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In West Africa entire towns are built without a scrap of wood or cement, completely carbon neutral using only local materials, creating homes that can function without any grid. The technique is known as Nubian Vaulting: adobe bricks with mud mortar, thick walls, barrel vault. 
The only ingredients are mud and water, materials and labor can be sourced in locally and training is simple. The low cost (only labor) means that even the poorest people can afford it.
The technique works for all typer of homes and public buildings and can be easily adapted to any size. Here is a particularly impressive one in Senegal.
Perfect for hot arid climates with stable geology. The oldest known have lasted at least 3000 years, even after having been abandoned. The Ramesseum (Mortuary Temple of Ramses II), Luxor, Egypt, as it looks now and as it could have looked when it was new (Jean-Claude Golvin).
Thick walls, high ceilings, low windows contribute to a relatively comfortable interior climate, stabilizing temperatures and humidity levels: cool during the day and not warm during the night.
Most buildings are one floor only, but it is easy to add a second floor after or during construction. Some buildings go even taller.
The homes require very little maintenance, and no special skills or materials and tools. A way to build and live without being beholden to banks, building companies or faraway factories. Goals that we ought to be striving for all over the globe.
