Architect with a big "A"

October 10, 2007 at 3:42 pm (Architect, Design, Ecology, General, Strawbale building)
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At a party of friends of ours, we met R, a friend of friends. You know, one of these people you meet once in a while. A small detail about this person, R is an architect.

Of course we’re not the kind of people that will start talking about our own building project. Our friends did that for us. ‘These are the people that will be building that ecological strawbale building’, they said enthusiastically. The reaction of our friend the architect was a real bummer: ‘I wouldn’t want to do that,’ he said. When we asked him if he knew about the principles of strawbale building he referred to Bokrijk, a famous historical site in Belgium. What can we say?

This guy took care of the retrofitting of our friends home. He did a fine job, that’s true.  But when our friends asked about some ecological solutions like a solar hot water system, he simply didn’t plan it, presuming people are not willing to pay for such things. They had to tell him twice the really wanted it. I think that’s weird. Isn’t the architect supposed to work for his client?

One of his (and other architects) ideas is that modern materials and solutions were not invented just like that. They must for sure be better that old materials and technical solutions. So why use a method from a hundred years ago?

Maybe because that evolution in building materials hasn’t always been inspired by improving the quality, but improving the economical feasability. Mass products are easier to produce and sell. Take ordinary bricks. Ages ago they were simply dried in the sun. But that takes time and a dry climate. So why not bake them? It’s faster and you can do that all the time.

The end result is a brick that loses some of the good qualities of sundried bricks. Baked bricks cannot keep as much warmth as sundried ones. And they don’t regulate humidity nowhere near as efficiently.

Well, architects, they’re a curious breed. As another friend of ours, an architectural photographer, once said: all these modern houses look exactly the same because most often the architect arrives with a truckload of design furniture to make the house look good. They simply toss the existing furniture aside for the photoshoot. No wonder that all these buildings look alike.

But we’ll do things differently. That’s a promise.

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Workshop strawbale building

August 15, 2007 at 12:29 pm (Architect, Strawbale building, Workshop)
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The center for sustainable building of the province organised a workshop strawbale building at Kamp C in Westerlo. Casa Calida, the non profit organisation of our preferred architect, took care of the practical part. We already saw some of his strawbale constructions, but we’ve never really built a strawbale wall. So we definitely need to check that out. Just to be sure that we’re up to the task.

A brief overview:

The workshop started with the theoretical part where Maarten of Kamp C, put the benefits of strawbale construction up front:

  • Affordable (a strawbale costs about 1,5 to 2 euros).
  • This method uses sustainable (renewable) resources.
  • Straw provides very good insulation.
  • Earth plaster is healthy and controls humidity excellently.

A few things to consider:

  • Fire resistence: tests in Germany showed that strawbale wrapped in earthen plaster will resist fire for over ninety minutes. Even better than traditional bricks. All strawbale houses in Belgium got a normal fire insurance policy.
  • Rodents: straw is waste, not food. Rodents will never eat straw. In fact they don’t even like the smell of it. And if the bales are packed tightly, small animals won’t even make warm holes in it. Just make sure you plaster very well.
  • Humidity: wet straw (more than 15% humidity) will start to decay. So be sure to use dry straw. Once the plaster finish is applied the straw will be dry and it won’t decay.

After a look at the demonstration building (by architect M. Depreeuw) at the premises of Kamp C we all went to look at a strwabale construction site nearby (Architect P. Vos). The techniques of both architects are pretty different.

P. Vos uses a wooden construction that carries the load of the roof. So the strawbale walls can be erected in a dry environment. It also allows the builder to make changes to the position of walls and windows. Vos often uses the frases ‘ keep it simple’ and ‘use your common sense’. I heard a lot of comments that this technique is pretty straight forward. You can really see it all coming together very logically.

After the lunch break on the balcony of Kamp C we started with the active part. We erected a strawbale wall in a few hours time. The bales were cut, put in place, spiked with willow branches and then fixed with wooden beams. Afterwards the bales were shaven and then plastered. That was the really fun part.

Tired and dirty we went home, amased at how easy it all is. We know for sure now, we want a strawbale home!

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