[GSBN] Wall Heights - Larger & Multi-storey Straw Bale buildings

Fri Apr 5 10:55:31 UTC 2013

On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 5:42 PM, Andy Horn <andy at ecodesignarchitects.co.za>wrote:

>  Hi all ****
>
> I am curious if any of you out  there can send me any info / links to
> photos of large straw bale structures ....I am looking to put a quick
> presentation together showing precedent of various 2 and 3 storey straw
> bale structures as well as any larger type cellars, warehouses, public
> buildings etc.****
>
> ** **
>
> Also in terms of in-fill structures have there been any studies done on
> how high one can build with straw bales......the width to height ratio
> given in the proposed international straw bale building code is  6:1 width
> to height........does this same ratio still apply to non-load bearing
> structures and have there been any studies that look at if this still
> applies with bales laid flat vs bales laid on edge....as well as the
> difference ones plaster makes to this.****
>
> ** **
>
> I would be interested to know if any studies have been conducted on the
> influence of how the walls are pinned and how they are plastered etc as to
> how this would influence the slenderness ratio......for instance I would
> think that if one had an earth plaster for instance which was very well
> bonded into the straw (as with say a pre-dipping method where one has up to
> 80mm of earth fused with the outer layer of straw) then this would also
> impact on the stability of the wall as would the type of pinning used
> internal vs external pinning etc..... ****
>
> ** **
>
> Many thanks ****
>
> Kind regards****
>
> Andy****
>
> ** **
>
> [image: Logo-and-Address]****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* GSBN-bounces at sustainablesources.com [mailto:
> GSBN-bounces at sustainablesources.com] *On Behalf Of *Feile Butler
> *Sent:* 22 March 2013 09:07 PM
> *To:* Global Straw Building Network
> *Subject:* [GSBN] Fw: The Mechanical Ventilation Debate****
>
> ** **
>
> I'm forwarding this for Robert Riversong. ****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> ----- Original Message ----- ****
>
> *From:* Robert Riversong <housewright at ponds-edge.net> ****
>
> *To:* Feile Butler <feile at mudandwood.com> ****
>
> *Cc:* Graeme North <graeme at ecodesign.co.nz> ; John Straube<jfstraube at uwaterloo.ca>
> ****
>
> *Sent:* Friday, March 22, 2013 3:33 PM****
>
> *Subject:* Re: [GSBN] The Mechanical Ventilation Debate****
>
> ** **
>
> Feile, et al:****
>
>  ****
>
> Thank you for using my statements to continue this important dialogue.
> Feel free to forward this to the list as well (and I would accept an
> invitation to join this group if it were offered).****
>
>  ****
>
> The "divide" that John Straube describes is not necessarily between those
> who choose to offer the best solutions to the majority who are immersed in
> the current (and almost certainly unsustainable) paradigm of complexity,
> control and comfort – and those who seek to change the cultural paradigm
> (which is a near-impossible task). It is between those who, with the very
> best of intentions, support and encourage the current paradigm by offering
> "best practices" consistent with it – and those who understand that the
> current paradigm is very close to a global collapse which will force
> dramatic social and technological change (the only way fundamental change
> has ever occurred in evolutionary or cultural history).****
>
>  ****
>
> There is a long and noble history of the prophetic Luddite tradition which
> has challenged the "value-neutral" notion of technology, including such
> notables as Oswald Spengler, Aldous Huxley, Paul Goodman, Leopold Kohr,
> George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, Herbert Marcuse, Jacques Ellul, Lewis
> Mumford, Marshall McLuhan, E.F. Schumacher, Ivan Illich, Wendell Berry,
> Theodore Roszak, Edward René David Goldsmith, Joseph Tainter, Jerry Mander,
> Neil Postman, Kirkpatrick Sale, Ted Kaczynski, Morris Berman, Ronald
> Wright, Nicholas Carr, and Spencer Wells. ****
>
>  ****
>
> And the current crop of "the best and brightest" who are warning about the
> impending global crisis and inevitable Shift include Michael T. Klare (Five
> Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies, defense
> correspondent of The Nation magazine, and on the boards of directors of
> Human Rights Watch and the Arms Control Association), Martin Rees (British
> cosmologist and astrophysicist, Astronomer Royal, Master of Trinity
> College, Cambridge, past President of the Royal Society of London), Richard
> A. Posner (American jurist, legal theorist, and economist, Senior Lecturer
> at the University of Chicago Law School, and the most cited legal scholar
> of the 20th century), James Howard Kunstler (American author, lecturer and
> social critic, former staff writer for Rolling Stone), Jared Diamond
> (American scientist and author, Professor of Geography at the University of
> California, Los Angeles), James Lovelock (British scientist,
> environmentalist and futurologist, best known for proposing the Gaia
> hypothesis), Gus Speth (co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense
> Council, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality for Jimmy Carter,
> Professor of environmental and constitutional law at Georgetown University;
> founder of the World Resources Institute, senior adviser to President-elect
> Bill Clinton's transition team, Administrator of the United Nations
> Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group,
> dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale
> University and Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy, now
> professor at Vermont Law School). ****
>
>  ****
>
> The natural building community has long been true pioneers in developing
> and demonstrating alternative "appropriate" technologies for such
> essentials as shelter. We don't change the paradigm by asking people to put
> on an extra sweater – that impropriety may have cost Jimmy Carter a second
> term – or do without conveniences that we have been conditioned to believe
> are necessary for our well-being. But we can make such a paradigm-shift
> possible by manifesting living examples of lower-tech lifestyles that
> demonstrably increase personal freedom and well-being. People change when
> alternatives become visible, and it is the role of the pioneer to create or
> provide such alternatives.****
>
>  ****
>
> As one who has been designing and building somewhat alternative shelters
> for the past 30 years (including the first state-approved indoor site-built
> composting toilet in Massachusetts in 1998, and some of the first
> rubble-trench and shallow frost-protected foundations under superinsulated
> homes built of local rough-sawn lumber since 1987 – all with some form of
> low-tech whole-house ventilation system), I would hate to see the even more
> pioneering natural building community devolve into the mainstream paradigm
> (as is already happening).****
>
>  ****
>
> If James Howard Kunstler is right (see his wonderfully prophetic novel: *World
> Made by Hand*), and I believe he is, then we will soon be forced to
> resort to the simpler and more hand-made technologies of our
> great-grandparents. If at least some of us don't begin to relearn and
> exemplify those technologies today, then we will have a much more difficult
> time adapting when the Shift hits the (ventilation) fan.****
>
>  ****
>
> - Robert****
>
>
>
>
>
> --- On *Fri, 3/22/13, Feile Butler <feile at mudandwood.com>* wrote:****
>
>
> From: Feile Butler <feile at mudandwood.com>
> Subject: [GSBN] The Mechanical Ventilation Debate
> To: "Global Straw Building Network" <GSBN at sustainablesources.com>
> Date: Friday, March 22, 2013, 9:14 AM****
>
> Hi John****
>
>  ****
>
> I accept that you were *"implicitly discussing the 99% of homes 1 billion
> people live in the western live in. There are literally billions more
> people lined up trying to build and get into this type of housing, so the
> conversation, and the understanding of different types of housing is really
> important for the environment."*****
>
>  ****
>
> I also know the mechanical ventilation debate has opened up a much bigger
> discussion than the original posts intended. We are looking at this from
> different angles.****
>
>  ****
>
> The big wheel is turning. You say that 99% of people want/need passivehaus
> housing. The supposition is that this is the direction that the
> construction industry/public desire is going and it has gathered so much
> momentum that it cannot be stopped. ****
>
>  ****
>
> To borrow from Robert Riversong's email again -****
>
>  ****
>
> *That we don't have much of a choice today in the necessity of mechanical
> ventilation in well-insulated homes is evidence of the cul-de-sac that our
> "progress" has driven us into.*****
>
>
> I suppose I am questioning (maybe naively and idealistically) whether
> there can be a shift in societal expectation? ****
>
>  ****
>
> I know when people started building with straw bales, the wider masses
> thought they were crazy. It was so simple and so cheap - it couldn't be
> possible!!! Now it is a well-established, well-researched method of
> building. Just because the "mad" 1% were doing it, didn't put them off. And
> with time it continues to gain a bigger and bigger foothold in the
> mainstream.****
>
>  ****
>
> A lot of our work is about bringing people back to simplicity - to start
> with the people - to change their perceptions - and then a different type
> of building becomes possible. This type of work may only be affecting the
> 1% at the moment (maybe even less), but there is potential for it to
> grow. I suppose I am trying to say that it is important that we do keep
> other options open - that there is not just one holy grail. (And I accept
> that this is not what the original thread was about).****
>
>  ****
>
> If we decide to hang on to the wheel and turn with it, then it is
> critically important that the best quality buildings are produced for this
> style of construction - which is what you are promoting. I suppose some of
> us are deciding to jump off the wheel (and hope it doesn't roll over us and
> squash us to pieces).****
>
>  ****
>
> Hmmmmm****
>
>  ****
>
> Feile****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
> *Féile Butler*****
>
> *MRIAI B.Arch Dip. Arch Conservation Grade III*****
>
> *Mud and Wood*****
>
> *Grange Beg, Skreen, Co. Sligo, Ireland*****
>
>  ****
>
> *T:  +353 (0) 71 930 0488 *****
>
> *M: +353 (0) 86 806 8382*****
>
> *E : **feile at mudandwood.com*****
>
> *W:** **www.mudandwood.com*****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>  ****
>
>
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----****
>
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-- 
Paul A. Olivier PhD
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Dalat
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