Skip to content or view screen version

Eco building in Nottingham

Notts IMC | 29.06.2006 04:58 | Ecology | Free Spaces

This week see’s a workweek at eco-works allotments to continue with the straw bale building that is under construction up there. The first few days were spent rendering the bale walls that were constructed over autumn and winter and preparing the foundations for the next lot of bales to go up on the second weekend. The space when finished will house the harvest café and be a space for running various workshops and courses as well as just being a place for eco-works volunteers to chill out on a hot day.

For this weeks reports see links 1 + 2 +

For Tash's Pictures of the progress of the project, see:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |

Also, for Karl's pictures of the building, see:
1 | 2 |

applying the render 2
applying the render 2


Straw bales were first used for construction in Nebraska in the United States in the late 19th/early 20th century. They were initially built as temporary structures, but as they proved to be durable and cheap they soon became classed as permanent structures.

Straw bales can be made from a variety of plant fibres e.g. wheat, flax, hemp, barley, rye etc.

Conventional straw bales can support a roof load of 600 pounds per foot, but there is a new type of bale called a recompressed bale, which can support a load of 3,000 to 4,500 pounds per foot.

For more info on straw bales check out the following links :-
http://www.strawbalebuildingassociation.org.uk/
http://www.strawbalefutures.org.uk/
http://www.strawhomes.com/
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/mag/Articles/Strawbale.html

Notts IMC