Straw Bale Construction and the Building Department

0By Linda Reeder, AIA, LEED AP

0Architects seeking to design straw bale structures in locations where the local or state building code doesn’t address straw bale construction can benefit from a few of these tips. They are designed to help achieve building department approval:

0• Find a straw bale building code from another locality and follow it. Meet with the building department early to explain the selection and get the department on board. California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon codes address straw bale construction, as do local codes for Austin, Texas; Boulder and Cortex, Colorado; and Tucson and Pima counties in Arizona. Some are available online.

0• Use straw bales as non-load-bearing infill, not as structure. This will minimize safety concerns.

0• Research testing data on fire resistance and provide copies to the building department. One source for test results is the Ecological Building Network, www.ecobuildnetwork.org/strawbale.htm. The Last Straw: The International Quarterly Journal of Straw Bale and Natural Building has similar resources at www.thelaststraw.org/resources/rg06/code.html. Testing data can also be used to allay concerns of the owner’s insurer.

0• Share any additional research, including other state’s straw bale codes, books on straw bale design and construction, and relevant websites, with local building officials.

0Meeting with the local building department early and repeatedly will ease the approval process. “Get [building officials] involved in your plans early, involve them as team members and educate,” advised Timothy C. Gray, AIA of Ball State University’s architecture department. With his students, Gray designed and built a straw bale Eco-Center for the Muncie, Indiana campus using the Austin city code. “The use of the Austin code to support our planning was a great help to us. We not only used the code but demonstrated to the officials how the building conformed. We found all the officials to be cautious but supportive of our plans,” Gray added.

0For more on the Eco-Center, see Gray’s paper at http://soloso.aia.org/eKnowledge/AIAP016766.

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0Keywords: Building performance, Sustainability, Sustainable design knowledge, Building envelope, Straw bale, Building officials, Codes, Building components, Administrative requirements, Tip