Buildings of earth and Straw

Structural design for rammer earth and Straw-bale architecture

Sustainable design, then, looks to find ways to built that can be continued for an indefinitive
number of generations to come and to make clever use of at least some of the torrent waste
products that surround us.

The earth excavated from a site can become the walls of a new building. And the Straw left
over from the grain harvest, formerly burned can be valed and turned into warm, inexpensive
houses.

The grass that surrounds you and the earth underfoot can become the walls of your home.

Its an alternative material, and granted a building permit only i fan engineer can reasonably
demonstrate that the materials will act as expected5

Engineers have so far had so Little to work with in designing Straw and earth structures.. Even
when open-minded ore ven enthusiastic, an engineer had to do a lot of Reading, investigating,
and research in order to develop the basis for a design and be able to rationally justify it to a
building inspector.

By carefully studying existing case histories and, where aveilable, results of modern testing
programs , we can now begin to define a rational basis for the structural design of earthen and
Straw-walled buildings.

…engineers in general are people who are intrigued by a good problema. And, being in a
service business, we are (or should be) primarily concerned with helping a client get what he
wants. So you who would built with alternative materials, can and should, regard your
engineer as your friendly assistant

If you keep skeptical because there remains so much to be tested and learned. This is an start
point , a statement of what we knoe , and that what will be expanded and improved upon in
the years

EARTH AND STRAW: NATURAL COMPANIONS

Load-bearing Straw-bale houses have survived for more tan 90 years in western Nebraska

 Rammed earth: soil – sand – wáter and some stabilizer

 Gunearth: earth mixes applied pneumatically trough houses using adapted gunite
technology-
 Adobe: unfired bricks of clay, sand, and Straw usually lay with mud mortar.
 Compressed block: rammed into the molds for greater density, strenth and durability.
 Cob: wall construction involving laying and packing dense clots of mud, often with a
reinforcing framework os sticks or Straw.

Cellulose building materials – Wood and Straw – are earth stabilized with wáter, solar energy
and transformative biological mechanisms……..Everything you’ve ever touched, walked on, or
eaten came from the same rocks and dust, including you. And all of that came from the
ecpelled innards of expired stars; its all stardust, its all solar energy

 Straw bales: compressed blocks of Straw bound with steel wire and stacked like
masonry
 Straw panels: panel sor compressed Straw in a wide range of densities

Non structural Straw methods

 Thatch:laying Straw or fibrous leaves as a roofing material

 Leicht lebm: light clay, infill made from coating loose Straw with a clay slurry, which is
then placed into forms or between studs in a Wood-framed building. When the slurry
dries, the Straw holds its shape and has some insulating but no structural value. A very
old technique from Europe