Straw Bale Greenhouse

On August 18th & 19th Lee and Amy Cooper and the Northwoods Stewardship Center jointly offered an alternative building workshop - focused upon straw bale & passive solar construction. A small group of aspiring builders from far and near convened to learn and then apply their new skills first hand. Designer Lee Cooper first described the process behind his post and beam frame, and then the philosophy and practical methods of straw bale wall construction. With Lee guiding, the group quickly shaped, stacked, and staked the bales, breaking for a well-earned lunch at a beautiful 1,000 sq ft straw bale home owned by Lee's parents. Day two focused upon mixing and applying the stucco. Lee demonstrated the process with practiced ease, which the rest of us then struggled to imitate. Lee's greenhouse/canning room design is impressively low-impact and elegant in its simplicity. It draws upon local stone for the thermal mass footing, on-site softwood timber milled with a portable sawmill, and straw purchased from a neighbor farmer. The metal roofing, glass, and a small amount of cement will be the only non-local materials. Many thanks to the Coopers and the workshop participants. Clearly, straw bale is a very promising (and under-utilized) building technique in our northern climate.