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What is "Natural Building"? |
| "Natural Building," is a recent trend in which individuals are building using sustainable products like earth, straw bails, wood,
cob, and bamboo. "Natural Building" implies that builders use locally harvested materials, simple tools and
techniques and natural design strategies. These builders certainly use recycled materials. |
| Either used exclusively or in combination, cob, adobe, straw, rocks, logs and locally harvested lumber are the most common materials and/or
techniques used in natural building. Building techniques are relatively low-tech. |
| Each naturally built home is unique depending on the materials available. Common factors include careful orientation to take advantage
or solar & passive solar. The homes tend to be more "cottages" rather than traditional large homes. |
| There is a new interest in permaculture, organic gardening and the fair trade movement. |
| Green building differs from natural building in that green builders tend to use traditional techniques. The "green" implies that they
use products that are environmentally friendly. |
| Natural building is truly a grass-root movement. Many building and teachers come together at annual conferences to share ideas.
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Share Your Ideas |
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Building a Strawbale
Home |
We decided to build a
strawbale house for several reasons. First, we wanted a house that
required very little heating and cooling to free us from high
utility bills and allow us the possibility of not tying in to the
electrical grid, but instead use solar electric. Second, we wanted
a house that didn't feel like your average house that everyone else
has. Third, we wanted a house that would allow us to do some of the
work without the worry of it having to look perfect; strawbale homes
generally have a unique feel with unsmooth walls and slight visual
imperfections. Finally, we just knew that if we were going to build
anything, we were definitely going to build a Green Home that was
environmentally friendly.
This site shares some of the experiences we had in the building
process, some of the green and natural products we used and the
techniques we used to build and finish our strawbale house.
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Read
more of this Article |
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Natural Building Links |
| The Case for Natural Building: Natural building is
any building system which places the highest value on social and environmental sustainability. It assumes the need to minimize the environmental impact of our housing and other building
needs while providing healthy, beautiful, comfortable and spiritually-uplifting homes for everyone. |
| Natural Building Photo Gallery: They developed an inexpensive way to monitor SB houses for moisture content in the
walls, and studied a few over time. More data on moisture is always a Good Thing, so contact them if you'd like to help out. (Seems to me that the best moisture peace of mind you could
get would be installing a few inexpensive meters in your walls so that you'll know if you've sprung a leak or something.) |
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NEW
Natural Homes:
An interesting interactive map of natural homes around the World.
Currently has 142 homes including off-grid homes which the site
has just started to publish including one in Antarctica. |
| The Cob Builders Handbook: It's a thoughtful site, which speaks to the concerns of Housing and The Environment. They offer
a booklet for sale under their Publications link called Strawbales As A Building Element, which "provides general background information on building with straw bales, including
discussion of advantages and disadvantages of building with baled straw. This overview includes methods of load-bearing and non-load bearing applications, roofing and finish work." I've
never seen a copy of it, so I'll take them at their word. Also check out the article about "Northside Strawbale," a two-home development in Missoula, Montana, under the Demonstration
link. |
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Wood chip and Light-clay Infill Systems: We all know how things turned out for that first little pig, but he really didn't have such a bad idea. There's nothing flimsy about a
house made of straw, as long as the straw is tightly baled, free of pesticides, dry, and used in accordance with good engineering principles. Don't believe it? Meet Susan Riebel of
Rimrock, Arizona. She opened the Huff 'n' Puff Straw Bale Inn in August, 1996. The house boasts post-and-beam construction and a solar-powered electrical system. Hot water pipes run
under the concrete slab floor, offering radiant heating in the winter. "And my utility bill runs about US$18 a month," said Susan. "It's one of this house's many great features." |
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More Strawbale Homes Links More Natural Building Links
Please suggest additional links |
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