[GSBN] Wall Heights - Larger & Multi-storey Straw Bale buildings
Chris Magwood
chris at endeavourcentre.org
Fri Apr 5 15:05:18 UTC 2013
Hi Andy,
Here are three photos of larger sb homes. The first one has a three
story tower, which is the first and only time I've gone that high. As I
recall it was 32ft to the top of the wall. The second one is the first
permitted two story load bearing home in Ontario, and the third is a two
story prefab home. Both of these are 18-20 feet tall.
All three were built platform-style, with floor joists typically hung
from the interior face of the top plate on the bale wall.
Hope this helps...
Chris
On 13-04-05 6:42 AM, Andy Horn wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> I am curious if any of you out there can send me any info / links to
> photos of large straw bale structures ....I am looking to put a quick
> presentation together showing precedent of various 2 and 3 storey
> straw bale structures as well as any larger type cellars, warehouses,
> public buildings etc.
>
> Also in terms of in-fill structures have there been any studies done
> on how high one can build with straw bales......the width to height
> ratio given in the proposed international straw bale building code is
> 6:1 width to height........does this same ratio still apply to
> non-load bearing structures and have there been any studies that look
> at if this still applies with bales laid flat vs bales laid on
> edge....as well as the difference ones plaster makes to this.
>
> I would be interested to know if any studies have been conducted on
> the influence of how the walls are pinned and how they are plastered
> etc as to how this would influence the slenderness ratio......for
> instance I would think that if one had an earth plaster for instance
> which was very well bonded into the straw (as with say a pre-dipping
> method where one has up to 80mm of earth fused with the outer layer of
> straw) then this would also impact on the stability of the wall as
> would the type of pinning used internal vs external pinning etc.....
>
> Many thanks
>
> Kind regards
>
> Andy
>
> Logo-and-Address
>
> *From:*GSBN-bounces at sustainablesources.com
> [mailto:GSBN-bounces at sustainablesources.com] *On Behalf Of *Feile Butler
> *Sent:* 22 March 2013 09:07 PM
> *To:* Global Straw Building Network
> *Subject:* [GSBN] Fw: The Mechanical Ventilation Debate
>
> I'm forwarding this for Robert Riversong.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> *From:*Robert Riversong <mailto:housewright at ponds-edge.net>
>
> *To:*Feile Butler <mailto:feile at mudandwood.com>
>
> *Cc:*Graeme North <mailto:graeme at ecodesign.co.nz> ; John Straube
> <mailto:jfstraube at uwaterloo.ca>
>
> *Sent:*Friday, March 22, 2013 3:33 PM
>
> *Subject:*Re: [GSBN] The Mechanical Ventilation Debate
>
> Feile, et al:
>
> Thank you for using my statements to continue this important dialogue.
> Feel free to forward this to the list as well (and I would accept an
> invitation to join this group if it were offered).
>
> The "divide" that John Straube describes is not necessarily between
> those who choose to offer the best solutions to the majority who are
> immersed in the current (and almost certainly unsustainable) paradigm
> of complexity, control and comfort -- and those who seek to change the
> cultural paradigm (which is a near-impossible task). It is between
> those who, with the very best of intentions, support and encourage the
> current paradigm by offering "best practices" consistent with it --
> and those who understand that the current paradigm is very close to a
> global collapse which will force dramatic social and technological
> change (the only way fundamental change has ever occurred in
> evolutionary or cultural history).
>
> There is a long and noble history of the prophetic Luddite tradition
> which has challenged the "value-neutral" notion of technology,
> including such notables as Oswald Spengler, Aldous Huxley, Paul
> Goodman, Leopold Kohr, George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Herbert
> Marcuse, Jacques Ellul, Lewis Mumford, Marshall McLuhan, E.F.
> Schumacher, Ivan Illich, Wendell Berry, Theodore Roszak, Edward René
> David Goldsmith, Joseph Tainter, Jerry Mander, Neil Postman,
> Kirkpatrick Sale, Ted Kaczynski, Morris Berman, Ronald Wright,
> Nicholas Carr, and Spencer Wells.
>
> And the current crop of "the best and brightest" who are warning about
> the impending global crisis and inevitable Shift include Michael T.
> Klare (Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies,
> defense correspondent of The Nation magazine, and on the boards of
> directors of Human Rights Watch and the Arms Control Association),
> Martin Rees (British cosmologist and astrophysicist, Astronomer Royal,
> Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, past President of the Royal
> Society of London), Richard A. Posner (American jurist, legal
> theorist, and economist, Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago
> Law School, and the most cited legal scholar of the 20th century),
> James Howard Kunstler (American author, lecturer and social critic,
> former staff writer for Rolling Stone), Jared Diamond (American
> scientist and author, Professor of Geography at the University of
> California, Los Angeles), James Lovelock (British scientist,
> environmentalist and futurologist, best known for proposing the Gaia
> hypothesis), Gus Speth (co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense
> Council, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality for Jimmy
> Carter, Professor of environmental and constitutional law at
> Georgetown University; founder of the World Resources Institute,
> senior adviser to President-elect Bill Clinton's transition team,
> Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of
> the United Nations Development Group, dean of the Yale School of
> Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University and Professor in
> the Practice of Environmental Policy, now professor at Vermont Law
> School).
>
> The natural building community has long been true pioneers in
> developing and demonstrating alternative "appropriate" technologies
> for such essentials as shelter. We don't change the paradigm by asking
> people to put on an extra sweater -- that impropriety may have cost
> Jimmy Carter a second term -- or do without conveniences that we have
> been conditioned to believe are necessary for our well-being. But we
> can make such a paradigm-shift possible by manifesting living examples
> of lower-tech lifestyles that demonstrably increase personal freedom
> and well-being. People change when alternatives become visible, and it
> is the role of the pioneer to create or provide such alternatives.
>
> As one who has been designing and building somewhat alternative
> shelters for the past 30 years (including the first state-approved
> indoor site-built composting toilet in Massachusetts in 1998, and some
> of the first rubble-trench and shallow frost-protected foundations
> under superinsulated homes built of local rough-sawn lumber since 1987
> -- all with some form of low-tech whole-house ventilation system), I
> would hate to see the even more pioneering natural building community
> devolve into the mainstream paradigm (as is already happening).
>
> If James Howard Kunstler is right (see his wonderfully prophetic
> novel: /World Made by Hand/), and I believe he is, then we will soon
> be forced to resort to the simpler and more hand-made technologies of
> our great-grandparents. If at least some of us don't begin to relearn
> and exemplify those technologies today, then we will have a much more
> difficult time adapting when the Shift hits the (ventilation) fan.
>
> - Robert
>
>
>
>
>
> --- On *Fri, 3/22/13, Feile Butler /<feile at mudandwood.com>/* wrote:
>
>
> From: Feile Butler <feile at mudandwood.com>
> Subject: [GSBN] The Mechanical Ventilation Debate
> To: "Global Straw Building Network" <GSBN at sustainablesources.com>
> Date: Friday, March 22, 2013, 9:14 AM
>
> Hi John
>
> I accept that you were /"implicitly discussing the 99% of homes 1
> billion people live in the western live in. There are literally
> billions more people lined up trying to build and get into this type
> of housing, so the conversation, and the understanding of different
> types of housing is really important for the environment."/
>
> I also know the mechanical ventilation debate has opened up a much
> bigger discussion than the original posts intended. We are looking at
> this from different angles.
>
> The big wheel is turning. You say that 99% of people want/need
> passivehaus housing. The supposition is that this is the direction
> that the construction industry/public desire is going and it has
> gathered so much momentum that it cannot be stopped.
>
> To borrow from Robert Riversong's email again -
>
> /That we don't have much of a choice today in the necessity of
> mechanical ventilation in well-insulated homes is evidence of the
> cul-de-sac that our "progress" has driven us into./
>
>
> I suppose I am questioning (maybe naively and idealistically) whether
> there can be a shift in societal expectation?
>
> I know when people started building with straw bales, the wider masses
> thought they were crazy. It was so simple and so cheap - it couldn't
> be possible!!! Now it is a well-established, well-researched method of
> building. Just because the "mad" 1% were doing it, didn't put them
> off. And with time it continues to gain a bigger and bigger foothold
> in the mainstream.
>
> A lot of our work is about bringing people back to simplicity - to
> start with the people - to change their perceptions - and then a
> different type of building becomes possible. This type of work may
> only be affecting the 1% at the moment (maybe even less), but there is
> potential for it to grow. I suppose I am trying to say that it is
> important that we do keep other options open - that there is not just
> one holy grail. (And I accept that this is not what the original
> thread was about).
>
> If we decide to hang on to the wheel and turn with it, then it is
> critically important that the best quality buildings are produced for
> this style of construction - which is what you are promoting. I
> suppose some of us are deciding to jump off the wheel (and hope it
> doesn't roll over us and squash us to pieces).
>
> Hmmmmm
>
> Feile
>
> *Féile Butler*
>
> *MRIAI B.Arch Dip. Arch Conservation Grade III*
>
> *Mud and Wood*
>
> *Grange Beg, Skreen, Co. Sligo, Ireland*
>
> *T: +353 (0) 71 930 0488 *
>
> *M: +353 (0) 86 806 8382*
>
> *E : **feile at mudandwood.com*
>
> *W:****www.mudandwood.com <http://www.mudandwood.com>*
>
>
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--
Chris Magwood
Director, Endeavour Centre
www.endeavourcentre.org
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