David W. Reed shows how to wrap shipping containers in bales.
straw bale building
Grand Designs Abroad — Straw Bale House, France
A very engaging story of building a modern strawbale house in a very traditional area of France. Grand Designs does it again. They excel at revealing the personal side of homebuilding.
Paja Construction
Many readers may not be aware of all the companies who have pioneered the natural building movement and have built up vast experience in the field. Someone new to the subject might think the ideas we talk about are fringe or experimental or untested simply because they’re not aware of how many companies there are and how many structures have been built this way. So, I’ve decided to start profiling some leading natural building companies. Send me a link if you have a suggestion. (We are not being remunerated in any way for these company profiles.)
Turning Round Straw Bales into Rectangular Building Bales
Cliff, one of our long time readers, sent me the photo above and the following email.
“Just a heads up on something I see coming in the future in the straw bale world. Small round bales. Lots of reasons. There are a lot of lifestyle or small farmers who can’t afford or need the big expensive bales. These smaller balers are much cheaper to buy and operate. The bales are much more weather resistant than square bales. Here in NZ they can fit down a row of vines in a vineyard. Any other baler can’t go there. I think we may see some innovation in the straw bale building world. You use what is available and as these become more available people will adapt to using them.”
Steve’s New Straw Bale House in Scotland
Yesterday’s blog post was about Steve’s unpermitted straw bale house in Scotland. This is the new straw bale house he is building that includes an amazing (first ever?) double reciprocal roof.