Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the California Coast

Lloyd Kahn has been hiking and camping on Northern California beaches for the last dozen or so years and, given his background in publishing books on building, it's only natural that he would notice the unique and whimsical beach shacks constructed by anonymous builders.

Here are some 60 structures, shaped by materials lying on the beach, and ephemeral in the sense that they are built without nails, and don't last long -- victims of wind, waves, and high tides. (All of the ones depicted are now gone.)

There are also photos of beach sculptures, seaweed, seashells, birds, sea lions, whalebones, waves, surfers, fishermen, and sunsets, as well as photos from a 3-day backpacking trip along the remote "Lost Coast."

A book for beachcombers and beach lovers everywhere, all of whom share a deep love for the ocean and its surroundings.

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands.

He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, The Shelter Library Of Building Books, include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014).

Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers.

You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube: http: //www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lloyd+kahn

Lloyd lives in West Marin County, California.