The European Straw bale gathering 2011 will be hosted in the Cezch Republic this time round from the 23rd to 28th of August and is very much looked forward to by all.
The ESBG11 will take place in and around the rural homestead which is run as a demonstration and educational center for natural building by the NGO PermaLot. It is on the outskirts of a remote little Moravian village, Bouzov Podoli, near the castle of Bouzov and features two SB buildings and much more. Most of the activities will be in Bouzov Podoli and will happen in various large tents and one day for a conference, set-up in a nearby gymnasium. There will be organic food, much of which will be grown on the farm itself and accommodation will range in many levels, rom camping and dormitory in Bouzov Podoli, to nearby B&B's and hotels.
More to follow on this...
Monday, November 22, 2010
European Strawbale Network. Launched!
This week saw the launch of the new European Straw bale networks website. You can check this at http://www.strawbale-net.eu/
About two years ago they came up with the idea to put this project together and although it is still far from being perfect they now feel they are ready to share it with the world. There is still a lot that could look better on the web and still some content to fill in but the main tools are there and they would like to see them come alive now. Please join up and register as a member, again the address is www.strawbale-net.eu and publish your thoughts in the forum, your events in the events section and any interesting info you'd like to share in the blog.
In my opinion this is going to be a great tool for all Straw balers and should be fully supported. It will promote Straw bale building and its various methods around Europe and make it a well recognized building technique, as it should be.
A big thank you to all those that have made it happen. Well done.
P.S. All the Straw bale posts I post here on this blog will also be available to view on the new European Straw bale networks website.
About two years ago they came up with the idea to put this project together and although it is still far from being perfect they now feel they are ready to share it with the world. There is still a lot that could look better on the web and still some content to fill in but the main tools are there and they would like to see them come alive now. Please join up and register as a member, again the address is www.strawbale-net.eu and publish your thoughts in the forum, your events in the events section and any interesting info you'd like to share in the blog.
In my opinion this is going to be a great tool for all Straw balers and should be fully supported. It will promote Straw bale building and its various methods around Europe and make it a well recognized building technique, as it should be.
A big thank you to all those that have made it happen. Well done.
P.S. All the Straw bale posts I post here on this blog will also be available to view on the new European Straw bale networks website.
Friland Denmark - Straw Bale Building project
We were invited to take part and teach in a Straw bale building project in the wonderful, very welcoming and homely village of Friland in Denmark. Friland is about one hours drive from Arhus and ajoined to the small village of Feldballe.
Just a little about Friland itself. Friland was founded in 2002 by a very warm openhearted and extremely interesting man called Steen Moeller. The basic idea from what I know of Friland is that those who wish to join the community are encouraged to build inexpensive or almost mortgage free homes, to be environmentally friendly and create as little waste as possible. This as I have seen from my visits there is achieved by most, and those living there really try to think of these ideals in their everyday life. Things like solar showers, rain water recycling, waste water management are normal for the residents and for me personally this was very inspiring. I felt Frilanders had really made that conscious decision in their lives to make this happen and now it was a normal everyday thing for them to do.
Our hosts:
Our hosts and good friends where Lars Keller and Jo Morandin, with their 2 very beautiful children Asger and Jamilla. They made us feel as if we were at home away from home and their organization and Networking plus their patience and person skills are second to none.
The workshop:
For the workshop we had this amazing crew who came together from various parts of Europe. There was Kuba ( a Straw bale designer) and Hannah (amazing cook and joke teller) both from Czech Republic, Tom a helpex and extremely hard working funny Welshman who we really enjoyed being around, he also had an amazing knowledge of plants and there medicinal uses. Anna another helpex from Denmark, of course Lars and Jo, Asger and Jamilla our fantastic host family, and ourselves, Micheal Cronin (Irish living in Finland), Charlie Jespergaard(who is actually Danish but living in Finland), and me Paul Lynch also Irish and living in Finland. We work together here in a company called The Natural Building Company. Check us out on www.naturalbuilding.fi. I also brought along my 9 year old daughter Milla for the fun. We cannot though forget the 20 Danish, really energetic, enthusiastic trainee teacher students who came for the course. They were well.., great.
We arrived on the Monday night by Ferry from Sweden and set to work immediately on Tuesday Morning. The course, was to be held on the Saturday and Sunday and we had a lot to do. We began by looking at the first plan for a nearly 60m2 house that Lars and Jo had put together, which was sketched out on an A4. We discussed the different ideas and objectives for the house which would be used as a guest house/library/office, and we then split up into our various groups. Micheal and Charlie tackled the foundation, made up of packed mussel shells, a first for them and quite challenging to compact.
Kuba and I went straight for getting a full detailed plan drawn up for the building and started by checking the bales which came in at whacking 275 x 55 x 85 and were to be positioned standing up which was a first for us and exciting to try. As we were to discover this turned out to be a big challenge. This method was designed by Steen and his idea (which is logical) is that this would save time and material. Could be created in a factory setting, therefore making the process cheaper for the customer and more profitable for the contractor. Could it work?? We were about to find out.
We then went on to check the windows and doors (which were bought or donated, I can't remember), took measurements of the roof trusses (bought from and old barn that was dismantled) and constructed a list of all the materials needed for the project. We set up the various areas, one for customizing the bales, another for keeping the tools under, and chainsaw area for cutting. The days were long, exciting and fun and the evenings just as fun. The weekend came fast.
After experimenting with the bales and compressing them in different ways we discovered that we would have to customize each one and came up with a method as shown in this picture below.
By Saturday we had the foundation, base plate and wall plates all ready, all the materials on site and all areas fully equipped. We had an intense course with a lot work, brilliant organization, beautiful food and amazing bonding between everyone involved. On Saturday evening it rained lightly a few times and was really beautiful on the Sunday. As soon as we finished putting the trusses up the weather started to turn and it poured rain for the next few days, but the bales were well covered the night before, which to me is a good sign that the Straw god was on our side....
The following courses:
The following month the same students returned to work some more on the house and installed the windows, doors, ceilings, roof underlay, and even got a lot of claywork done. There are more courses to follow to keep the project moving along.
Well done everyone in Friland. A big thanks again to Lars Jo and family...
Just a little about Friland itself. Friland was founded in 2002 by a very warm openhearted and extremely interesting man called Steen Moeller. The basic idea from what I know of Friland is that those who wish to join the community are encouraged to build inexpensive or almost mortgage free homes, to be environmentally friendly and create as little waste as possible. This as I have seen from my visits there is achieved by most, and those living there really try to think of these ideals in their everyday life. Things like solar showers, rain water recycling, waste water management are normal for the residents and for me personally this was very inspiring. I felt Frilanders had really made that conscious decision in their lives to make this happen and now it was a normal everyday thing for them to do.
Our hosts:
Our hosts and good friends where Lars Keller and Jo Morandin, with their 2 very beautiful children Asger and Jamilla. They made us feel as if we were at home away from home and their organization and Networking plus their patience and person skills are second to none.
The workshop:
For the workshop we had this amazing crew who came together from various parts of Europe. There was Kuba ( a Straw bale designer) and Hannah (amazing cook and joke teller) both from Czech Republic, Tom a helpex and extremely hard working funny Welshman who we really enjoyed being around, he also had an amazing knowledge of plants and there medicinal uses. Anna another helpex from Denmark, of course Lars and Jo, Asger and Jamilla our fantastic host family, and ourselves, Micheal Cronin (Irish living in Finland), Charlie Jespergaard(who is actually Danish but living in Finland), and me Paul Lynch also Irish and living in Finland. We work together here in a company called The Natural Building Company. Check us out on www.naturalbuilding.fi. I also brought along my 9 year old daughter Milla for the fun. We cannot though forget the 20 Danish, really energetic, enthusiastic trainee teacher students who came for the course. They were well.., great.
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| Micheal contemplatng |
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| Hannah |
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| Kuba with Carolina from Friland and her son. |
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| Lars(right), Jo and Soran, in the house |
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| And of course Tom |
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| Charlie(left) and I |
We arrived on the Monday night by Ferry from Sweden and set to work immediately on Tuesday Morning. The course, was to be held on the Saturday and Sunday and we had a lot to do. We began by looking at the first plan for a nearly 60m2 house that Lars and Jo had put together, which was sketched out on an A4. We discussed the different ideas and objectives for the house which would be used as a guest house/library/office, and we then split up into our various groups. Micheal and Charlie tackled the foundation, made up of packed mussel shells, a first for them and quite challenging to compact.
 | |
| The building site, and the mussel shells |
 |
Kuba and I went straight for getting a full detailed plan drawn up for the building and started by checking the bales which came in at whacking 275 x 55 x 85 and were to be positioned standing up which was a first for us and exciting to try. As we were to discover this turned out to be a big challenge. This method was designed by Steen and his idea (which is logical) is that this would save time and material. Could be created in a factory setting, therefore making the process cheaper for the customer and more profitable for the contractor. Could it work?? We were about to find out.
We then went on to check the windows and doors (which were bought or donated, I can't remember), took measurements of the roof trusses (bought from and old barn that was dismantled) and constructed a list of all the materials needed for the project. We set up the various areas, one for customizing the bales, another for keeping the tools under, and chainsaw area for cutting. The days were long, exciting and fun and the evenings just as fun. The weekend came fast.
 | |||||||||||||||||
| Milla my daughter lying on one of the huge bales |
After experimenting with the bales and compressing them in different ways we discovered that we would have to customize each one and came up with a method as shown in this picture below.
 |
| Milla and Jamilla on a compressed bale |
By Saturday we had the foundation, base plate and wall plates all ready, all the materials on site and all areas fully equipped. We had an intense course with a lot work, brilliant organization, beautiful food and amazing bonding between everyone involved. On Saturday evening it rained lightly a few times and was really beautiful on the Sunday. As soon as we finished putting the trusses up the weather started to turn and it poured rain for the next few days, but the bales were well covered the night before, which to me is a good sign that the Straw god was on our side....
 |
| Base plate |
 |
| Wallplate going on and being insulated |
 |
| Last roof truss goes on |
The following courses:
The following month the same students returned to work some more on the house and installed the windows, doors, ceilings, roof underlay, and even got a lot of claywork done. There are more courses to follow to keep the project moving along.
 |
| The house after the second course |
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| With some clay designs |
 | |
| The proud and happy trainers and course participants |
Well done everyone in Friland. A big thanks again to Lars Jo and family...
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Outside Compost toilets.
This is an interesting project that I came across in Estonia and is a wonderfully easy and beautiful way to create an outside eco compost toilet. Our very busy and talented friends there from Säästvad Ehituslahendused http://www.ehituslahendused.ee created this one.
These toilets are extremely common in the Nordic countries and are usually built with wood. All the cottages have them and most of the old houses have them in the garden somewhere. Even the ecologically minded modern builders still build one in their gardens for summer use to save water and create extra compost material for their gardens. A great Finnish company producing such toilets is Biolan. Check their home pages at http://www.biolan.fi and see some of the different variotions they have for both indoor and outdoor use. More to come on this subject in the following months blogs as we aim to investigate grey water and waste water management treatments systems for the modern family home.
The following pictures show the simple process of this build however and this for me is still one of the easiest and most basic ways of saving water. Seems they have done it all in the same day too.
These toilets are extremely common in the Nordic countries and are usually built with wood. All the cottages have them and most of the old houses have them in the garden somewhere. Even the ecologically minded modern builders still build one in their gardens for summer use to save water and create extra compost material for their gardens. A great Finnish company producing such toilets is Biolan. Check their home pages at http://www.biolan.fi and see some of the different variotions they have for both indoor and outdoor use. More to come on this subject in the following months blogs as we aim to investigate grey water and waste water management treatments systems for the modern family home.
The following pictures show the simple process of this build however and this for me is still one of the easiest and most basic ways of saving water. Seems they have done it all in the same day too.
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| Building the framework |
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| Beautiful woven willow |
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| Hanging window |
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| Natural colored clay in Estonia |
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| A bit of trimming |
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| Simple plastering work |
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| The toilet seat. |
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| Wonderful finish |
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