[GSBN] 200-yr-old straw houses in Europe?

[Robert Tom]

On Sun, 01 Jun 2008 Duck Foo'd wrote:
[snipped for brevity]
> In the book Sustainable Architecture White Papers (Chelsea Green  
> Publ.,y2k)
> ... says...  In Europe,one can find houses built out of straw thatare  
> over 200 years old."
>
> It doesn't specifically say 200-year-old *baled*-straw structures.
> (Automatic balers weren't around until the 1800s, of course, though
> there were hand-balers prior to that... but never in widespread use,
> as far as I can tell.)
>
> I'm trying to figure out why and how this claim started - if there's
> some kernel of misunderstood truth, or if it's just cut from whole
> cloth.
> There are similar claims made in cordwood-building circles, though
> nobody can cite actual examples.


Mixed metaphors aside, while I agree that the 200 yr-old Euro SB house  
claim is probably mangled hearsay, given that some of us on these lists  
are print near a century years old (as opposed to write near), the claim  
of 200 year-old cordwood buildings doesn't strike me as being overly  
implausible.

In my part of the world, in my immediate neighbourhood (ie across the  
road), where there are numerous still-occupied log homes and log barns  
built by the original settlers to this area, one finds a surprising number  
of old buildings where underneath portions of failed claddings such as  
stucco or board siding, lies a cordwood structure.

I've repaired and/or restored timber-framed bank barns that were a century  
or more old and the rusticity of the cordwood structures (and their  
foundations) is like comparing burlap sacking to silk cloth.

While rusticity in and of itself is certainly no indication of age (some  
modern-day buildings that I've seen are pretty "rustic") or that the  
cordwood structures pre-date the arguably more sophisticated  
timber-frames, the history of original (farming) settlement in this area  
would support the possibility of these cordwood buildings being close to  
200 years old.

Although not related to the preceding, just on the next sideroad up from  
me there is a farmhome that underwent "modernisation" a couple of years  
ago. From the road it appeared to be a typical 1800's double or  
triple-brick storey-and-half, centre-dormer Ontario farmhouse.

But the owner took down the brick to reveal a very weathered vertical pine  
board siding and when that was pulled off, a lime-chinked log structure.

And curiously, that "modernised" farmhouse is now clad with a new PVC  
vinyl siding. [sigh]


-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
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