don’t harm the earth or you. We’ll describe some of the most popular approaches here.
Note that different materials are better suited to different climates. In Florida, for instance, we don't have clay or stone readily available to us in most of the state, and earth also tends to gather and hold heat which is not desirable in a hot, humid climate. We can, however, grow lots of bamboo which is a favored material in many tropical locations, not only because it is available but because when properly preserved and built, can last for decades and can be earthquake and hurricane resistant.
Though natural building has been used for centuries and many structures built hundreds of years ago are still standing, building permit departments and modern structural engineers don't understand it very well, and thus it isn't approved in many areas as structurally sound.
It is, in fact, often as safe or safer than modern approaches when done right. This is being slowly recognized and natural building methods like straw bale building are slowly being incorporated in building codes around the world. In many places, these materials can be used in infill in walls even if not yet approved for structural framing. There is of course a proper way to use natural materials to ensure these buildings are safely constructed. This is often easier to learn and do than modern approaches.
Though not everybody is going to be able to build a natural building, and this is not even desirable (since we have already built so many structures that should be utilized), as a designer, it's important to understand these approaches. Natural materials can be used in modern construction; ome green builders have dived into natural materials much more deeply than others. There are even builders using clay to build 3D printed houses now.