Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Strawbale House - for a young family



This is a 2 bedroom house for a young family. They are doing a lot of the work themselves. The walls have a earth plaster finish, and bamboo lath for the underpinning. Here we are filling in the low spots in the walls with the cob mixture, Mariposa clay mixed with straw.

In the picture of the exterior corner, you can see the post and beam structure, and the diagonal metal cross bracing.

One of the great things about strawbale is the sculptural qualities of the walls. Here you see Scott carving a niche (with a chainsaw) in the livingroom area.

The plan is a split level, to fit the sloping site. on the lover level is the main living area, and a small bath.

The upper level is 2 bedrooms and the main bath.

There is an additional loft in the celestory area.

Like most strawbale homes in California, it is a post and beam structure, with engineered metal crossbracing, and strawbale infill.

Strawbale House


Strawbale houses are beautiful, comfortable, durable, an use a lowcost, quickly renewable resource.

They can large or small, upscale or basic.

My first built design was a 3 bedroom, strawbale house in Mariposa, near Lushmeadows.

It features a flowing floor plan, and passive and active solar systems, including a sunroom and photovoltaic panels.