We built a straw bale home in Canada in 2008. Don't engage in the typical either/or debate between "function or form", with straw bale you get function AND form. Our home's heating bill was less than half of comparable sized homes in our little village of Eden Mills and it is a stunning home, as is every straw bale home I've been through.
@@Joe-sg9ll We had no issue with insurance. Fire needs oxygen and there isn't much to keep a fire going in a bale of straw. (Try and light a bale). It's also plastered, so if fire can get through cement/lyme/sand plaster ... Your straw bale home is less likely to burn than a traditional stick frame home. Another myth to many is what if the big bad wolf comes to blow it down. It's remarkably solid structurally and as an added bonus, remarkably soundproof.
Straw bale fires from spontaneous combustion only occur when the bales are stored wet and there is anaerobic decomposition on the inside of the bale. Usually only happens when the bale has too high of moisture content.
@@terrywedam831 generally not as much an issue with straw - more of one for hay where the seed heads contain moisture, and food for insects or vermin. Straw is virtually all carbon, much harder to decompose.
As a Zambian, watching this wonderful video open with a song by our very own Amanaz had me smiling all the way. Good production and good message! Well done once again for Patagonia and their collaborators for shining the light on old technology that we need to adopt today.
Saw this served up to me in an add. Our straw bale home was completed in 2016 in Kentucky. Passive solar heating with supplemental wood heat. All wood harvested for heating on site. $0 for winter heating bill. We taught a lot of people about the process. And our straw wad wheat straw grown one County over from ours. Loved the film.
Great project and film. It's wonderful to see these types of projects coming to life. I was in architecture school over 30 years ago, and the benefits of straw bale building were well known. Seems like it takes forever for us to realize what we've known to be true for generations.
That was my reaction as well. I'm 55 and Ive been working all my life to try and inform people about the issues of the biodiversity crisis. And yet nothing much is changing, they evolve but it's so slow. Thank goodness for people who take things in their own hands, but the hurdles are immense.
I wish they would have showed the rendering process for the external weatherproofing and internal wet room areas. More videos on sustainable building and clothing Patagonia!
They say it takes only just 2 generations time to decimate ones culture...then i wonder if it would only take 2 generations to build an entire new culture .a planet friendly one of course.. Patagonia ‘s videos have always been so inspiring .....I think it is the perfect time for Patagonia to create a school /university .
Noi costruiamo case in paglia in Italia e ne siamo orgogliosi come i nostri committenti. Grazie Paragonia per diffondere questa tecnica costruttiva! We build thatched houses in Italy and we are as proud of it as our clients. Thank you Paragonia for spreading this construction technique!
Thank you Yvon for supporting me on my sailing journey to Hawaii and being an inspiration to many. Thank you for contributing in such a big way for a better future. ❤❤❤
It is my sincere hope that the next house we move into, after our kids are on their own, will be as close to carbon neutral as possible. This film is great inspiration to that pursuit. Thanks Patagonia!
Thanks @Patagonia and all the other folks before for raising awareness about building with natural materials! It is time we incorporate more sustainable practices in the sourcing of building materials, especially when many houses nowadays won't make it past 50 years. The more it is seen as a beneficial type of construction, the easier it will be to get building departments and inspectors to agree to the projects.
I’m currently reading Yvon’s book, Let My People Go Surfing. It’s super inspiring and informative on how Patagonia operates. I love this business model as it completely flips the perspective on how business should be ran!
@@wildpatagoniafilms16 I've been researching this building medium for years. Maybe one day this market will cool off and I an get somehwere haha. You can look up some stories of straw bale construction in the California widlfires... they do relatively well, believe it or not. As like what someone mentioned in the video, they're pretty tough to actually get a fire sustained on the bale because they're packed so tight that the flames have a hard time getting the oxygen to keep burning. You can also look up the tests and experiments people have done on bale walls-- some are here on UA-cam.
Loved the video. We finished building our straw bale house in southern CA not quite 3 years ago. We had a 7 day workshop where people came and paid to learn how to build it. It was a lot of work and took us a couple of years. The permit process is tough especially with the fire department codes in wildfire areas. Probably would have been easier anywhere other than California.
Thanks for producing this video! lve been building with straw for over 25 years. lts still not getting enough media and this is the biggest setback for homes made with bales. Thank you, Balebot Byrom
Very appreciative of this effort and referential innovation! Thank you Patagonia for teaching me about another inspiring solution. Now let's turn those straw-built single family homes into straw-built multifamily townhouses! Single family sprawl creates car dependency, which is another third of our carbon emission issue :)
While not linked, there are resources in the description. I suggest Ecological Building Network and California Straw Building Association (CASBA) as a start.
Love this! As usual, Patagonia is a source of inspiration. Love hearing Yvon say what we've said a million times, using agricultural waste as an alternative to plastics is "a win, win, win deal". Hope to one day soon build a home with upcycled coconut husks. In the meantime we'll be using our coconut husk insulation inside Nutshell Coolers to keep drinks cold and food fresh on your next outdoor adventure :)
I live in a Mongolian Yurt which is all natural all year long at 7300' and it gets cold outside. Frozen for 7 months of the year. For insulation if you live on a deck close to the ground is to use used single use plastic bags, under the deck floor, shredded and pushed into the deck frame. Hundreds of them. Its like like a synthetic sleeping bag. You just have to collect it before building the deck. Make insulation pillows for your deck. You could also make a "puffy jacket" for the outside of the yurt as well, 2 pieces zipped together in winter. It would be great if the USA started making four season yurts with wood and sheep felt, and canvas with insulated parts for your yurt.. Hemp canvas would be nice. No nails or concrete in the construction. Someone needs to start a yurt business that grows the materials. Best $10k I ever spent.
Continuing to support the growth mindset of the population by switching out the materials but not changing the practise. I still see mass monoculture production, the use of fossil fuels to harvest/transport, and habitat destruction. Using natural materials to build a house is a fantastic idea, and could potentially help reconnect some with the Earth. I must be honest this does not seem like the future to me, just a repitition of the past expecting a different result. If reading this upsets anyone please know that this critisism is aimed to be constructive.
Title 24 in California is an impediment to building anything that is ecologically sound as it does not give credit for carbon stored in the walls, solar design or shading. I just tried getting permits to build with hempcrete and the Title 24 required wrapping everything in foam. Plus sprinkler systems and engineering for a house that has no shear panels (plywood) can be really expensive and time consuming to implement and requires wrapping everything in 2 inch square wire mesh. Budget at least a million for a build like this. Next time I build something it will be in Patagonia :)
Thanks for mentioning this topic. It's easy to write and article or make a cute little video like this to inspire people but just about everyone has no idea just how complicated and expensive these projects are (myself included). There are a lot more hurdles and red tape to navigate through for something like this is be successful.
Just for the amazing insulating properties stawbale homes are a no brainer. Interesting that they aren’t much more of a fire hazard than traditional builds, I always assumed that was one of the drawbacks
Great! And..... So many amazing plant fibers, as "waste" or not.... Bamboo and Hemp, not to mention all the invasive plants so much money is spent on removing which could be utilized in building as well! The future is here NOW! It's time to start embracing these practices whenever and wherever appropriate!!
Love the idea of the film that we need to see us living WITH NATURE because we are part of nature, and I love how the film is produced. Yet, one comment on how the concept of "WASTE" is used in this film. In Minute 4:55, Ron from K&R Farming talks about straw as a WASTE product - only 40% of the irrigated rice is baled in California, whereas the rest "goes to waste" back into the soil. Regenerative Farming (RF) is about maintaining soils with healthy microbiome. RF requires the cycling of biomass to feed the soil. Straw that stays on the field and returns to the soil is fundamental to maintaining soil health. By restoring soil health, nature increases the productivity of the soil ecosystem. The soil can cycle more water and nutrients. The soil can absorb and activate more manure/fertilizer, catch and store more water longer, and distribute water and (micro)nutrients better through rhizomes to our crops. Here, REMOVING TOO MUCH BIOMASS can lock soils in their overused/dead state. The level of health of the soil biology and the local climate context determine HOW MUCH biomass may be removed without destroying the living systems. The more we allow the soil to heal, the more we can extract regeneratively for human use. AFTER helping soils to heal! Unfortunately, as we commodify biomass - the feed of soil - and extract more for human use, we may easily degrade soil. Soil is our basis for living land, for healthy watersheds, for life itself. Whenever humans turn a "current waste" into an "economic resource", dramatic use increases have often led to horrible side effects - in this case, soil degradation/desertification/acceleration of biosphere extermination. What makes us confident that we can manage this overuse with our current "laise faire" economic system? So caution if a technology upgrades "waste" into a "resource" - do we feed the profit monster or the wisdom owl? When talking "scaling" of any technology, the road to hell is paved with good intentions that got short-sighted by human hubris. The technology “straw building” can only help us at scale, if we develop social systems that ensure regenerative soil management. Without these social systems, this technology will accelerate desertification even further - flash flooding, drought, heat islands, wildfires, biodiversity extinction. Technologies without wise management cause death. Again and again and again. At scale, I can imagine many opportunities for “biomass farming for bioenergy and building resources”. We have an excess of humanure and CAFO manure, we can rebuild living spongy soil and the historic wetlands in Central Valley. But the focus of all farming should be on BIOSPHERE REGENERATION FIRST, in order to recover nature’s abundance. There’s no future for “overextractive farming in deserts at scale”. Not even if our technology was pushed with “good intentions toward nature”. We will slash nature further, if we don’t manage the wounds that "biomass extraction at scale" would leave under today's dominant soil management paradigm.
Im a bit pessimistic on how these will stand the test of time. Id personally go towards stone built homes that can live on for generations. Straw built seems like a nightmare for mold and insects anywhere on the east coast. Appreciate the film though, would love to see where it goes.
There have been straw bale houses on the east coast for decades; as long as the have good eaves and foundation, and have been plastered correctly, they do well. The oldest SB home is over 100 years old and is in Nebraska, so I hear. Once the straw is plastered, especially with a little borax thrown in the plaster, it's very insect, mold, and fire resistant. (Even without plaster it's very mouse resistant compared to a stick frame house, btw.) Stone build houses are difficult to build and not good in cold climates; too much mass and not enough insulation.
Where do you live? There are straw bale projects all over the world looking for volunteers. I have also found that it's very difficult to find trades who will work with anything slightly different because the learning curve costs time/money, so trades with SB experience can charge a premium once they know what they're doing. I've also tried to hire trades as consultants so I'd do the work and they'd be paid to advise, but most don't want to do that kind of sit-down work. There are a lot of opportunities out there for anyone in the trades interested in SB.
Totally with you regarding the size of houses. We *must* learn to reduce. I'd like to say re. R-factor, though, that the current building industry has no concept of the value of mass when used correctly-- it doesn't factor into any code equations although there are many that dictate R values. When your temperature is a daily high/low (like the desert), mass rules supreme-- adobe houses are incredibly comfortable. When your climate is long cold winters, insulation outside and mass inside (to hold heat) is better. It's all about understanding local conditions.
Its not too bad, there is Appendix S of the IRC for strawbale construction in the US, which covers simple single story houses. These 2 houses fell outside of that, so we had to get creative. These are effectively framed with wood posts and beams and then infilled with strawbale to create the building envelope. It was effectively permitted as a wood structure w/ heavy non-structural walls
I spy Brooke and Jim from YoSAR, haha. Yeah this is a great option especially in arid regions. Hempcrete is another option for carbon neutral + low cost that is more decomposition resistant.
I dig strawbale construction. Probably the most viable natural building technique. But, there is no free lunch. Removing the straw from the field removes organic material from the soil which holds on to water and nutrients for the next crop. Holding on to nutrients helps keep the runoff water clean. Ideally, if we could all agree to limit our population growth, there would not be much demand for new housing. With lower demand for new housing, we could focus more on making existing housing more efficient.
I thought about that, too. Rice shouldn't be grown California, either, it's too dry there. And houses should be smaller. But currently rice *is* grown there, and they used to burn it off the fields instead of either discing it or baling it, so over the past 30 years they've learned something. Humans, like all other species, are too slow to adapt to the exponential change we've implemented.
Awesome to see, Patagonia! We’re almost done building our “modern” strawbale home near Hood River Oregon (@oregonstrawcasa). It was a lifetime dream of ours, and it’s even more incredible than we hoped for - in every way.🤙
If you've plastered it correctly with clay or lime plaster (not concrete stucco), the plaster swells when it gets wet, not allowing water into the bales in the first place. Any water that gets in is released as the outside environment dries out and the clay shrinks. It's very self-regulating if built correctly. If you build in a flood zone, though, the same thing happens that happens to any house during a flood, except that straw bale homes won't create toxic waste, they can just be pulled out, thrown on the garden, and new ones put in.
Surely, more importantly is to not build individual family home buildings. Better use of land so that building are less already out and that buildings are larger and have a better volume to surface area are a start. Think about better land use
Where does one, as your regular "joe schmoe" buy STRAW bales? Not hay bales. STRAW. Everything I find online is either hay of some sort or hay/straw. It seems it is all for feeding farm animals. Not only that, but locally at least, it's all 2 string hay/straw bales.
Hi humrod1852! I have no idea where you are from but here in Canada straw bales are available without hay mixed in, or if there is by chance any hay in the mix it's not enough to be a concern. I'm wondering if you're not in an area where crops like wheat, barley or flax are grown but rather a more livestock area where hay is harvested as feed for the animals. Also 2 string bales are more common here and not an issue when building. We built our 12x30 cabin using flax...which I don't recommend but there was a straw shortage due to drought the spring we were ready to put in the bales and could only find flax bales. If you're in an agricultural area drive around and look for 1...square bales on farms and 2 ...stop in and ask the farmer what he has and if he has any to sell...of course only if it's straw. I'll bet if he doesn't he certainly knows who does. Good Luck!
What do you put back into the Soil after removing the Biomass thar emerged from it? Straw is great for Building! But also to put back into the Soil! Wouldnt call that going to waste!
The concept that the straw is a waste product is so wrong. The STRAW IS NOT A WASTE - it comes back to the soil and makes the hummus. Good farming practices should include carbon sequestration - you can store the carbon in the soil this way. If you take straw from the field every year, you will deplete the farmland.
This is literally just insulation. It’s not a straw bale house. It is still a wood framed house with concrete foundation. I fully support Patagonia but this is extremely stupid. The only thing it is replacing is fiberglass insulation which I’m all for but saying that it’s a straw bale house is literally false.
Good luck but it won’t happen. It just won’t people will go to plastic and foam before straw. It’s a great creative idea but it won’t hold tight in society. If money is to be made they will make it. You can’t survive off the land in this day and age. You need a camera to film your videos to make money you need gasoline to run big equipment and youll use tons and tons of water in the process. Sustainable logging is where we need to start. Period
This all plays as complete bullshit. Not anything from this video addresses the actual modern issues were facing. From unsustainable building practices to the actual details of what were working with. None of the faux issues they talked about afe going to be fixed with soem percentage of water reduction or some pat on the back for trying. If we want to address the water crisis and the housing crisis and the transportation crisis... We have to remember that those are all one issue.... Im order to save water, people need to live close to the things they need In order to have happy communities, people need to live near the things that make them happy. ETC.... (ITS NOT a complex idea)
And then one day a cow shows up. And then another, and another. Munching, munching. Until they've eaten through a wall. Thinking 'the hay is always greener on the ither side of the wall.'. Soon, only wooden beams and furniture are all that remains.
.. The Termites come along and finish what the cows started. Now the wooden beams and furniture are also from the past. A house completely dissolved in nature. Ready for a new cycle. No trace of any Pollution.
@@richardhardegger1316 I'm no farmer. But Wikipedia says guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus) "It can be used as a long-term foraging grass if grazed consistently and if fertilized. It is well suited for cut-and-carry, a practice in which grass is harvested and brought to a ruminant animal in an enclosed system. Shade tolerance makes it suited to coexisting with trees in agroforestry. Some varieties have been used successfully for making silage and hay. The leaves contain good levels of protein, 6-25% depending on age and nitrogen supply." Maybe this grasses suitability for sileage depends upon when it's harvested. I think it may need to be harvested while still green - before it turns to dry, flammable straw.
Loved the video. We finished building our straw bale house in southern CA not quite 3 years ago. We had a 7 day workshop where people came and paid to learn how to build it. It was a lot of work and took us a couple of years. The permit process is tough especially with the fire department codes in wildfire areas. Probably would have been easier anywhere other than California.
We built a straw bale home in Canada in 2008. Don't engage in the typical either/or debate between "function or form", with straw bale you get function AND form. Our home's heating bill was less than half of comparable sized homes in our little village of Eden Mills and it is a stunning home, as is every straw bale home I've been through.
@@Joe-sg9ll We had no issue with insurance. Fire needs oxygen and there isn't much to keep a fire going in a bale of straw. (Try and light a bale). It's also plastered, so if fire can get through cement/lyme/sand plaster ... Your straw bale home is less likely to burn than a traditional stick frame home. Another myth to many is what if the big bad wolf comes to blow it down. It's remarkably solid structurally and as an added bonus, remarkably soundproof.
Straw bale fires from spontaneous combustion only occur when the bales are stored wet and there is anaerobic decomposition on the inside of the bale. Usually only happens when the bale has too high of moisture content.
That's exactly what I was wondering. Great to know, thanks for sharing.@@tombowes9387
Hey, I live in Waterloo! What sort of projects are you working on now?
@@terrywedam831 generally not as much an issue with straw - more of one for hay where the seed heads contain moisture, and food for insects or vermin. Straw is virtually all carbon, much harder to decompose.
As a Zambian, watching this wonderful video open with a song by our very own Amanaz had me smiling all the way.
Good production and good message!
Well done once again for Patagonia and their collaborators for shining the light on old technology that we need to adopt today.
Saw this served up to me in an add.
Our straw bale home was completed in 2016 in Kentucky. Passive solar heating with supplemental wood heat. All wood harvested for heating on site. $0 for winter heating bill.
We taught a lot of people about the process. And our straw wad wheat straw grown one County over from ours.
Loved the film.
Would love any recommendations on educational sources / tips for bale building and passive solar heating.
Great project and film. It's wonderful to see these types of projects coming to life. I was in architecture school over 30 years ago, and the benefits of straw bale building were well known. Seems like it takes forever for us to realize what we've known to be true for generations.
That was my reaction as well. I'm 55 and Ive been working all my life to try and inform people about the issues of the biodiversity crisis. And yet nothing much is changing, they evolve but it's so slow. Thank goodness for people who take things in their own hands, but the hurdles are immense.
I wish they would have showed the rendering process for the external weatherproofing and internal wet room areas. More videos on sustainable building and clothing Patagonia!
There's *so* much information out there; Google is your friend.
@@pleasejustletmebeanonymous6510Agree.
They say it takes only just 2 generations time to decimate ones culture...then i wonder if it would only take 2 generations to build an entire new culture .a planet friendly one of course..
Patagonia ‘s videos have always been so inspiring .....I think it is the perfect time for Patagonia to create a school /university .
"I'm always stressing out, because I'm a general contractor" Truer words were never spoken
Noi costruiamo case in paglia in Italia e ne siamo orgogliosi come i nostri committenti. Grazie Paragonia per diffondere questa tecnica costruttiva!
We build thatched houses in Italy and we are as proud of it as our clients. Thank you Paragonia for spreading this construction technique!
Thank you Yvon for supporting me on my sailing journey to Hawaii and being an inspiration to many. Thank you for contributing in such a big way for a better future. ❤❤❤
What do you get when you pound dirt into an old car tire? A 300 lb. brick. Earthships are another amazing type of house; well worth looking into.
It is my sincere hope that the next house we move into, after our kids are on their own, will be as close to carbon neutral as possible. This film is great inspiration to that pursuit. Thanks Patagonia!
Seems like you'd make a lot less impact trying to pull that off in your current home.
@@oliverlazenby7962 we already do, and continue to work toward that end.
Thanks @Patagonia and all the other folks before for raising awareness about building with natural materials! It is time we incorporate more sustainable practices in the sourcing of building materials, especially when many houses nowadays won't make it past 50 years. The more it is seen as a beneficial type of construction, the easier it will be to get building departments and inspectors to agree to the projects.
I’m currently reading Yvon’s book, Let My People Go Surfing. It’s super inspiring and informative on how Patagonia operates. I love this business model as it completely flips the perspective on how business should be ran!
I haven't read the book, but after Patagonia went pseudo-non-profit, I'd imagine things run differently. Not worse, just different :)
Here in New Mexico, the poster child for Adobe, strawbale construction has been a popular alternative for 30 years. It has few, if any, downsides…
sounda amazing! How about fire hazar? lots of ppl states they are very flammable, thy catch fire easily. Is that the case? thanks!
@@wildpatagoniafilms16 I've been researching this building medium for years. Maybe one day this market will cool off and I an get somehwere haha.
You can look up some stories of straw bale construction in the California widlfires... they do relatively well, believe it or not. As like what someone mentioned in the video, they're pretty tough to actually get a fire sustained on the bale because they're packed so tight that the flames have a hard time getting the oxygen to keep burning. You can also look up the tests and experiments people have done on bale walls-- some are here on UA-cam.
@@DajhiraJo thanks!
Loved the video. We finished building our straw bale house in southern CA not quite 3 years ago. We had a 7 day workshop where people came and paid to learn how to build it. It was a lot of work and took us a couple of years. The permit process is tough especially with the fire department codes in wildfire areas. Probably would have been easier anywhere other than California.
Right now in Texas square bales of wheat straw are $125 apiece. I've got clay & sand though, so I'll build with cob this year.
Local materials are where it's at! Good for you.
Thanks for producing this video! lve been building with straw for over 25 years. lts still not getting enough media and this is the biggest setback for homes made with bales.
Thank you, Balebot Byrom
Very appreciative of this effort and referential innovation! Thank you Patagonia for teaching me about another inspiring solution. Now let's turn those straw-built single family homes into straw-built multifamily townhouses! Single family sprawl creates car dependency, which is another third of our carbon emission issue :)
Good video. Would have been nice if they had addressed more details and issues of construction in addition to the philosophy of the method.
While not linked, there are resources in the description. I suggest Ecological Building Network and California Straw Building Association (CASBA) as a start.
I'm just starting to dive into hempcrete and lime. Clay too. This is another wave to surf, and it's good for us.
Love this! As usual, Patagonia is a source of inspiration. Love hearing Yvon say what we've said a million times, using agricultural waste as an alternative to plastics is "a win, win, win deal". Hope to one day soon build a home with upcycled coconut husks. In the meantime we'll be using our coconut husk insulation inside Nutshell Coolers to keep drinks cold and food fresh on your next outdoor adventure :)
I live in a Mongolian Yurt which is all natural all year long at 7300' and it gets cold outside. Frozen for 7 months of the year. For insulation if you live on a deck close to the ground is to use used single use plastic bags, under the deck floor, shredded and pushed into the deck frame. Hundreds of them. Its like like a synthetic sleeping bag. You just have to collect it before building the deck. Make insulation pillows for your deck. You could also make a "puffy jacket" for the outside of the yurt as well, 2 pieces zipped together in winter. It would be great if the USA started making four season yurts with wood and sheep felt, and canvas with insulated parts for your yurt.. Hemp canvas would be nice. No nails or concrete in the construction. Someone needs to start a yurt business that grows the materials. Best $10k I ever spent.
Well, how about Pacific Yurts? They are all season yurts!
Continuing to support the growth mindset of the population by switching out the materials but not changing the practise. I still see mass monoculture production, the use of fossil fuels to harvest/transport, and habitat destruction. Using natural materials to build a house is a fantastic idea, and could potentially help reconnect some with the Earth.
I must be honest this does not seem like the future to me, just a repitition of the past expecting a different result.
If reading this upsets anyone please know that this critisism is aimed to be constructive.
Title 24 in California is an impediment to building anything that is ecologically sound as it does not give credit for carbon stored in the walls, solar design or shading. I just tried getting permits to build with hempcrete and the Title 24 required wrapping everything in foam. Plus sprinkler systems and engineering for a house that has no shear panels (plywood) can be really expensive and time consuming to implement and requires wrapping everything in 2 inch square wire mesh. Budget at least a million for a build like this. Next time I build something it will be in Patagonia :)
I am from Patagonia.. now living in NYC... ain't cheap down there either trust me.. but for 1 million you can have a palace! 😂
Thanks for mentioning this topic.
It's easy to write and article or make a cute little video like this to inspire people but just about everyone has no idea just how complicated and expensive these projects are (myself included).
There are a lot more hurdles and red tape to navigate through for something like this is be successful.
Just for the amazing insulating properties stawbale homes are a no brainer. Interesting that they aren’t much more of a fire hazard than traditional builds, I always assumed that was one of the drawbacks
Great! And..... So many amazing plant fibers, as "waste" or not.... Bamboo and Hemp, not to mention all the invasive plants so much money is spent on removing which could be utilized in building as well! The future is here NOW! It's time to start embracing these practices whenever and wherever appropriate!!
Love Patagonia and Yvon, very inspiring
incredible concept. I have never heard of a "straw house" but wow love it!
Love the idea of the film that we need to see us living WITH NATURE because we are part of nature, and I love how the film is produced. Yet, one comment on how the concept of "WASTE" is used in this film.
In Minute 4:55, Ron from K&R Farming talks about straw as a WASTE product - only 40% of the irrigated rice is baled in California, whereas the rest "goes to waste" back into the soil.
Regenerative Farming (RF) is about maintaining soils with healthy microbiome. RF requires the cycling of biomass to feed the soil. Straw that stays on the field and returns to the soil is fundamental to maintaining soil health. By restoring soil health, nature increases the productivity of the soil ecosystem. The soil can cycle more water and nutrients. The soil can absorb and activate more manure/fertilizer, catch and store more water longer, and distribute water and (micro)nutrients better through rhizomes to our crops. Here, REMOVING TOO MUCH BIOMASS can lock soils in their overused/dead state.
The level of health of the soil biology and the local climate context determine HOW MUCH biomass may be removed without destroying the living systems. The more we allow the soil to heal, the more we can extract regeneratively for human use. AFTER helping soils to heal! Unfortunately, as we commodify biomass - the feed of soil - and extract more for human use, we may easily degrade soil. Soil is our basis for living land, for healthy watersheds, for life itself. Whenever humans turn a "current waste" into an "economic resource", dramatic use increases have often led to horrible side effects - in this case, soil degradation/desertification/acceleration of biosphere extermination. What makes us confident that we can manage this overuse with our current "laise faire" economic system? So caution if a technology upgrades "waste" into a "resource" - do we feed the profit monster or the wisdom owl?
When talking "scaling" of any technology, the road to hell is paved with good intentions that got short-sighted by human hubris. The technology “straw building” can only help us at scale, if we develop social systems that ensure regenerative soil management. Without these social systems, this technology will accelerate desertification even further - flash flooding, drought, heat islands, wildfires, biodiversity extinction. Technologies without wise management cause death. Again and again and again.
At scale, I can imagine many opportunities for “biomass farming for bioenergy and building resources”. We have an excess of humanure and CAFO manure, we can rebuild living spongy soil and the historic wetlands in Central Valley. But the focus of all farming should be on BIOSPHERE REGENERATION FIRST, in order to recover nature’s abundance. There’s no future for “overextractive farming in deserts at scale”. Not even if our technology was pushed with “good intentions toward nature”. We will slash nature further, if we don’t manage the wounds that "biomass extraction at scale" would leave under today's dominant soil management paradigm.
Im a bit pessimistic on how these will stand the test of time. Id personally go towards stone built homes that can live on for generations. Straw built seems like a nightmare for mold and insects anywhere on the east coast. Appreciate the film though, would love to see where it goes.
It's more durable than wood. The oldest straw house is over 100 years. Google it.
There have been straw bale houses on the east coast for decades; as long as the have good eaves and foundation, and have been plastered correctly, they do well. The oldest SB home is over 100 years old and is in Nebraska, so I hear. Once the straw is plastered, especially with a little borax thrown in the plaster, it's very insect, mold, and fire resistant. (Even without plaster it's very mouse resistant compared to a stick frame house, btw.) Stone build houses are difficult to build and not good in cold climates; too much mass and not enough insulation.
บ้านฟาง เจ๋งจริงๆ Awesome ❤😊✌️
Now that’s a change! Congrats for the good work. Awesome result.
Abrazos!
Load bearing strawbale house is even more sustainable since it doesn't use wood for the structure.
Absolutely brilliant superb
Very inspiring … per usual from Patagonia. 🤙🏼
I want to help! I’m a plumber and see so much waste on the job site every day.
Where do you live? There are straw bale projects all over the world looking for volunteers. I have also found that it's very difficult to find trades who will work with anything slightly different because the learning curve costs time/money, so trades with SB experience can charge a premium once they know what they're doing. I've also tried to hire trades as consultants so I'd do the work and they'd be paid to advise, but most don't want to do that kind of sit-down work. There are a lot of opportunities out there for anyone in the trades interested in SB.
Lol…a plumber sees so much waste on the jobsite 😂
@@mynamedoesnotmatter737 I see all kinds of waste 😂
Why? Why do these people only build massive houses? :/ There’s no mention of the R factor of bail. I know adobe is 2.
R-30 to R-35
Totally with you regarding the size of houses. We *must* learn to reduce. I'd like to say re. R-factor, though, that the current building industry has no concept of the value of mass when used correctly-- it doesn't factor into any code equations although there are many that dictate R values. When your temperature is a daily high/low (like the desert), mass rules supreme-- adobe houses are incredibly comfortable. When your climate is long cold winters, insulation outside and mass inside (to hold heat) is better. It's all about understanding local conditions.
Im sure the permitting was the real struggle. I would love this option in my homebuild.
Its not too bad, there is Appendix S of the IRC for strawbale construction in the US, which covers simple single story houses. These 2 houses fell outside of that, so we had to get creative. These are effectively framed with wood posts and beams and then infilled with strawbale to create the building envelope. It was effectively permitted as a wood structure w/ heavy non-structural walls
Interesting. Congrats.
Great feeling film 🙏
favorite character was the driver hands down
Let’s hope this picks up some serious momentum!!!
Amazing! What is the lifetime of a house like this you guys aim for?
Unfortunately didn’t show the difference to conventional construction. Only difference is straw instead of fiberglass for insulation, that’s all?
I spy Brooke and Jim from YoSAR, haha. Yeah this is a great option especially in arid regions. Hempcrete is another option for carbon neutral + low cost that is more decomposition resistant.
Beatyfull
My heart is singing🙏💚
I dig strawbale construction. Probably the most viable natural building technique. But, there is no free lunch. Removing the straw from the field removes organic material from the soil which holds on to water and nutrients for the next crop. Holding on to nutrients helps keep the runoff water clean.
Ideally, if we could all agree to limit our population growth, there would not be much demand for new housing. With lower demand for new housing, we could focus more on making existing housing more efficient.
I thought about that, too. Rice shouldn't be grown California, either, it's too dry there. And houses should be smaller. But currently rice *is* grown there, and they used to burn it off the fields instead of either discing it or baling it, so over the past 30 years they've learned something. Humans, like all other species, are too slow to adapt to the exponential change we've implemented.
Excellent!!
I love Patagonia
I love Corky
Taking a good thing and ruining it. Well done. 🤘
Very cool concept😊
What’s on the roof?
A lot of the hay and alfalfa grown in California on government subsidized water is exported to Saudi Arabia, China and Japan to feed their livestock
Awesome to see, Patagonia! We’re almost done building our “modern” strawbale home near Hood River Oregon (@oregonstrawcasa). It was a lifetime dream of ours, and it’s even more incredible than we hoped for - in every way.🤙
my dad was actually a straw bale, very cool
What happens when water gets into the walls?
If you've plastered it correctly with clay or lime plaster (not concrete stucco), the plaster swells when it gets wet, not allowing water into the bales in the first place. Any water that gets in is released as the outside environment dries out and the clay shrinks. It's very self-regulating if built correctly. If you build in a flood zone, though, the same thing happens that happens to any house during a flood, except that straw bale homes won't create toxic waste, they can just be pulled out, thrown on the garden, and new ones put in.
I want to drink some beers with that farmer and the truck driver. Those fellas have stories to tell. ,
Nice but the solution is also building smaller shelters!
wow sooo cool👏🏼👏🏼
Corky's rad. Guy's wife is hot. Your houses are sick. Thank you for sharing. I appreciate it.
Surely, more importantly is to not build individual family home buildings. Better use of land so that building are less already out and that buildings are larger and have a better volume to surface area are a start. Think about better land use
That's a multi storey building from straw in Germany. Google it.
Where does one, as your regular "joe schmoe" buy STRAW bales? Not hay bales. STRAW. Everything I find online is either hay of some sort or hay/straw. It seems it is all for feeding farm animals. Not only that, but locally at least, it's all 2 string hay/straw bales.
Hi humrod1852! I have no idea where you are from but here in Canada straw bales are available without hay mixed in, or if there is by chance any hay in the mix it's not enough to be a concern. I'm wondering if you're not in an area where crops like wheat, barley or flax are grown but rather a more livestock area where hay is harvested as feed for the animals. Also 2 string bales are more common here and not an issue when building. We built our 12x30 cabin using flax...which I don't recommend but there was a straw shortage due to drought the spring we were ready to put in the bales and could only find flax bales. If you're in an agricultural area drive around and look for 1...square bales on farms and 2 ...stop in and ask the farmer what he has and if he has any to sell...of course only if it's straw. I'll bet if he doesn't he certainly knows who does. Good Luck!
What do you put back into the Soil after removing the Biomass thar emerged from it? Straw is great for Building! But also to put back into the Soil! Wouldnt call that going to waste!
Rice straw decays *really* slowly, so farmers usually burn it. Yeah, I know. 😲
I'd like to build a straw bale dome, one day
...into a southfacing hilside! 😄
Straw is often dessicated with glyphosate?
Personally I was very careful that my straw (flax, in BC) was organic!
Hawk at 6:02
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Straw is one little step towards sustainability...
Building smaller houses would be even more sustainable instead of huge mansions!
The concept that the straw is a waste product is so wrong. The STRAW IS NOT A WASTE - it comes back to the soil and makes the hummus. Good farming practices should include carbon sequestration - you can store the carbon in the soil this way.
If you take straw from the field every year, you will deplete the farmland.
I wish they would start growing hemp
John Baldessari came back as a rice farmer?
This is literally just insulation. It’s not a straw bale house. It is still a wood framed house with concrete foundation. I fully support Patagonia but this is extremely stupid. The only thing it is replacing is fiberglass insulation which I’m all for but saying that it’s a straw bale house is literally false.
Not good if you have allergies.
Good luck but it won’t happen. It just won’t people will go to plastic and foam before straw. It’s a great creative idea but it won’t hold tight in society. If money is to be made they will make it. You can’t survive off the land in this day and age. You need a camera to film your videos to make money you need gasoline to run big equipment and youll use tons and tons of water in the process. Sustainable logging is where we need to start. Period
👓☕🙏
Feel like carbon sequestration shouldn’t be the leading justification for this.
This all plays as complete bullshit. Not anything from this video addresses the actual modern issues were facing.
From unsustainable building practices to the actual details of what were working with.
None of the faux issues they talked about afe going to be fixed with soem percentage of water reduction or some pat on the back for trying.
If we want to address the water crisis and the housing crisis and the transportation crisis... We have to remember that those are all one issue....
Im order to save water, people need to live close to the things they need
In order to have happy communities, people need to live near the things that make them happy.
ETC.... (ITS NOT a complex idea)
Greenwashing, blah blah
Maybe make bales out of old patagonia fleece
Have we learned nothing from the Three Little Pigs?
I would have liked to see more building and less propaganda
And then one day a cow shows up. And then another, and another. Munching, munching. Until they've eaten through a wall. Thinking 'the hay is always greener on the ither side of the wall.'. Soon, only wooden beams and furniture are all that remains.
.. The Termites come along and finish what the cows started. Now the wooden beams and furniture are also from the past.
A house completely dissolved in nature. Ready for a new cycle. No trace of any Pollution.
@@AACCcologne ah, but as the cows are munching they're belching out greenhouse gasses.
Cows don't eat straw. They'll eat hay. There's a difference.😉
@@richardhardegger1316 I'm no farmer. But Wikipedia says guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus) "It can be used as a long-term foraging grass if grazed consistently and if fertilized. It is well suited for cut-and-carry, a practice in which grass is harvested and brought to a ruminant animal in an enclosed system. Shade tolerance makes it suited to coexisting with trees in agroforestry. Some varieties have been used successfully for making silage and hay. The leaves contain good levels of protein, 6-25% depending on age and nitrogen supply."
Maybe this grasses suitability for sileage depends upon when it's harvested. I think it may need to be harvested while still green - before it turns to dry, flammable straw.
🥲
better have masks warriors
You need mud😂😂😂 Your missing mud and cow dung
Hempcrete is way better plus it's fire proof
Let me know when you need help.
Loved the video. We finished building our straw bale house in southern CA not quite 3 years ago. We had a 7 day workshop where people came and paid to learn how to build it. It was a lot of work and took us a couple of years. The permit process is tough especially with the fire department codes in wildfire areas. Probably would have been easier anywhere other than California.