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Architect Sim Van der Ryn, a contributor to Handmade Houses, A Guide to the Woodbutcher's Art (Scrimshaw Press, $12.95) has already coined a phrase for the new style of building: "ecotecture." At a Berkeley conference he once termed the practitioners "outlaw builders." Whatever the label, the craftsmen are individualists who apparently do their best work alone. In one wooded ravine not far from Oakland, a commune of six married couples joined to erect their own cabins. By the time the last nail had been driven, not one of the couples was still together.
* Because they constantly have trouble with local authorities, some of the builders crave anonymity.