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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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Finance and strawbuildings
Securing finance to build homes that are energy efficient …better for the planet should be easy. Since 1987 Ecology Building Society have supported homeowners who #buildwithstraw We need mortgage products in-place to grow the market.
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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 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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MIscanthus – sbuk video
The video of our event: ‘MIscanthus – what it is and how can it benefit the sector?’ is now available to view. Thank you to our guest Fabrice Ntimugura for a brilliant presentation. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/jr2dO29sXys
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sbuk online event – Miscanthus: How can the construction sector benefit with its use?
Did you know that Miscanthus has water vapour permeability properties compatible with that in traditional construction and sequesters carbon (around 130 kg CO2eq/m3)? Join us on Wednesday 6th July, 7pm (GMT) as we discuss the building potential in construction of this bio based material. The talk will be led by PHD Research student, Fabrice Ntimugura…
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msc module review: sustainable materials in the built environment – cat
As part of my MSc in Green Building – Centre for Alternative Technology (cat.org.uk) at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) we had great fun on the “Sustainable Materials in the Built Environment” module in May 2022 experimenting on site with clay, lime, hemp, straw, miscanthus, cork, rammed earth and other novel materials. It is a fantastic…
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Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction – Environmental audit committee report
This report stresses that “from residential to commercial buildings, the UK’s built environment is responsible for 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) warns that to date there has been a lack of Government impetus or policy levers to assess and reduce these emissions. With climate deadlines looming, urgent action…
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straw construction in the uk – technical guide 2022
We are very excited to announce that the ‘Technical Guide’ for Straw Construction, is now out! The Technical Guide is a vital component within the EU-INTERREG funded project, ‘UPSTRAW’, the aim of which is to promote the benefits and good practice of constructing with straw. Authored by The School of Natural Building (SNaB), who were…
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SBUK step review 2022
Under the guidance of course leader, Hubert Gruber, our SBUK Director, Kit Jones, participated in the latest edition of the ‘STEP’ programme. STEP (Strawbuilding Training for European Professionals) is a strawbuilding course (online & practical) which is curated and led by qualified and professional builders. We, at SBUK, endorse the STEP curriculum and will utilise…
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‘the last straw’
In Winter 1993 a publication entered the built environment, etching its name as a hallowed journal for straw as a construction material – The Last Straw. Emanating from USA the first issue had a national/regional take on straw construction: structural testing in Tucson; construction of an eight sided strawbale house; the Genesis farm in New…
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UK’s First ever EPD for Straw!
For the first time this gives an accurate assessment of the environmental impact of straw production in the UK. This was made possible by the European Up Straw INTERREG funded project. Led by The School of Natural Building this Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is hugely significant as it not only stamps its importance in the…
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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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Households declare
Energising our buildings has never become more important than now. The savvy among you would have been content to be up to speed with an ‘EPC’ or ‘U-Value’ but nowadays, the general public in the UK are seeing terminologies such as, ‘Whole House Approach’, ‘External Wall Insulation’ (EWI), ‘Internal Wall Insulation’ (IWI), ‘PAS 2035’ and…
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job: sbuk secretary role
We have a vacancy on our Board. For a full specification of the role, please see and apply here: SBUK Secretary Good luck!
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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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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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Vote for ‘The Bale House’
Final day for voting for the #GreenSolution awards. Vote here
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ACAN’s Natural Materials Business Survey
To support preparing a response for EAC’s ‘Sustainability in the built environment‘ inquiry, ACAN have prepared a quick-fire survey of businesses working in the natural materials industry. The intention is to quickly gather some fresh evidence and insights for solutions and actions the government can take to support businesses working with natural materials – producers,…
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Green Solutions Award 2021 – Vote for ‘The Bale House’!
🏆 The Bale House 🇬🇧Located in a UK Nature Reserve in Hastings this constructed with recycled, fireproof, and breathable materials. A unique straw bale building that requires next to no energy to run and stays comfortable all year long due to its high insulation. This UPSTRAW Project uses natural materials such as lime, wood and…
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the bale house
Wow! Check out at the latest video update of the ‘Bale House’ by the Constrawtium team!
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is there enough straw to build with?
John Butler has been digging away in the vaults of Government data and statistics to ascertain the answer to one of the most often asked questions we receive, “Is there enough straw to build”? The figures are interestingly optimistic (we shan’t spoilt it for you!). Dig in and sift through this very vital piece of…
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UPSTRAW Yearbook 2020
The UPSTRAW Yearbook 2020 is now released. Starting in 2017, this project is a collaboration between European countries (Belgium, France, Germany Netherlands and Hastings – UK) via INTERREG, with the theme of ‘public investment in straw building’ – including five new public buildings built using straw and other natural materials. Other project outcomes covered in…
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UP STRAW Zotero database
Great news! The partners of UP STRAW have collated, through the ‘Zoreto’ platform, an open source database of free reference management tools that allows the user to manage bibliographical data and documents such as websites, videos, scientific articles, books and PDFs. This will cover the regulatory aspects, construction techniques, technical and environmental performance, fire security…
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Constructing Excellence SECBE ‘People’s Choice Award’
Richard Dormandy and his team of ‘Holy Trinity’ in Tulse Hill are finalists in the ‘Construction Excellence SECBE – ‘People’s Choice Award’, in the catergory ‘Sustainability’. We visited them last year and reported on the brilliant work that they are doing in not just utilising strength in community spirit (500 volunteers!) but in constructing this…
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UPSTRAW Database of Strawbale Buildings
The School of Natural Building team are drawing up a complete and comprehensive database of strawbale buildings in the UK and Ireland! Interreg Database of Strawbale buildingsThrough their partnership with other European countries, funded by Interreg and called UP Straw, the School of Natural Building (SNaB) is drawing up a database of all known strawbale…
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UPSTRAW YEAR BOOK 2019
A new online publication has arrived: UPSTRAW YEAR BOOK 2019 This edition begins with an introduction on the benefits of building with straw. Watch out for forthcoming issues! These will feature projects on the INTERREG project and technical articles ➡️ ➡️ ️ ➡️ UPSTRAW
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Constrawtium update
Wow! Work on the Visitors’ Centre in Hastings is going through at a rapid pace. Plywood is up and one of the Constrawtium crew is sanding it down before applying the wax for a surface finish Instagram: @constrawtium
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Airtightness and natural building materials by Judith Thornton
This is a great introductory blog to those of you who are new to the idea of working with natural building materials. It challenges the outcomes of what is considered ‘airtight’ and the relevancy of that within construction and comfortability to the user. It is easy to understand and with no jargon, so it is…
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From the Australian press…the good news keeps on coming about ESBG 2019
David Thorpe wrote for the Australian on-line journal, The Fifth Estate wrote about ESBG 2019: https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/public-authorities-should-hold-tenders-for-straw-bale-buildings/ ESBG2019 was supported by INTERREG for the umbrella project ‘UPSTRAW’. As part of the UPSTRAW project a UK consortium, Constrawtium, are undertaking the building of the new Visitors Centre in Hastings So nice to see the love spreading to…
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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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Construction of the Hastings Country Park’s Visitor Centre by Constrawtium
In 2017 we ventured with other members of the INTERREG initiative UPSTRAW, to see the above area for a new Vistors’ Centre in Hastings. Murray Davidson of Hastings Borough Council spoke about the ambition for the proposed build and we explored how to could pool our energies to bring this to frution. In May of…
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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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Tulse Hill Straw Bale Build
In the urban landscape of London, where land to build is scarce, and new build opportunities are few and far between, the area of Tulse Hill is fortunate to have within its community a construction that is currently taking place on epic proportions. Arguably, Europe’s largest urban straw bale build, the Tulse Hill Bale Build…
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New year’s day fire at lammas
All of us at SBUK were devastated to hear of the fire that destroyed Simon and Jasmine Dale’s house in the Lammas Eco village on new years day. The home was an inspirational house, being built for very little money and a lot of hard work from Simon and a whole league of volunteers. The…