Houses of Straw: the rediscovery of Strawbale Building DVD

From Oliver Swan of naturalhomes.org comes a recommendation to watch, House of Straw: the rediscovery of Strawbale Building  a 2004 production of ÖKOFILM Heidi Snel, directed by Heidi Snel.

The clip below includes an interview with David Eisenberg,co-founder and Director of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT) in Tucson, AZ, and legendary diplomat from the natural building community to the building code community.

Unfortunately the film is not available in NTSC format, so the clip below is all that is available to us in the USA. 

The film is available for $24.95 from greenplantfilms.org though if you want to show your copy to your friends they want a lot more money.

Building with Awareness: the construction of a hybrid home

In south Texas, some potential owner/natural homebuilders have decided that neither a strawbale nor an adobe/compressed earth block house is right for our climate.  The solution is a hybrid home which appropriately combines strawbale and blocks for thermal mass.

In the DVD and accompanying book, Building with Awareness, Ted Owens documents the building of a hybrid home in New Mexico, (which of course imposes very different climate challenges than those encountered in south Texas.)  This hybrid home combines exterior strawbale construction with interior adobe for thermal mass. 

The video is available for purchase or Netflix customers may add it to their queue.


Below are the trailer and a six minute excerpt.

Learn about and build an infill straw bale wall with Bill Christensen of Sustainable Sources

From: Austin's Design Build Live (the SASL's far out accomplished cousin):

Straw Bale Wall Raising Workshop

Saturday, August 22, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Instructor: Bill Christensen, Sustainable Sources
Location: Between Blanco and Wimberley, Texas (off RR 2325)
Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Fee: $75 - Registration required

* To register, click HERE. If you don’t already have a DBL account, you will be asked to create an account. Once you have created an account and are logged in, select “Current Events” from the “What would you like to do?” pull down menu.

Walls built of straw bales offer incredible thermal insulation, sound isolation, beauty and permanence. Over seventy-five straw bale structures have been built in Central Texas over the last two decades, ranging from garden walls to three storey homes and even commercial buildings.

Straw bale wall raisings, like old-fashioned barn raisings, bring people together to share knowledge, skill, work, food and camaraderie. During this upcoming workshop participants will learn many of the skills needed to build a house of straw, including:

– Preparing foundations for straw bale walls

– Stacking and securing bales

– Making custom bales

– Stabilizing with external pinning, as required

– Attaching window and door bucks

The project is a 2,000 square foot home for Cindy and Eric Gerber, where the wood-framed floor, wood columns and SIP panel roof are ready to receive the straw bale wall infill. This workshop offers the fairly rare opportunity to learn how to stack straw bales on edge, as opposed to the more common flat position.

Bill Christensen, founder of Sustainable Sources and one of the co-founders of the Sustainable Building Coalition (DBL’s predecessor), will lead the workshop.

Fee for the workshop is $75 and includes a healthy vegetarian lunch and all necessary workshop materials and tools. Water, tea and snacks will also be provided. Enrollment is limited to twenty people. Register for the workshop HERE or contact Gayle at 512-478-9033.

Beautiful Strawbale earth plastered demonstration building on the grouds of the US Botanical Gardens in Washington DC

Builders Without Borders has created an exhibit on the grounds of the US Botanical Garden in Washington D.C. as a showcase for natural building. In addition to the small one room structure a hardened adobe arch frames a view of the Capitol. Lime plaster, cotton roof insulation, a standing seam metal roof, a truth window and a bamboo trellis are all featured.

Online Straw Bale Construction training offered by Geiger Institute

The Geiger Institute of Sustainable Building offers online training in straw bale construction. The course which uses More Straw Bale Building, by Chris Magwood, Peter Mack and Tina Therrien and a CD-Rom containing forty issues of the Last Straw Journal includes topics such as Advantages of Straw-Bale Construction, Basic Design Considerations, Strawbale Building Types, Ideal Building Bales, Protecting the Bales, Mechanical Systems, Stacking the Bale Walls, Making Custom-Sized Bales, Attaching Things on Straw Bale Walls, Installing Doors and Windows, Building the Roof and Plastering.

Cost of the course is $250. A program leading to Straw bale construction certification is also offered.

Founder and Director of the Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building, Dr. Owen Geiger, Ph.D. in Social and Economic Development, is the former Director of Builders Without Borders and current member of the BWB Steering Committee. He is an author and engineer specializing in sustainable building. He co-authored the Builders Without Borders Straw-Bale Construction Guides and contributed to Building Without Borders: Sustainable Construction for the Global Village.

Design Build Live: Straw Bale Wall Raising

From the Design Build Live Website

Saturday, April 4, 9:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Instructor: Norm Ballinger

Location: Between Manor and Elgin, Texas

Fee: $75 - Registration required (You will be asked to create an account. Click HERE if you already have an account.)

Experience Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Straw bale walls are perhaps the best known of all the natural building elements. These thick walls are valued for their incredible thermal insulation as well as their beauty. Several straw bale structures have been built in Central Texas over the last two decades, ranging from garden walls to three storey homes and even commercial buildings.

Straw bale wall raisings, like old-fashioned barn raisings, bring people together to share knowledge, skill, work, food and camaraderie. During this upcoming workshop we will learn many of the skills needed to build a house of straw, including:

Preparing foundations for straw bale walls

Stacking and securing bales

Making custom bale

Stabilizing with external pinning

Attaching window and door bucks

The project is a 2,000 square foot home for Sarah Graham and Brent Jones, who fell in love with the beauty and sustainability of straw bale construction after reading just one book on the topic. Read about their story and see the project’s progress at www.safiandshmuel.com .

Austin musician and natural builder Norm Ballinger will lead the workshop and complete the walls. Norm and his wife, Cat, live in “The Treehouse”, a three-story straw bale home in South Austin.

Fee for the workshop is $75 and includes a healthy vegetarian lunch and all necessary workshop materials and tools. Water, coffee and tea will also be provided. Enrollment is limited to twenty people. Register for the workshop HERE or contact Gayle at 512-478-9033.

Upcoming Events

February 27 to March 1: Austin Green Living Expo at the Austin Convention Center. $7.50 admission.

Friday, Feb 27 3 pm @ Austin Green Living Expo. Design Build Live's Introduction to Natural Building $7.50 admission to entire Expo includes this talk

Saturday Feb 28 1:30 pm @ Austin Green Living Expo Design Build Live's Straw Bale Construction Overview $7.50 admission to entire Expo includes this talk

Saturday March 7, Earth Plaster Finish Coat Workshop, Austin. Cost $75 Hosted by Design Build Live.

Saturday, March 14, Earthen Floor Workshop, Austin. Cost $75. Taught by Frank Meyer (the Thangmaker) and hosted by Design Build Live.

Wednesday, March 18, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm -Design Build Live Monthly Presentation
Introduction to Straw Bale Construction. Guest presenter: Ben Obregon of The Sustainable Design Center

Tuesday, March 31, San Antonio Sustainable Living, monthly meeting. 7 pm. Whole Foods Market at the Quarry. Training room.

Wednesday, April 15, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm - Design Build Live Monthly Presentation: Conserving Resources: Reduce, Reduce, Reduce Guest presenter: Jenny Nazak of Austin Permaculture Guild

Friday, April 17, to Sunday, April 19, 2009 - DBL Special Event
Rainwater Harvesting Rockstar Comes to Austin: Brad Lancaster
A series of talks and events with the dynamic author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands series. Prepare to be amazed. Brad shows how urban residents not just people in the countryside can harvest water in ways you've never imagined. His site: http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

May 2, 2009: SolarFest San Antonio, at Maverick Park sponsored by Solar San Antonio .