Construction of a Straw Bale Home
One by-product of my recent trip to Southern Sudan is my renewed interest in sustainable use and design. The houses in the Yei bomas were of good construction, in stark contrast to the slipshod, slapped-together mud lean-tos I encountered too often in southern Tanzania.
But here’s a post off of Treehugger on the construction of a straw bale house. The construction references the Building with Awareness DVD on straw bale construction. Some of the ideas behind straw bale houses are to be solar passive (heated by facing certain sides and windows to the sun), well-insulated, reusing local materials, and to be overall energy-efficient.
I would love to bring some of these ideas into the construction of traditional, indigenous housing in developing countries. I know that some of the pushback, though, is the recommendations you can make aren’t “revolutionary.” For example, making a house solar passive doesn’t have the same “wow effect” as giving them a TV. Therefore, they look at you funny when you talk about things like insulation or longevity of building materials (see Tanzania).
Blogs, International, Low Technology, Sustainability | paul | 
September 2, 2006 8:34 am
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By Lindsay Livas, February 19, 2010 @ 8:18 am
A very intelligent post indeed but I am looking for more information on insulation rebates in Australia. Perhaps I’ll drop by again when you’ve written more about it. Thanks by the way ^_^