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

[Jim Carfrae]

I think we have to differentiat between straw as part of a composit e.g. mixed with clay to form Cob, and the use of straw bales as building material.
Straw in composits, in the UK, can be traced back with certainty to mediaeval times, and is likely to predate the Romans. As for straw bales, the French house is the earliest I know of, and therefore post dates the first US bale houses. (All this disregards the use of straw as thatch on roofs)

As a sideline, I came across this reference to the origins of the British 'Bungalow' that implies that these early buildings in Bengal where made from straw.

"The traditional Bengali dwelling provided a model for the British bungalow designs which developed. Travellers’ accounts provide a fairly consistent account of these buildings, which are generally referred to as ‘bangla’ (or ‘banggolo’). The bangla was a thatched hut, generally built with a distinctively curved roof. The walls were generally made of mud. Where the mud was not suitable for this purpose, walls were constructed of bunches of straw or mats, tied to each other and to the bamboo frame to form walls. Where straw was used, it was often plastered with cow dung and clay."
(Applying the Lessons of Indian Vernacular Architecture: The Bungalow as Example of Adaptive Climatic Response - Kimberly Kramer PLEA2006 - The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006)

Jim 'musty smell' Carfrae

Jim Carfrae
PhD Research Student

Room 119, Reynolds Building
University of Plymouth
Drake Circus
Plymouth
PL4 8AA

jim.carfrae at plymouth.ac.uk
07880 551922
01803 862369
________________________________________
From: GSBN-bounces at greenbuilder.com [GSBN-bounces at greenbuilder.com] On Behalf Of Mark Piepkorn [mark at buildinggreen.com]
Sent: 01 June 2008 16:00
To: GSBN
Subject: [GSBN] 200-yr-old straw houses in Europe?

Though I hardly ever see the claim made anymore, for a while it was a
fairly standard pro-SB argument (made by neophyte evangelists,
usually) that we know SB works because it's been around for a couple
hundred years. Rubbish.

In the book Sustainable Architecture White Papers, which came out in
2000 (from Chelsea Green) but which I'd never read, a paper on the
Roaring Fork Waldorf School (apparently reprinted from Solar Today
Magazine) by Laurie Stone of Solar Energy International says,
"Straw-bale construction has been around for centuries. In Europe,
one can find houses built out of straw that are 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. I haven't contacted the author yet. Probably won't. I met her
once, years ago, and she was very nice. I'm content to leave it at that.

There are similar claims made in cordwood-building circles, though
nobody can cite actual examples.


Mark Piepkorn
www.potkettleblack.com

In the world to come I shall not be asked, "Why were you
not Moses?" I should be asked, "Why were you not Zusya?"
   - Rabbi Zusya

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