Hey, fancy buying a straw house? Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses bales of straw as structural elements and building insulation. These environmentally friendly homes use prefabricated timber-framed walls that are packed with straw bales and are the result of an engineering research project led by the University of Bath.
Straw houses have been built on the African plains since the Paleolithic Era and are on sale on the open market for the first time in the UK after becoming eligible for standard mortgages.
Don’t be Surprised if the Big Bad Wolf Comes Calling
Though straw walls might be most readily linked to a story of pigs making the wrong construction decisions, the team behind these homes says the material offers real potential for ultra low carbon housing throughout the UK.
Compressed and Plastered Straw Bale Walls Are Also Resistant to Fire
Researchers stressed that it is a safe and robust construction material, boasting environmental advantages such as insulation efficiency that reduce energy bills by up to 90%
Building with Straw Could Be a Turning Point in Our Trajectory Towards a Low Carbon Future
Until now the Straw homes have been used for bespoke building projects and financed through specialist lenders but now a row of straw houses in Bristol have become the first to secure building certification making them eligible for a standard mortgage.
You Can Huff and Puff but These Houses Won’t Blow Down!
“I believe there’s a lot of misconception about using straw — stories about the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf,” Professor Pete Walker told the BBC.
The only hint this new construction method is a ‘truth window’ in each property where a section of straw wall will be visible through a window. Although these are not the first houses in the UK to be built using straw bales, they are the first to be built for any buyer on the open market.
The researchers worked with specialist architectural firm Modcell.
The houses are on a street of traditional brick-built homes in Bristol and are covered in brick to fit in with the surroundings. The team says this development should help move building with straw to the wider market.
As part of this EU-funded project, Prof Walker and his colleagues have systematically tested and refined the technology – including testing its structural and weight-bearing properties, and its thermal insulation.
Facts
- Straw is the leftover stalks from cereal crops
- Four million tonnes of this leftover straw is produced every year by the UK
- According to the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board it takes about seven tonnes of straw to build a three-bedroom house
- There is potential to grow the material for more than half a million new homes every year in British fields.
These are the first straw-bale homes built speculatively for the open market a very exciting time for this building technology, as the more we build out of renewable materials like straw and timber, the less carbon will be in the atmosphere, so we can reduce climate change effects.
About Dean Jones
Dean is an Associate in AECOM’s Programme Leadership Practice. Dean joined AECOM from Care UK, the UK’s largest independent provider of health and social care, where he was a Programme Manager and delivered a £250m investment growth programme over 2012/15 which increased Care Uk’s number of homes circa 33%. Dean was also Programme Manager for a £60m Suffolk programme to build ten new care homes and ten day clubs, bringing much needed additional nursing and specialist dementia care to the Suffolk community.
