Dr. Owen Geiger, Ph.D. in Social and Economic Development, is the former Director of Builders Without Borders and Founder and Director of the Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building. He is an author, engineer and licensed contractor specializing in strawbale construction, earthbag and other types of sustainable building. He co-authored the Builders Without Borders Straw-Bale Construction Guides and contributed to Building Without Borders: Sustainable Construction for the Global Village. Dr. Geiger has consulted on numerous international housing projects, worked closely with Habitat for Humanity for seven years and mentored housing officials with the United Nations Institute of Training and Research. He is also a correspondent for The Last Straw Journal. Email: strawhouses AT yahoo.com
Geiger Research Institute of Sustainable Building Mission Statement:
Promoting natural building, and sustainable design and development, through research, training, education and consulting services. Our work involves finding safe, dignified shelter solutions for the 1.2 billion in need of affordable housing.
Hi there,
I am looking into strawbale construction at the moment and am at the latter stages of planning and doing the numbers.
I was wondering if there are any figures for embedded carbon numbers in strawbale?
I am trying to do a direct comparrison for all the costs, insulation, u-values etc against a from of wood pannelling.
Are there any numbers for this kind of thing?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Rich :@)
There’s my article at Grisb.org on embedded energy in strawbale houses: http://www.grisb.org/publications/pub33.htm It includes some references that may be of help.
A student in the UK wrote a paper on the embedded energy in strawbale houses. This paper probably has what you’re looking for, although it’s buried on my computer and would be time consuming to find. Maybe you could do a thesis search of UK libraries.
Hello,
I recently watched “Building with Awareness” and am inspired to build a straw-bale home. I am a graduate student in Civil Engineering and have some residential home construction. Anyway I’m very interested in constructing but I would have to break ground in 6 weeks for it to be feasible for me to potentially complete a home over my summer break.
My questions for you are this:
1)How much do the Solar Cabin plans cost?
2) Do the plans include construction details?
3) Are they post & beam construction?
4) I would like to make some modifications to the plans, how much does that cost/how much does a CAD version of the plans cost?
5) What’s a reasonable construction time frame if I had 3 full time(6 days a week) skilled/smart/teachable laborers on the project?
Thank You,
Nate
All plans are available through Dream Green Homes: http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/materials/strawbale.htm
This particular plan hasn’t been posted yet, but you can see it under Earthbag Materials: http://www.dreamgreenhomes.com/plans/solarcabin.htm
Cost $150, Custom plans about another $100, depending on the number of changes.
No extra charge for post and beam.
All plans are fairly basic — just enough to show how to build it. Everything that is included is listed in the product description on the website, so you know exactly what you’re getting before you order.
Figure three months on the construction time. Finish work typically drags on for quite a while longer.
Hello do you plan on doing any future building classes?
I would love to attend.
Thanks
Trish
You just missed our April 1 workshop. We may have another in October. Watch our Workshop page for future announcements: http://earthbagplans.wordpress.com/workshops/
hi Owen – we like your 3 bod house design – it seems you did post the back view of the 3 bod house on your site, would you please be able to e-mail me or post on your site the front and side views – what is the room height and it seems the room construction might be the most challenging part of the building, I understand the super insulation effect of the straw bales for this house but I am not clear what the thermic mass is that will store the heat in the winter to release at night ? Would you build the separation walls in adobe ? but than I do not think they will be able to reflect much sun light. For the main center room where would you place the wood stove ?
I’ve already emailed you. Extra drawings are available at additional cost. Room height can vary. 8′-9′ is most common. Thick interior plaster and on-grade floors provide plenty of thermal mass to stabilize interior temperatures. You can place the stove where it’s convenient for you. All walls can be straw bales as shown in the drawing.
Hello there,
I was wondering if you know of any strawbale or compressed earth brick architects that are available for hire.
Thanks!
Kate, tell me a little more. I can probably help you.
Hello again,
To be perfectly honest with you I come from a very large family and extended family and we want to build a castle together. However none of us come from construction or architectural backgrounds and given the ease of strawbale construction that is why we decided to choose this medium with which to build our home. We are looking to hire a professional who has experience in strawbale construction as well as places where we can gain first hand experience in building with strawbale so we can make our own home.
If you could point us in the right direction we would be most grateful.
Thank you.
Kate, I normally recommend using the Resource page at The Last Straw Journal: http://thelaststraw.org/
But now it doesn’t seem to be working. And I’m pretty sure they’re way behind on publishing. The owner was sick for a long time and I’m not sure of their current status.
You can use Google to find strawbale workshops in your area. The best is probably Canelo Project.org.
Strawbale is fine for walls of houses with roof overhangs. Exposed walls such as the castle wall or tower walls will be more durable if made with earthbags or other material.
Email me direct at strawhouses [AT] yahoo.com