Low-tech, inexpensive straw-bale construction provides warm, seismically safe buildings in rural China
Inhabitants of northeastern China contend with severe cold and poverty as well as violent seismic activity. In collaboration with One World Designs, an architecture firm dedicated to sustainable building, Tipping Mar helped design straw-bale residential buildings, which provide an affordable, warmer, and safer alternative to the region’s conventional brick structures. The advantages are many: while straw is cheap and readily available, straw-bale construction provides higher seismic resistance and exceptional thermal insulation. Nonetheless, with a budget of $4 per square foot, the project required wise use of resources.
The simple duplexes are constructed by local technical teams with aesthetic input from the residents. Although the completed duplexes look similar to the unreinforced brick homes native to the area, they are so well insulated that they consume only half as much heating coal. This reduction in coal consumption has resulted in significant energy savings and also a lower occurrence of related respiratory illnesses. Additionally, minimizing the use of bricks in construction helps preserve precious topsoil and conserves energy.
The project, which was supported by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and the Chinese Center for Environmentally Sustainable Technology Transfer, has built more than 600 houses to date in five Chinese provinces. It was honored in 2005 with a World Habitat Awards from the Building and Social Housing Foundation.
The housing project was an extension of prior work done by the same design team for a straw-bale school building to replace one of many schools destroyed by an earthquake in 1998. The gravity loads for the school were carried by traditional steel trusses and columns. The straw-bale walls provided the seismic resistance in this active seismic region, as well as exceptional thermal insulation from the cold climate.