Strawbale Shelter Plan

Strawbale Shelter Plan

Specifications: Phase 1=158 sq. ft., Phase 2=158 sq. ft, Phase 3=58 sq. ft, Phase 4=110 sq. ft. (all interior measurements). After Phase 4: 2 bedroom, 1 bath, Footprint: 24.5′ x 38′

Description: This plan has evolved from the original one-room strawbale emergency shelters.

I use the one-room design to teach strawbale building basics at workshops, and they’ve proven to be a remarkably effective training experience. You can learn a lot in 1 or 2 hours. It’s been so effective that I thought I would expand on the concept and show how these strawbale shelters can be enlarged as time and resources allow. Each room can be built in 1-2 days (not including plaster work), depending on skill level and number of helpers. This simple yet effective system makes home ownership available to many millions in need of housing.

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Straw Bale Emergency Shelter

Straw Bale Emergency Shelter

Free plans are now available thanks to the efforts of Matts Myhrman, Judy Knox and Owen Geiger. These low-cost shelter plans include drawings and specifications in three formats – Microsoft Word, JPEG and HTML.

This simple shelter is extremely practical, especially once you realize it is quite easy to enlarge and enhance. It makes for a great training exercise. I have workshop participants build one of these shelters to learn basic strawbale building, and without fail everyone is genuinely amazed at how quick and easy it goes. If all the materials are stacked nearby, you can build it in about one hour, depending on how many helpers there are. Matts Myhrman made a video to show how this shelter can be built in about 10-15 minutes. Click here for more info.

Complete information is on my GRISB.org website.

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