A Brief Introduction to Straw-Bale Construction
After the Wolf episode, the Three Little Pigs decided to rethink their construction methods and materials. They hit upon a bright idea. Why not build with straw bricks? They would have the insulating qualities of straw, the resilience of wood and the stacking qualities of brick...
History
At the apex of the machine age, when lumber mills in the West began producing great quantities of Victorian Gingerbread and dimensioned lumber, the baling machine was introduced in the Midwest. The first buildings made of straw appeared in and around Arthur, Nebraska, where some of them--a house, a church, a store--are still standing today. Bale construction experienced a revival in the Southwest and Canada about a decade ago. In the Southwest, bale buildings have been prized for their similarity in appearance to traditional adobe and rammed earth. In Canada straw-bale construction has been prized for its thermal efficiency and similarity to old European architectural materials. The first straw buildings built under the Uniform Building Code in California were completed in 1994 and 1995.
Advantages in Design
The thick walls of straw-bale construction have great intrinsic appeal, and lend themselves naturally to the adobe and old European architectural styles. Bale walls provide comfortable and secure interior spaces, and can be easily utilized in energy conscious designs. Bales are flexible and can economically be used to create round and curved walls, sound barriers, landscape walls, and super-insulated roof structures.
Advantages of Design/Build
Top|Environmental Advantages
The thermal efficiency of straw-bale walls provides an excellent base for passive solar design. Because straw is an annually renewable waste product, and is usually available within short distances of building sites, straw-bale construction consumes fewer natural resources and contains less embodied energy than any other common method of construction. Top|Advantages in Construction
Building with bales is simple and can be accomplished by people of all ages and skills. Owners can more easily participate in the construction of their own dwelling, and significant cost savings can be realized by owners prepared to do their own work. Strawbales can be used to support building loads entirely, or can be used for infill walls in a post and beam structure, where the bale walls can provide a redundant structural system. (A redundant system becomes important when the main system fails.) Relaxed, informal finishes reminicent of older vernacular architecture are easily and economically achieved with straw bales.why straw-bale?
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