[GSBN] Great News in Portland!

[nature boy]

Hey Everyone!

Thanks to a good many people, including Chariti Montez, Joshua Klyber, Ron 
Hayes, Robert & Paula Baker-LaPorte, and various others, we are very happy to 
announce that light straw clay now has a legal way forward in Portland, Oregon! 
This work was accomplished through the deeply dedicated and visionary work of 
Joshua and Ron, and many others who have helped to establish the Alternative 
Technology Advisory Committee in Portland to receive and review proposals such 
as the one we submitted on light straw clay.

Now, we need a first substantial, legal project to permit!!! 
But first, we party!!!

A most lovely day to all!
Mark

 Mark Lakeman

Co-Founder                                   Principal & Design Lead    
The City Repair Project     communitecture, inc.
Portland, Oregon                       Architecture & Planning
503-381-5885                              503-230-1293
www.cityrepair.org                 www.communitecture.net







________________________________
From: Chris Magwood <chris at chrismagwood.ca>
To: "(private, with public archives) Global Straw Building Network" 
<GSBN at greenbuilder.com>
Sent: Sat, March 5, 2011 9:16:17 PM
Subject: [GSBN] The Straw Stuff

Hey all,

This past summer, we did a little experiment with our students that seemed to 
work well, and I'm curious if anybody has tried it (or has good reason to not 
try it!) before I go ahead and try it on a slightly larger scale.

We were building two walls with straw/clay, using a double stud framing system 
and using thin wood lath on the studs as the form/cage for the straw/clay. We 
then used clay plaster over the lath on the inside and outside. As usual in our 
climate, we were under the gun to get the straw/clay placed in time for it to 
dry thoroughly before plastering.

As we were doing so, I wondered if we might just use the same framing and lath 
system and stuff the cavity with dry straw instead slip-straw. So we built a 
sample frame and did just that. The wall was 12-inches deep (as was the 
straw/clay wall). We placed about 18-inches of lath at a time and then packed in 
the dry straw. We measured the density of the original bale and we were able to 
get the straw into the wall cavity at a slightly higher density than the bale 
itself. We had pieces of lath cut to go across the wall to keep the straw packed 
down at the intended density, but found we really didn't need them. The whole 
thing went together really, really quickly and plastered up nicely.

So can anybody think of a reason why this might not be a good idea? Yes, I know 
it's not as fun and natural as stacking bales... I'm still a huge fan of doing 
things that way. But so many people are building stick frames of one kind or 
another and then going to all kinds lengths to notch, trim and otherwise jam 
bales into those frames. This system fits a double frame wall really well, 
accepts plasters really well and in general seems like a decent way to go about 
using straw as an insulation. The thickness can be varied to reach intended 
insulation values.

Thoughts?...

Chris

-- www.chrismagwood.ca

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