[GSBN] Great News in Portland!

[Graeme North]

well done and great news -

here we have done several light brick buildings with consents by drawing on similarities with the dense earth used in the  NZ Earth Building Standards where required
 
nice material to work with - typical densities of light earth bricks around 750 kg/cub m  



Graeme
Graeme North Architects
49 Matthew Road
RD1
Warkworth
tel/fax +64 (0)9 4259305
 
graeme at ecodesign.co.nz
www.ecodesign.co.nz


On 8/03/2011, at 5:40 PM, nature boy wrote:

> 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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