{"id":522178,"date":"2010-04-09T16:58:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T20:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dirt.asla.org\/?p=4320"},"modified":"2010-04-09T16:58:05","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T20:58:05","slug":"straw-ideal-building-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/522178","title":{"rendered":"Straw: Ideal Building Material?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe Economist<\/em> writes that straw buildings may be making a comeback, even if\u00a0use of the material breaks local building codes. Straw may be an ideal building material for some types of buildings– it can be embedded with other materials to create adobe or stucco. It’s a great insulator. It’s often a waste material so can be recycled for low-cost. Additionally, straw buildings are highly earthquake-resistent\u00a0because the material\u00a0is inherently flexible and absorbs seismic energy better than steel, brick or glass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In some areas,\u00a0the benefits of using straw\u00a0may not be realized because local building officials\u00a0prevent\u00a0its use. The Economist<\/em> points to Californian officials who recently tried to dump heavy fines on\u00a0Warren Brush, owner of a non-profit farm, for building straw-bale buildings on his property. “The problem is that California\u2019s building codes make no provision for the use of straw. And Mr Brush has many defenders\u2014among them several university scientists and David Eisenberg, the chairman of the United States\u2019 Green Building Council\u2019s code committee.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps with all the support\u00a0from the USGBC, more local officials\u00a0will see the utility of making\u00a0low-cost earthquake-resistant material widespread. The Economist<\/em> writes that straw has beaten other materials in earthquake tests. “A year ago, a test conducted at the University of Nevada\u2019s large-scale structures laboratory showed that straw-bale constructions could withstand twice the amount of ground motion recorded in the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994.”<\/p>\n

It’s the combination of materials\u00a0that make\u00a0straw buildings\u00a0highly\u00a0resilient. Straw building begin with a foundation of gravel\u00a0contained in plastic bags covered with soil mortar.\u00a0”The walls are made of tightly packed straw bales held together with bamboo pins and lined with fishing nets. These are then coated with a clay-based plaster. Aesthetically, the final product is similar to stucco or adobe.”<\/p>\n

Complicated\u00a0work can also be done with the\u00a0material.\u00a0One structural engineer was able to create a two-story, three bedroom house with the straw mix. Additionally, in areas where there aren’t rules against using straw, there’s\u00a0been a\u00a0growth\u00a0in projects, including\u00a0a new post office in suburban Albuquerque and a\u00a0Quaker school in Maryland.<\/p>\n

Read the article<\/a> and an indepth article from BuildingGreen.com on applying straw building material<\/a>. See HOK’s LEED Gold straw bale building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, check out a new book on Shigeru Ban’s Paper Architecture<\/a>. Ban has also faced a range of permit challenges, but has created stable, sustainable\u00a0large-scale buildings out of paper.<\/p>\n

Image credit: HOK \/ Inhabitat<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Economist writes that straw buildings may be making a comeback, even if\u00a0use of the material breaks local building codes. Straw may be an ideal building material for some types of buildings– it can be embedded with other materials to create adobe or stucco. It’s a great insulator. It’s often a waste material so can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}