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<TITLE>Re: [GSBN] Strawbale houses can fly!</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Thanks Catherine. It’s amazing to watch the beautiful straw bale Ecohouse “fly” from its birthplace in the National Mall to its permanent home in Maryland.<BR>
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Very recently another SB house took to the air. At last weekend’s CASBA conference Darcey Donovan showed a slide of the full scale Pakistan house specimen built at the University of Nevada, being lifted by crane and “flying” over to the indoor shake table for testing.<BR>
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The shake table test will occur this Friday. We’re looking forward to what this important test will reveal about the system being used in Pakistan, and SB in general. To my knowledge it will be the first full scale SB building to be tested on a shake table.<BR>
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Martin Hammer<BR>
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On 3/18/09 5:50 PM, "BuildersWithoutBorders" <mail@builderswithoutborders.org> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Hi All - <BR>
Thanks for all the useful input on ground source heat systems. <BR>
I have a short strawbale fire story I will post soon.<BR>
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Meanwhile....there's a new installment of the BWB strawbale ecohouse story (that was built last May for an exhibition on sustainability at the US Botanic Garden, in the shadow of the US Capitol).<BR>
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They liked it, they really liked it, and kept it around an extra 4 1/2 months. When we visited in January for the Inauguration, we were told they (the USBG) wished they had known how beautiful it would turn out, because they would have tried to figure out how to keep it. (It literally takes an act of congress to build something new on the National Mall.....)<BR>
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Last week with the help of a big crane, the 12x16 loadbearing strawbale cottage, minus the roof, (weight 14,500 pounds), was lifted up and set down onto a trailer, where it was transported about 25 miles to its new home in Maryland. I invite you to visit : <a href="http://www.breathworkstudio.blogspot.com/">http://www.breathworkstudio.blogspot.com/</a> to see some photos <FONT COLOR="#FF0000"><B>and video</B></FONT> of the move (by Eric Hempstead, a member of our building team).<BR>
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For photos of the construction process and the finished building in its original setting, visit www.builderswithoutborders.org <http://www.builderswithoutborders.org/> and <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/CatherineWanek">http://picasaweb.google.com/CatherineWanek</a><BR>
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happy solstice,<BR>
Catherine Wanek<BR>
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Co-director<BR>
Builders Without Borders<BR>
<mail@builderswithoutborders.org><BR>
www.builderswithoutborders.org <http://www.builderswithoutborders.org/> <BR>
575-895-5400<BR>
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