[GSBN] straw/cell assembly

[Derek Stearns Roff]

Hi, Kyle,

Since the cellulose was installed before the bales, does this mean that there are air gaps and discontinuities between the bales and the cellulose?  What did you use to retain the cellulose during installation?  I'm thinking that since the bales are not perfectly flat, it would be hard to get great conformation with the previously installed cellulose, but maybe I am wrong about that.  Or maybe small discontinuities are unimportant.

Derek

On Apr 11, 2013, at 5:40 PM, Kyle Holzhueter wrote:

Please find attached three photos of an small building built in February, 2010 in Fukushima Prefecture.
The building features a ventilated rainscreen, conventional timber frame, blown in cellulose insulation, and straw bale wall.
The cellulose insulation was installed before construction of the bale wall started.

I like this system for several reasons:
1. Construction needed to be completed by March, the end of the economic year, so in February, with below zero temperatures and snow cover outside, we worked comfortably inside.
2. In Japan, building codes require that conventional timber frames either have structural plywood or significant diagonal bracing.  Generally the bales are stacked on either the outside or inside of the timber frame. I like that the space between posts can be used to increase insulation.
3. This system also compliments a ventilated rainscreen, which is often recommended in Japan.
4. I've been monitoring outdoor, indoor and interstitial temperature and relative humidity since construction, and the wall performs very well, that is, is very dry.

Since the building is located roughly 30km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant and is in the evacuation area, we were only able to apply the scratch coat of plaster.  It is interesting to note that the clay we used was salvaged from the walls of a 150 year old farm house near by.
Also, Japan measures the strength of earthquakes not by magnitude, but by the level of shaking, known as Shindo, on a 1-7 point scale.  The building experienced a 6 on the Shido scale.  The earth oven outside fell apart and the pavement around the building cracked, but the bale wall was fine. My interpretation is that the stiffer timber frame absorbed the brunt of the energy.

Kyle

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Derek Roff
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