“Poula-Line built her straw bale home in Fri & Fro (Free and Happy) ecoVillage in Egebjerg, Denmark. It’s one of a collection of unique straw bale homes in the village. Her home was inspired by a conch shell she found on a beach in Malaysia. Poula, just like Rachel, lived in a small straw bale cabin on her land while she built her home.”
sustainable
Build it With Bales – Free Download
Free downloadable version (photocopied pages) of Matts Myhrman’s classic straw bale book for private use. The easy to understand explanations and simple line drawings make it a joy to read and refer to as you’re building. Although this book is 99% excellent information, readers are warned of a few errors in this somewhat dated book. One example is do not use bales under a slab floor as shown.
Costa Rica Earthbag Time Lapse
Earthbag House Time-lapse – February/March 2013 from The Yoga Farm on Vimeo.
February/March 2013 This is 6 weeks of work in 2 and a half minutes :)
$100 Cabin made of Black Locust and an Old Billboard for the Roof
“See an example of a cabin made from black locust wood and an old billboard that is around 300 sq. ft. and costs right around $100 to make. This cabin will be a great three season home or can be insulated later with straw bales to make a comfortable place to live. All resources sourced locally for minimal gas use to get them. The main cost is in the Black Locust ‘slabwood’ from a local mill (waste, or offcuts of wood) at $75 in total for three $25 truck loads, and ~$25 in high quality #2 square driven PGP screws (2.5″ mainly, and some 1.25″ for roof battons and side wall batton fastening.)”
High Tunnel Greenhouse Construction
A polytunnel (hoop) greenhouse like this would be faster and easier to build than a dome. This particular polytunnel design is low cost, strong and easy to build. A greenhouse this size would provide more than enough fruit and vegetables for one family. Instead of bending galvanized pipe for the hoop sections, consider using gray plastic pipe or electrical conduit (polybutylene). I’m not sure how durable it is, but I have seen it used on hoop houses and it would be much easier to use.