Earthquake Resistant Houses

Darcey Donovan, is a structural/mechanical/civil engineer and founder of the non for profit PAKSBAB (Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building). Although building houses from straw bales is ecological, and earthquake, fire, pest resistant, it can cost a lot of money in terms of machinery, skilled labor, and processing. But Donovan has developed a cheap method of building the houses using local unspecialized labor. "Our houses are up to 80% more energy efficient at about 50% of the cost of conventional earthquake resistant construction."
Here is a video of one of the houses under test earthquake conditions.