rammed earth walls around strawbales

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I read about this rammed earth house in Ontario, In rural Ontario, a high-tech home built of low-tech dirt, and I got thinking about insulation for this kind of construction. It is built as a sandwich 6 inches of polyisocyanurate between 6 inches of compressed earth on each side, in and out. The walls look gorgeous. At a R-7 per inch, polyiso is good insulation, 6'" x 7 =R 42, but to me, couldn't something more natural be used? How about a rammed earth sandwich that surrounds a strawbale? Strawbales have a range of R-values, but let's say 1.5. An 18" thick bale has an R value of 27, but at a much lower price than all that polyiso. Of course the wall nearly doubles in thickness, but those deep window seats would be awesome.

close up of a bedroom wall from the article

exterior shot

in this construction shot you can see the polyiso between the earth walls

I think this looks gorgeous.
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