Straw bale building is fun!

Oregon and Nebraska

I am so lucky to be meeting so many inspirational people in the natural building world. Last Tuesday I had a couple of hours in the company of Andrew Morrison, a straw bale builder with years of commercial experience who now takes workshops around the world. www.strawbale.com On Wednesday I met with Eden Brukman from the International Living Building Institute www.ilbi.org which is committed to a truly sustainable built environment. Their program goes beyond materials. It envisions a future that is "socially just, culturally rich and ecologically benign".

In snowy Nebraska I have been attending a conference organised by the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society. There have been several excellent speakers at this event so I will write a separate report for the website to share all that I have heard here.

My guide here in Lincoln, is the wonderful Joyce Coppinger, editor of The Last Straw www.thelaststraw.org She has had a booth at the conference to promote straw bale building and we have been out this afternoon to see the straw bale Audubon Centre at Spring Creek Prairie www.sprincreekprairie.org and a straw bale classroom at a Montessori school. This is Joyce and I at the conference

Wine and books

Two unusual straw bale buildings visited today; Ridge Winery at Lytton Springs was the largest straw bale structure at the time it was built (over 10 years ago). It is home to some very good red wine! www.ridgewine.com

The straw bale Real Goods shop at the solar living institute, Hopland, California reminds me of CAT. Some of the outside exhibits look a bit tired but the shop is fantastic! An amazing selection of books. Good job there's not much room in my suitcase....................... www.solarliving.org  
 

How to spot the mad English woman on the west coast!

Very affordable californian straw bale

 
Two straw bale bedrooms at Commonweal Garden, Bolinas. There are outdoor solar showers and compost loo. Completely at the other end of the scale

More straw bale in California

The Buildwell conference brought together an amazing bunch of natural and healthy building experts. I'll be writing a report on the website soon with lots of useful links. After the conference Tim Owen Kennedy kindly showed we this strawbale house he is working on for a client in Marin County - all with earthen and lime plasters. I didn't enquire the cost of this home but it seems that most new homes in this area cost in excess of $500,000 with quite a large proportion in professional fees. I have seen the opposite end of the scale and will post a separate picture as things seem to go wrong when I try to put more than one picture on.

Today I hired a car and have been driving up the spectacular west coast. Lots of great scenery and very bendy roads. Lots off organics and permaculture in this area - a complete contrast to the intensive agriculture seen last week.