MMA Architects recently completed a home built out of timber and sandbags – and became the winner of the Curry Stone Foundation Prize this year. The prize is awarded to individuals or groups that create architecture that has the potential to make positive changes in a community by offering shelter, community health, peace, or clean water, air and food. This sandbag house was built for a mere $6,000, making it affordable for low-income housing. The design also utilizes uncomplicated techniques- and was constructed with the help of its future residents who were able to gain a sense of ownership through the building process.
Read more: Affordable and still Green: Sandbag Houses by MMA Architects | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World
EcoBeam Video
EcoBeam Technologies
Note: Imagine building these EcoBeam houses with bags filled with lightweight insulation such scoria, pumice or other suitable material. They’d go up faster and easier, and be extremely well insulated.
I’m not very impressed with this house for a number of reasons. I blew the photo up to 200% which revealed a number of flaws. First of all, the architects still have the ‘stick-built’ house mentality. There are a number of vertical beams throughout the structure, notably tying the window frames with the foundation and the bond beam. In between these posts they have stacked the earthbags so that there are no overlaps, or very few. Most sections have vertical seams between each level of the bags, from foundation to the roof. This weakens the structure considerably. It also appears that they have constructed the mold for the bond beam before the earthbags even get up to that level, which will potentially leave gaps that will have to be sealed at some point. There are much better ways of building the structure.
They don’t create a running bond because the beams/posts carry all the loads. The bags in this design are just infill. It’s a clever way to get code approval.