Posted by Michael Blaha, May 30th , 2006.
Sculptor – Sarah Machtey, Photograph by Mark Piepkorn
Natural Building Gallery – A Sculpted Cob Wall in a Straw Bale House
Over the years I’ve searched the internet far and wide for natrual building resources and inspirational photos. Particularly photographs of natural building construction processes. Mark Piepkorn has collected over 500 photos of natural, alternative and traditional buildings in his Mud and Twigs Gallery. If you haven’t seen this gallery yet, you will feel like you have found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
Posted by Michael Blaha, May 29th , 2006.
I found a nifty straw bale calculator over at the Harvest Homes web site. If you know the dimensions of your house it will output not only how many bales you need, but also mesh, top plate, plaster data and more.
A must-have tool for the natural builder arsenal!
Posted by Michael Blaha, May 22nd , 2006.
The Ashland School of Environmental Education in Oregon has come up with a new way of building with straw. The Strawjet is a apparatus that creates straw cable. This cable has many uses; one of which is a new building material. They have created a product called StrawCore that can be used for structural building members. StrawCore is a 4 x 4 blocks of 4 straw cables covered in a cob-like & papercrete finish. They can be constructed into small or large panels. It’s a pre-made wall system constructed from environmentally benign materials. They are working on prototypes for building construction.
www.greeninventor.org »
Posted by Michael Blaha, May 4th , 2006.
I wanted to create a thin interior in-fill wall the area of approximately 3′ x 3′. Instead of waiting around for lifts of cob to dry I decided to use wattle and daub. The wattle is round wood taken from the forest, stripped of their bark and attached with screws to create a lattice. Traditionally they are woven together.
Continue Reading…
Posted by Michael Blaha, May 2nd , 2006.
Hemp? This plant has to be one of the most amazing and versatile plants ever. You can create clothing, paper, fiberboard, fuels, food, soap, rope, sails, oils, plastics and bales. Hemp, like marijuana, is species of Cannabis sativa, though it’s psychoactive (THC) properties are minimal.
It might sound like a new idea, but people have been using hemp as a building material for a while.
It’s insane that this material is illegal to farm in the United States.
The Fleming College Sustainable Building Design & Construction Program in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada, are using hemp bales in their project. The Haliburton 4C’s Sustainable Building Project of 2005 was a 1800 sq. ft. eco 4C’s Food Bank and Lily Ann Thrift Store. They made use of grid-tied solar electric, hemp bales, earthen plasters and a earthen floor. The have a extensive online journal.
