| 2001 Austin Strawbale Home Tour: The Youth Climate Change Conference (‘YC3’) is a youth-lead initiative, focused on action, alternatives, and solutions for a changing world / (added 09/2005) |
| 50 Straw Bale House Plans: See pictures of 8 houses." (Feb ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| A House of Straw: / (added 09/2005) |
| Agriboard Industries: Carolyn and her two teenage sons have built a small, load-bearing straw bale house in the Sonoran desert near Tucson with earthen plasters and an earthen floor. She wrote a book about it; a good read. / (added 09/2005) |
| Alta Goldboard: Non-toxic, cost-competitive, soundproof, high fire rating, environmentally friendly insulation material.. for those places where bales can be a bit too big (like in interior walls), there’s Agriboard. They compress straw to make "durable and highly insulated" panels for inside and out. / (added 09/2005) |
| Amazon Nails: Another strawboard-maker, this one an Alberta, Canada, company supported with regional investments. / (added 09/2005) |
| ASTM E84-98 Surface Burning Characteristics report: / (added 09/2005) |
| Aura Borealis: / (added 09/2005) |
| Ausbaleorg: Gallery of cold climate strawbale houses. (Mar ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Biomass (Straw) and Coal: The Australian Straw Bale Building Association. New site online in Nov. 04. Partly under construction. Good FAQ and general information. (Igor, Nov 19/04) / (added 09/2005) |
| Build a house in two days using straw: SK Power Avedore Dk / (added 09/2005) |
| Building a House of Straw: In 27 short sentences, syndicated columnist James T. Dulley answers the question, "Exactly how is a house built with straw bales and is this type of construction very energy efficient?" (Of course, you can’t really build a SB house in two days that meets contemporary ‘American-suburbs’ expectations.) / (added 09/2005) |
| Building A House of Straw (November 1998): Read a little about how a Pennsylvania couple built their SB house in the captions of these nicely exploding thumbnails. This page sits on an interesting commercial website pitched toward large custom homes (their sample contractor schedule is for a [gasp!] 6,000 sf home!), both contractor- and owner-built. / (added 09/2005) |
| Building A Straw Bale Garage In Edmonton: How durable are straw-bale buildings in the wet northwest climate? In hopes of finding out, students and staff at PCC’s engineering department constructed a small straw bale structure in the Summer of 1996." / (added 09/2005) |
| Building Green Guide: They built a garage. They built it in Edmonton. They built it with straw bales. And they have pictures to prove it. / (added 09/2005) |
| Building Straw Houses on a Firm Foundation: / (added 09/2005) |
| Building with Straw: / (added 09/2005) |
| Buildings of Earth and Straw: / (added 09/2005) |
| Buildings Of Earth And Straw : / (added 09/2005) |
| Built By Hand: / (added 09/2005) |
| Burbophobia: Strawbale Construction in the Colorado Rockies: / (added 09/2005) |
| Cal Earth (Nader Khalili): Burbophobia is one of the best SB sites going, steeped in grounded wisdom and put together with love and humor by owner-builder Sara Mock / (added 09/2005) |
| Cal-Earth – California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture: Nader Khalili’s California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture / (added 09/2005) |
| CalMax Helps Bale Out Rice Grower: Nader Khalili is an amazing architect, and his ideas about the philosophy and methodology of building are a rich resource, well worth exploring. (reviewed by Igor, Dec 6/04) / (added 09/2005) |
| Camels Back Construction: The story of Ron Kampschmidt, a California rice grower, and how he’s marketed 240 tons of rice straw / (added 09/2005) |
| Canelo Project: An Ontario, Canada, builder’s site. / (added 09/2005) |
| Casas Que Cantan—Houses That Sing: / (added 09/2005) |
| Casting a Straw Vote—The First Straw: An effort of the Canelo Project that totally deserves its own listing here. "Eight women in a community called Xochitl (‘Flower’ in Nauhuatl) on the outskirts of Cuidad Obregon, Mexico, have been working together to build each other’s houses." / (added 09/2005) |
| Claiborne & Churchill Winery: / (added 09/2005) |
| Cob Builders Handbook: California vintners whose vintry is built of bales; there are a couple shots of it under the About The Winery link. / (added 09/2005) |
| CobCrew Home Page: Cob building uses hands and feet to form lumps of earth mixed with sand and straw, a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to sculpting with clay. / (added 09/2005) |
| Cobworks : .. Texans getting dirty and sharing their floor plans and a host of Very Large Pictures; a nice cob recipe and details on their foundation system for expansive clay. / (added 09/2005) |
| Colorado Straw Balers: has inspiring photos from British Columbia. And workshops and stuff, too. / (added 09/2005) |
| Complete Owner Builder Systems (COBS): In Minneapolis, a SB plan book and other info / (added 09/2005) |
| Composting Greenhouse with Straw Bale Foundation: Recycled steel and strawbale packages including financing. (Oct ’00) / (added 09/2005) |
| Cornertstones: "Our household of 2 adults and three children obtained all our household hot water from a composting greenhouse we constructed in Portland, Oregon in 1994. It provided hot water at a temperature of 90-130 degrees (Fahrenheit) continuously until it was dismantled 18 months later." A thorough article written by the people who built it, with high-quality illustrative pictures. / (added 09/2005) |
| CRESTs Strawbale Mailing List Archive: An adobe conservation group. There’s a lot to be learned from them. / (added 09/2005) |
| David Bainbridges slides on Strawbale Construction: Don’t miss these real life discussions by folks like you and me, out there hashin’ out just how this strawbale stuff works. / (added 09/2005) |
| DAWN: SB in pictures / (added 09/2005) |
| Design Guide For Frost-Protected Shallow Foundations: / (added 09/2005) |
| DESIGN GUIDE FOR FROST-PROTECTED SHALLOW FOUNDATIONS : Something good from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.. a must-read for anybody in a deep-frost climate. (Many thanks to John Cropper for the download, conversion, & web posting!) / (added 09/2005) |
| Developing and Proof-Testing the Prestressed Nebraska Method for Improved Production of Baled Fibre Housing: This document has very nice scanned images of foundations. / (added 09/2005) |
| Ecological Building Network: Fibrehouse Limited, outta Ontario, has developed their own way to precompress walls for load-bearing SB houses. This is the TOC, Abstract and Executive Summary of the report. While it may not be an approach you could do line-by-line on your one-off owner-built home, there’s some very handy gleanings to be had here. (Credit where it’s due: / (added 09/2005) |
| Energy Savings With Straw Bale Construction: / (added 09/2005) |
| European Strawbale Network: Both domestically and internationally, Environmental Defense works to stabilize Earth’s climate by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. / (added 09/2005) |
| Experiments in Sustainable Urban Living: / (added 09/2005) |
| Groundworks and operated by : / (added 09/2005) |
| Guide to Straw Bale Building: is a cob-building school owned / (added 09/2005) |
| Habitat for Humanity Goes for Straw: / (added 09/2005) |
| Hank and Anita Carrs Straw Bale Builders and Straw Bale Enthusiasts Website: / (added 09/2005) |
| Hay Bale Construction test structure in Bowie MD: "Lots of good info on recently completed southeastern Ontario project. Offer tours." (Dec 15/03) / (added 09/2005) |
| House of Straw: Straw Bale Construction Comes of Age: / (added 09/2005) |
| House of Straw—Straw Bale Construction Comes of Age: / (added 09/2005) |
| How to Qualify a Contractor : / (added 09/2005) |
| Huff And Puff-Proof Homes: / (added 09/2005) |
| Igors Surfin Supplement: / (added 09/2005) |
| Imagine Strawbale Constructions: / (added 09/2005) |
| Intentional Community of Rochester Indiana: Another Australian connection, this time an architecture and building firm out of Victoria. Basic SB info & nice pics, in one of the most elegant-looking SB pages around, warm and sumptuous. I met Per Bernard at the 1997 International Straw Bale Conference. Drop him a line. / (added 09/2005) |
| Internet Hay Exchange: / (added 09/2005) |
| Internet Hay Exchange—Hay For Sale: mostly for hay, buy hey, it has some straw, and you might get some good leads from the e-mail linked farmers. / (added 09/2005) |
| IronStraw Group: Straw too. Bale providers listed by state. / (added 09/2005) |
| La Maison en Paille: / (added 09/2005) |
| La Maison R-40: New French website on strawbale construction activities in Europe / (added 09/2005) |
| Landings in Emerald Nebraska: / (added 09/2005) |
| Lighthooks Strawbale House Page: some images and information regarding a two story building built in 1945 located 6 miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska / (added 09/2005) |
| Living Shelter Design— Architects: Another oldie-but-goodie. Their links page is almost a complete washout these days, but most of the other info still rocks. / (added 09/2005) |
| Living Sol: "We design, consult, and give workshops in the pacific northwest." (Jan ’03) / (added 09/2005) |
| LX&R Design Floorplans and Photos : "Consultation, design and building; Killaloe, Ontario." (Sept ’03) / (added 09/2005) |
| master (beaver) builders: of strawbale homes. / (added 09/2005) |
| Moisture Properties of Plaster and Stucco for Strawbale Buildings : and a great kid’s page / (added 09/2005) |
| Moisture Sensor Study: Draft report on research conducted by John Straube; 80 kB PDF file. (Aug ’00) / (added 09/2005) |
| Natural Building Photo Gallery: They developed an inexpensive way to monitor SB houses for moisture content in the walls, and studied a few over time. More data on moisture is always a Good Thing, so contact them if you’d like to help out. (Seems to me that the best moisture peace of mind you could get would be installing a few inexpensive meters in your walls so that you’ll know if you’ve sprung a leak or something.) / (added 09/2005) |
| Newton House: Oodles of natural and alternative building photos. / (added 09/2005) |
| Of Earthships and Straw Bales: The Newton House explores the decision of sustainable building, and provides options for housing design, building materials and household utilities. Updates can be viewed of this strawbale house through the journal and data monitoring pages. / (added 09/2005) |
| Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition: "We are building two Non-Load Bearing 1800+ exterior square foot Straw Bale houses, modified post and beam using box columns, and are posting photos of our progress as we go." Lots of photos! Don’t let the flat-roof-with-parapets fool you; it’s still not a good idea for SB, even in the desert. / (added 09/2005) |
| Ortech Industries Pty Ltd: Informative website, worth a visit. Detailed descriptions and stats on a number of houses / (added 09/2005) |
| Our Straw Bale Home: "Easiboard combines desirable properties of strength, thermal and sound insulation together with fire resistance. 100% natural building panels manufactured from rice straw or wheaten straw or a combination of both raw materials." / (added 09/2005) |
| Pacific Gold Board: "We are building our home on 8 acres in the Highland Gap community near Scaly Mountain, North Carolina." (Jan ’04) / (added 09/2005) |
| Patrick Marcotte: / (added 09/2005) |
| Patterson Straw Bale Cottage Maine: Interesting strawbale house. (Mar ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Pilgrim Holiness Church in Arthur County Nebraska: Nice site, worth a visit. (Nov ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Pilot Study of Moisture Control in Stuccoed Straw Bale Walls: Nebraska residents have used straw for a building material for over 100 years. Although there was a negative social stigma attached to living in a building made of straw, these homes were practical, inexpensive, efficient and sturdy. In fact several are still standing today. Nebraska Historical Society located in Lincoln Nebraska has a file on straw bale buildings in various counties in west and north Nebraska. These three pictures show various views of the church, built with straw bales, in Arthur County Nebraska. / (added 09/2005) |
| PlanetarySystemscom: Fibrehouse’s study of houses and experimental buildings in cold and humid Quebec, "to determine the nature and severity of the moisture threats to the durability of the stucco-strawbale sandwich wall including modern stucco cases." / (added 09/2005) |
| Post and Beam Frame Multi-story Hillside Straw Bale Home: "Products and systems promoting renewable energy and sustainable living." (Apr 6/02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Richard & Robins Straw Bale Cabin: / (added 09/2005) |
| Robins Nest: When I lived in Minnesota, I knew people who would have looked at this page and actually said, "Oh, for cute!" Lots and lots of captioned photos of a gorgeous little peaked-roof cabin. And it clocked in at only nine bucks per square foot, US dollars. You can do this. / (added 09/2005) |
| R-Value of Straw Bales Lower Than Previously Reported: A handful of uncaptioned shots of the making of what is claimed to be the world’s largest load bearing strawbale building: a bed-and-breakfast in Canada. / (added 09/2005) |
| SBAT (Straw Bale Association of Texas): / (added 09/2005) |
| SBBA (WISE): "The Straw Bale Association of Texas is dedicated to promoting straw bale construction in Texas. / (added 09/2005) |
| Skillful Means Builders : The Straw Bale Building Association for Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. If you’re in any of those countries, these are the people to see. / (added 09/2005) |
| Solar Living Center: / (added 09/2005) |
| Sourcebook Straw Bale: / (added 09/2005) |
| State of California Guidelines for Straw-bale Structures: / (added 09/2005) |
| STRAP: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Association of Texas (SBAT): STRAP, the Strawbale Regional Assistance Project, is an electronic organization of people who are willing to come together (i.e.: a 150 mile radius of travel) to help someone build a strawbale house. The goal is a volunteer group of 30 people per region, a large enough group (with 15 gathering at any one time) to raise the walls and install the roof of a 800-1000 square foot home in a two-day weekend. In one sense, the group acts as a dispersed, specialized crew for each other. In another, equally important sense, the group is a dispersed community, bound together by electronic threads, which periodically gathers to take part in a house-raising. / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Building: How to Plan Design and Build with Straw: "The Straw Bale Association of Texas is dedicated to promoting straw bale construction in Texas. / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Cabin: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Construction How environmentally friendly IS it?: in Alberta, Canada. Oct ’01 / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Construction: an Update: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw bale construction: try huffing and puffing these houses down: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Evangelism Takes Off: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Home Construction: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale House at Swarthmore College: In a site from El Paso, Texas, dedicated to solar energy / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Hut Turns Five (December 2000): A SB structure built in 1994 that was measured continuously for temperature, humidity, moisture content, etc.. and then dismantled in 1998 and carefully examined. The folks at Swarthmore College tried some techniques that bear more looking into: a FPSF, bales used as concrete forms, and a mostly sand and lime stucco with whitewash finish. Good details, good pics; sure hope they eventually upload all the monitored results. / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Hut Update (March 1999): The hut has two different solar systems that power the 40 sensors taking readings on moisture, humidity, and temperature.." / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Bale Trading Post: The Straw Bale hut is thriving. Neither wind, nor rain, nor snow has lessened its ability to survive." / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Build Europe: What most endears me to this site is the giant photo of a rotting 2×6. / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw Specialties: / (added 09/2005) |
| Straw: The Next Great Building Material?: Northwest’s largest supplier of certified noxious-weed-free straw. (Mar ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Strawbale Cottage: / (added 09/2005) |
| Strawbale Information Centre: Accommodations near Hepburn Springs, Australia. (Mar ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Strawbale Structural Components : "You CAN Build Your Own Home!! Thanks to the efforts of a few practical-minded zealots, building with strawbale has not only been preserved as a valuable technology, it’s being recognized as an increasingly popular alternative housing option.. This site is a brief introduction to the field. There’s no substitute for hands-on experience, so have a look around, then turn off the computer and start stacking!" / (added 09/2005) |
| Strawbale Studio Natural Building Site: / (added 09/2005) |
| StrawBaleCom: A great example of sustainability, this building in Michigan was started in 1997 on an experimental permit. It has a fieldstone foundation of stones from their own field, earthen floors and exterior, and a thatched roof from locally harvested reeds (phragmites). Beauty! This place is a place I’ve been wanting to visit for what can now officially be described as "years." I’ve met Deanne, and I’ve met Carolyn; and having got to know them, I’m certain that the pictures are only hinting at just how cool this place is. / (added 09/2005) |
| Syncronos Design: / (added 09/2005) |
| System Gripple: "Featuring: Straw bale, adobe, cob, and other alternative and green building materials." (Sept ’02) / (added 09/2005) |
| Taylor Marketing and Publishing: Fencing? No. Think "tensioning." Think "connecting the top plate to the foundation." Think "manual compression of the Nebraska-style bale wall." Think sideways. / (added 09/2005) |
| Testing Straw Bale Construction in the Soggy Northwest: Plenty of people like this mail-order place. Word is that Charmaine tries hard to make sure people are satisfied, and it seems that the customers appreciate it. / (added 09/2005) |
| The Canelo Project: Soggy Northwesters, take note! This University of Oregon research project is also a 2-story SB dormitory at the Aprovecho Research Center. There’s a lot to think about here—and let me remind you again how important thinking is. Snap judgments, blind acceptance, and uninformed supposition.. just say no. Despite how it may seem to the more careless reader, this page draws almost no conclusions. Be wise. (Swelling and exploding bales?! For pity’s sake, ridiculous!) / (added 09/2005) |
| The Center for Resourceful Building Technology: / (added 09/2005) |
| The Cob Builders Handbook: It’s a thoughtful site, which speaks to the concerns of Housing and The Environment. They offer a booklet for sale under their Publications link called Strawbales As A Building Element, which "provides general background information on building with straw bales, including discussion of advantages and disadvantages of building with baled straw. This overview includes methods of load-bearing and non-load bearing applications, roofing and finish work." I’ve never seen a copy of it, so I’ll take them at their word. Also check out the article about "Northside Strawbale," a two-home development in Missoula, Montana, under the Demonstration link. / (added 09/2005) |
| The Landings in Emerald Nebraska: / (added 09/2005) |
| The Robins Nest: / (added 09/2005) |
| The Straw Bale Hut Turns Five (December 2000): A handful of uncaptioned shots of the making of what is claimed to be the world’s largest load bearing strawbale building: a bed-and-breakfast in Canada. / (added 09/2005) |
| The Thermal Resistivity of Straw Bales for Construction: The hut has two different solar systems that power the 40 sensors taking readings on moisture, humidity, and temperature.." / (added 09/2005) |
| Thermal Resistivity of Straw Bales for Construction: / (added 09/2005) |
| Villa Millenium: / (added 09/2005) |
| Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?: / (added 09/2005) |
| Wood chip and Light-clay Infill Systems: We all know how things turned out for that first little pig, but he really didn’t have such a bad idea. There’s nothing flimsy about a house made of straw, as long as the straw is tightly baled, free of pesticides, dry, and used in accordance with good engineering principles. Don’t believe it? Meet Susan Riebel of Rimrock, Arizona. She opened the Huff ‘n’ Puff Straw Bale Inn in August, 1996. The house boasts post-and-beam construction and a solar-powered electrical system. Hot water pipes run under the concrete slab floor, offering radiant heating in the winter. "And my utility bill runs about US$18 a month," said Susan. "It’s one of this house’s many great features." / (added 09/2005) |
| Your Home Planet: There isn’t anything about strawbale in this article. And yet I want you to read it anyway. / (added 09/2005) |
