Two years ago I saw a presentation by Ace McArleton, co-author of the Natural Building Companion, and based on that I knew I needed to order the book. For a while it sat on my shelf, alongside a collection of other books about building and natural building. However it has distinguished itself from its companions in the true test – when I have a question, or encounter a problem in my work as a straw bale builder, it is the first book I reach for. I now consider this book to be an essential reference for those planning to build
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The Dumont House
The first time I saw Rob Dumont’s house I was unimpressed. I was visiting an ex-girlfriend in Saskatoon, I mentioned that I was doing some research into sustainable homes, and she said “there’s one near here, we should walk by it.” It just looked like any other house. The Dumont house is in the colonial revival style, it’s simply built and doesn’t stand out in the neighbourhood, which has a suburban feel to it (though it’s not far from the downtown). I’m used to seeing half million dollar ecohomes, so when you take away the architect and expensive finishes, solariums,
Continue readingBiophilic design
At the first stop on a ferry trip down the Alaskan coast, I scrambled up a steep slope through a hemlock forest and my nose came close to the mossy carpet. the smell that greeted me was rich, earthy, it reminded me of a stout beer. I sat down, my back to a tree; a varied thrush sang its long human-sounding whistled notes in the distance. My eyes ran over the green carpet that covered every surface, following the contours of logs and roots, and climbing the lower trunks of trees. Feather moss, fern moss, lanky moss, cat-tail moss, electrified
Continue readingHarold Orr’s Superinsulated Retrofits
Recently I had the privilege of interviewing Harold Orr, who was the project leader on the Saskatchewan Conservation House in the late 1970’s. He was involved in the invention of the residential HRV, and blower door tests, and his work influenced the Passive House and Net Zero movements. Now in his eighties, his brain contains a library of information on energy efficient building, and he talked to me for two hours straight. Orr’s main passion for the past several decades has been superinsulated retrofits of existing buildings, and he says the need for deep energy retrofits was obvious to him
Continue readingWill straw bale buildings last?
After seeing problems in a few straw bale buildings, I’ve been thinking about this lately: is it a truly durable building system? By which I mean, will a straw bale house measure its lifespan in centuries rather than decades? I’ve concluded that most will, some won’t. The ones that won’t are predictable, however, and for the most part they break the rules. Architects occasionally design straw bale homes with no roof overhang, for instance. I’ve seen this twice, and in both cases an overhang was added before construction was completed. In one of them there were already some moisture issues
Continue readingThe common origins of Superinsulation, Passivhaus, and Net Zero homes
A lot of valuable lessons were learned as a result of the oil crises of the 1970’s. Unfortunately in the 1980’s many of the conservation initiatives from the 70’s were abandoned – but the skills, knowledge and awareness garnered at the time were not lost, and we’re benefiting from them today. In building science big strides were made in insulation and air sealing of houses, and a lot of this knowledge came out of two projects in Illinois and Saskatchewan. In 1976 a group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed a design which they named the “Lo-Cal” house, which used
Continue readingThe Original Nebraska Straw Bale Buildings
For a long time I wanted to see the original 100-year-old straw bale buildings in Nebraska, so on a drive across the continent I included Nebraska on the tour. My first stop was Arthur Nebraska, where I met up with Jake and Lucille Cross. Jake Cross took me to see the Martin/Monhart house, a home that was built in 1925 out of baled late-season hay. It was formerly owned by his wife Lucille’s parents. What struck me most about this house is how normal it looks. Modern straw bale homes emphasize the straw, with rounded corners, unique plasters, and often slightly wavy
Continue readingSteve Sauer’s Tiny appartment
After reading an article originally published in the Seattle Times, I really wanted to see Steve Sauer’s tiny appartment while I was in Seattle. The article about the 182 square foot appartment includes some quotes of Sauer What I really wanted was one place with exactly what I needed and wanted. Quality is more important than quantity for me, and extra space only a problem I wanted to compress my home to squirt me back out to the community I wanted to see the appartment because tiny appartments make that much more sense ecologically than tiny homes. And Sauer seemed interesting,
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