Energy Home Power Magazine 099 Febmar 2004 6269 From The Ground Up A Primer For Natural House Building Rachel Ware Laurie Stone Straw Bale Building.pdf

From the
Ground Up
A Primer for Natural House Building
Rachel Ware & Laurie Stone
©2004 Rachel Ware & Laurie Stone
This straw bale building creates a warm, quiet, nurturing environment for kindergarten students
at the Waldorf School in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley.
Many people, especially Home Power Many natural materials can be used in construction.
readers, think about the energy they use Depending on your climate, you may want a highly
insulating material, a material with high thermal mass, or a
in their home. But how many bination of both. Building codes and the materials
think about the energy that goes into the available locally are also considerations. This article
provides an overview of natural building materials and
materials of the home itself? Embodied methods. It is the first in a series of green building articles to
energy, the energy consumed by get you started on your way to a more natural, energy
harvesting, transporting, manufacturing, efficient, and earth-friendly home.
and disposal of materials, can be very A Good Pair of Boots
high in most conventional building Foundations provide a solid base to support and
materials. distribute the weight of a heavy structure. Concrete is the
mon material used to build modern-day
Fortunately, our homes don’t need to be built out of just foundations. However, concrete is expensiv