Project SolUnit
Posted by Michael Blaha, November 4th , 2007.
You may have noticed the Operation Oasis post I made earlier in the season. Where Kevin and I built a small ( 280 round feet ) building. I’m glad to say that I am living in it now and typing on a solar powered computer! A hundred feet away I have started on a new building. Project SolUnit or Sununit; reminiscent of the Project Moonunit. Ok, it’s had many names… some of which has been Ouroborus SolUnit, iSpot or H-spot, Pod number 2. The ( mud ) building season is coming to an end so I thought I’d post something about what’s been happening since September.
Project SolUnit is a post and beam, straw bale structure. It’s design is similar to Oasis Pod 1, but a little bigger and a little more stout. I like building the roof first. It’s nice to have a roof while building and a better sense of what the space looks and feels like. The posts sit on concrete piers. Within the posts I’ve built in some 2 x 4 framing to tie the bales to. It’s much easier to get the wall plum and level with bracing like this. I have used the rubble trench foundation and earthbag stem wall to get up off the ground a foot. From there most of the walls are straw bale except the south wall where I have used a combination of earthbags, cob, and light clay cram. This south wall will become a internal thermal mass wall. I’d like to build a green house off of the front in the future. At this point most of the building has received a scratch coat of earthen plaster. I’ll keep posting to the SolUnit gallery as things progress.
