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

[John Swearingen]

Very interesting about the bungalows. I thought we'd invented them in
California.....

Straw houses in the Ganges delta challenges a notion that I've had that SB
would not work well in a monsoon climate. Any thoughts on that?

John

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 2:24 AM, Jim Carfrae <jim.carfrae at plymouth.ac.uk>
wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> GSBN mailing list
> GSBN at greenbuilder.com
> http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN
> _______________________________________________
> GSBN mailing list
> GSBN at greenbuilder.com
> http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN
>



-- 
John Swearingen
Skillful Means, Inc.
Design and Construction
www.skillful-means.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sustainablesources.com/pipermail/gsbn/attachments/20080602/ff0e29bf/attachment.htm>