Earth Plaster * Straw Bale * Cordwood * Cob * Living Roofs
“Clarke Snell and Timothy L. Callahan, whose popular Good House Book helped environmentally-minded readers create an earth-friendly home, have returned with a photo-packed, amazingly complete, start-to-finish guide to “green” housebuilding.
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.”
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.
“Dorset Centre for Rural Skills (DCRS) is an established, not-for-profit, training enterprise with accredited Social Enterprise status.
“The first structure we built on our 9 acres was the tool shed. (After it served its purpose for storing tools it became a chicken coop, then a mini art studio and is now a sauna!) The second structure we built was this outbuilding that we call The Shop (pictured above). On the ground floor is Ken’s custom cabinetry workshop. He is a true craftsman. The upstairs portion is used for storage, although I imagine a remote guest quarters or art studio as another use for that space.”
This fine looking home in France was built for a materials cost of only £2,500 ($3,800). This is one of the nicest homes we’ve profiled recently. Projects like this really keep me energized about natural building. Please forward to everyone you know and help this go viral.