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European StrawBale Gathering
Thursday 31st August – Sunday 3rd September Discover the progress of straw bale construction from single-family homes to affordablealternatives for various building types at ESBG 2023. Globally, central governments are announcing transformational declarations (‘net-zero’,‘decarbonisation’ etc) and the construction industry is speedily endeavouring to manage itsoperational output to mitigate the harmful emissions over the decades. In…
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Strawbale UK’s online event: Alex Burch presents, “How do strawbale walls perform in severe wind-driven rain conditions?”
Comparisons with global climates revealed the unique challenge West Wales poses for strawbale construction. Many studies have focused on measuring internal humidity and temperature of strawbale walls to determine moisture content, however, these often lacked information specific to the climate of West Wales. Alex’s work aimed to find the best method to measure moisture content…
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London’s Building Centre
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Strawbale UK’s online event with Juraj George Mikurcik and Old Holloway
The video of our online event with George and his home, Old Holloway, is now on our YouTube channel Watch it here and share with your network!
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SBUK online event. Old Holloway: An award-winning straw panel house.
Architect George Mikurcik began work on his home 14 years ago. It was the first Ecococon home built in the UK, is an award winning site and George will be discussing with us the concept, the build and sharing supporting data at our meeting. Join us to hear the stories behind this groundbreaking home and…
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Timber and Insurance – SBUK Video
YouTube video of our members’ meeting with Joe Giddings is available to watch here
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SBUK Members’ meeting Special: Timber and Insurance
Join us at our next Members’ meeting Special on Wednesday 9th November, 7pm – 8pm. Our guest speaker is Joe Giddings of ‘Built by Nature’ and he will be discussing, ‘Timber and Insurance‘. Many of you that are involved with the practical elements of building with low carbon / natural materials will understand that the sector presently has…
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ecobuild 2016
SBUK’s members were at this year’s Ecobuild. Together with ‘Natural Building Materials’ groups we displayed and demonstrated the beauty and benefits of constructing with low carbon products.
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How easy is it to find and use natural building materials? riba interview with Janna lann/grain architecture
Here is a great article by RIBA on natural building materials featuring Grain Architecture’s Janna Laan Lomas. Janna will be presenting at RIBA’s online event: Guerilla Tactics, 9th – 11th November. Programme details are HERE and tickets are HERE A project of Grain Architecture‘s is below, built in collaboration SBUK members Joe Duirwyn (Hartwyn) and…
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building the future studio 3 arts community centre
The School of Natural Building are working with Studio 3 Arts to build an extension on their community centre. Designed by architects company, Citizens Design Bureau and built by GPF Lewis and Wellspring Architecture, this is a transformation in London’s Barking and Dagenham. Read more here Not only is the work carried out using low…
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european strawbale gathering (ESBG) – sbuk webinar 2021
The full video of our ESBG webinar 2021 is now available here: click on a timestamp below, or, on one of the images to go to directly to a chapter 00:00 History of ESBG & introduction to SBUK’s webinar by Cypren Edmunds 07:29 StrawBale Building Basics with Phil Christopher 26:24 Cement Free Foundations with Barbara…
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architect climate action network – video of masterclass: straw
Now online for you to view at your leisure is the ‘Straw’ Masterclass we took part in last month. Thank you ACAN 🙌 💚 for the platform to speak about this beautiful, natural material & to all speakers who participated. Click on the image below for the video Enjoy 🙂🌾👷🏾♂️👷🏗🏠
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ESBG 2021: Feedback Form
How did we do? Click image below to fill out quick survey. Thank you!
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architects climate action network | natural material masterclass | straw
A panel of expert speakers met last night to present the benefits of constructing with straw, the data behind the resources and the heritage of this natural building material in Architects Climate Action Network‘s (ACAN) Masterclass for Straw A captive audience, comprising of practioners from the built environment to keenly interested people were treated to…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Presenters: barbara jones
‘Cement Free Foundations’ Saturday 31st July 1035 – 1135 BST online (Zoom) ‘Straw and Building Regulations’ Saturday 31st July 1225 – 1245 BST online (Zoom) Barbara Jones is a strawbale building guru having set up construction companies Straw Works, and Amazon Nails. She is the author of Building with Straw Bales – the most comprehensive guide…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Presenters: paul jennings
‘Airtighness’ Saturday 31st July 1400 – 1420 BST online (Zoom) Paul Jennings of Aldas, is the most experienced airtightness tester and consultant in the UK, and, with over 30 years’ experience originated the “Airtightness Champion” concept. He developed the 12 Steps to Airtightness approach to enable UK contractors to reliably deliver airtightness in Passivhaus and other low-energy…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Webinar
Saturday 31st July 1000-1540 BST online (Zoom) ESBG events start on Friday and finish on Sunday. The full schedule of ESBG events is viewable here: https://strawbuilding.eu Sign up for tickets using this link and on Friday and Saturday morning you will be sent information on how to join the sessions using Zoom and YouTube. On Saturday…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Presenters: chris hawker
‘Straw Building Project Examples’ Saturday 31st July 1155 – 1225 BST online (Zoom) Chris Hawker is a founder and co-director of Hawkland Ecological Construction, along with his business partner David Copeland. Hawkland specialise in the use of appropriate materials, with a focus on sustainability and occupant health. They have delivered several straw projects using structural…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Presenters: jeffrey hart
‘Straw and Mud – A Love Story’ Saturday 31st July 1440 – 1500 BST online (Zoom) Jeffrey Hart is a builder specialising in natural materials to create high performance, healthy homes. He is a founding member of SBUK and his podcast series, Building Sustainability Podcast, where he talks to designers, builders, dreamers and doers in…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Presenters: joe duirwyn
‘Whole Life Carbon – What it is and what it means to our material choices’ Saturday 31st July 1420 – 1440 BST online (Zoom) Joe has worked at the sustainable end of construction for over 20 years. With a strong background in conventional building he has consistently worked towards a more integrated approach where sustainability…
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ESBG 2021 – SBUK Presenters: phil christopher
‘Straw Building Basics’ Saturday 31st July 1015-1035 BST online (Zoom) Phil Christopher is an environmentalist, builder and trainer and he believes passionately in making a low-impact lifestyle an attractive possibility for everyone. Phil runs Huff and Puff Construction, specialising in straw bale and sustainable building, training and design. Phil is also part of Straw-bale Building UK…
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ACAN’s Natural Materials Masterclass: Straw
We are very excited to be a part of this very special event – it is the perfect accompaniment to launch ESBG 2021 the following day Join us as SBUK founding members, Phil Christopher, Barbara Jones, Joe Duirwyn and Cypren Edmunds present topics across the colouful kaleidoscope of constructing with straw, at ACAN’s second episode…
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European StrawBale Gathering (ESBG) 2021
As members of ESBA we are proud to announce our virtual/online participation of European StrawBale Gathering (ESBG) on Friday 30th July – Sunday 1st August 2021 The full programme and Tickets are available here: E.S.B.A. The three days will feature: educational, ‘live’ and Q&A sessions from SBUK and our fellow members of E.S.B.A. (European StrawBale…
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Constrawtium at The Big Green Fair
This Sunday 29th September, 11am – 4pm, SBUK Director Mary Rawlinson is at the Big Green Fair Mary is representing the Constrawtium group, which is a consortium of UK natural material builders enabled by the INTERREG/UPSTRAW initiative The INTERREG/UPSTRAW deal promotes straw buildings to the public sector and Constrawtium are building the new Visitors’ Centre…
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ESBG 2019 #UPSTRAW Todmorden, Yorkshire – Straw sharing
This was a day for sharing techniques, networking, providing examples of new strawbale buildings, promoting the developments in straw bale building in Europe, more workshops…and playing with Lego in Todmorden’s Hippodrome theatre. Phew!
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ESBG 2019 #UPSTRAW, Todmorden, Yorkshire. Straw goes public & in Communities
To say that this event was spectacular is an understatement. Visitors from across Europe went on guided tours of buildings made of straw in the locality, attended workshops, expert speakers’ delivered jaw-dropping presentations and, we had a ceilidh. Bring on the next European Straw Bale Gathering.
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SBUK founder members Chris Hawker & David Copeland are Speakers at ESBG 2019
Chris and David have been with SBUK since day one. Respected builders in the industry they bring with them a studious and creative outlook having met whilst studying at the Centre of Alternative Technology. Their expertise will feature in a workshop on straw bale building within a timber frame. Come and see them at esbg2019.org
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ESBG 2019
The European Straw Bale Gathering (ESBG) is a biennial event, which the UK is privileged to be hosting, for the first time, in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Tickest are available here ESBG this year is part of the Interreg funded UP Straw project. In keeping with the aims of UP Straw, we will be demonstrating the…
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Next Members’ meeting: Friday 23rd March
Our next members’ meeting is: Friday 23rd March, 11am-3pm Venue: The Briar Rose (in the upstairs meeting room) Address: Bennetts Hill, Birmingham B2 5RE. New members are welcome & can join on the day: Join SBUK
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#UPSTRAW meets #AUBHUMAN
Next week for @inspiredAUB one of our founding members, Phil Christopher, will be presenting a talk for ‘AUB Human’, in Bournemouth, Tuesday 6th March 2018. And if that isn’t enough ‘Huff and Puff Construction‘ are building a straw venue for the ‘Pop up Cinema’ too! The day comprises of symposiums, talks and workshops ‘created to…
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@EcoBuild_Now : Whose Regeneration Is It Anyway?
The complexities of housing on a large scale need to be redressed especially when the debate on inclusivity and construction materials are taken in wholeheartedly. Read our take of this discussion at EcoBuild 2017 and come and visit us at Stand F209 over the 3 days with Hartwyn – Natural Building, Straw Build, Straw Works, EBUKi,…