Project Location and Cost

The house site is located on the east side of North Adams Street, between West Cottage Grove and West 10th street. Cost of the project was estimated to be $47,500 - a low-cost home that will incorporate as many sustainable and natural elements as possible. Costs are equal to or less than that of a standard frame house, but the house will have less impact on the environment and greater energy efficiency.

See floor plan
See artist's rendering of exterior

Driving Directions: The house is on Adams St. between Cottage Grove and W. 10th. Parking is available across the street at the Pentecostal Faith Assembly located on the corner of W. 11th and Adams. (Take 11th St. going west. Pass Bender Lumber on your left, go under the overpass and up a hill. The church is located at the top of the hill on the left at the intersection with Adams.)

Straw Bale Design and Construction

Straw bale construction technology is a natural building method that has less environmental impact than conventional building techniques. It also recycles straw, a waste product of the agricultural process. In straw bale construction, firmly packed bales are stacked to form walls, then the walls are covered with stucco or plaster. The effect is softer and more organic than that produced by typical frame construction.

See wall detail
See window detail

A straw bale wall is simple to construct - it requires no power tools and only simple carpentry skills - provides R-40 insulation and exceeds the fire rating of standard frame construction. Although straw bales can provide structural support, because of building code requirements it is more common to use them as infill in a post and beam structure. The Bloomington straw bale house uses straw bales as infill in the exterior walls of the structure.

Straw bale buildings are also quite durable. Many of the straw bale homes constructed by settlers in the plains states during the late 1800s and early 1900s are still in use.

Advantages of Natural Building Techniques

The greatest advantages are affordability for housing construction, followed by energy efficiency, creating a healthy building environment and taking advantage of passive solar design. Passive solar design maximizes solar heating by orienting the house with south-facing windows and mass to absorb the sun's heat. Sunlight enters through low-e (energy efficient) windows extending along a south wall coupled with a pressed concrete slab floor to provide mass absorption of heat.

Overhangs along the south wall will create maximum shading in summer while allowing the sun to shine in during the colder months. R-40 insulation in the ceiling and walls also help retain heat.

Construction uses other natural building materials whenever possible -- materials which are environmentally friendly, require less energy to produce and both use and generate no toxic off-gas or other pollution during use or after disposal. The use of a radiant floor heating system - which is safer, quieter, more comfortable and more efficient than forced air systems and requires less maintenance -- was used in the final design plans.