pre-fab strawbale timber frame

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I do have a weakness for strawbale construction. They are like big lego blocks which one can stack into a house you can live in. Even I can build with legos. Because they are bigger, they can make a wall quicker than earthbags, with insulation properties, unlike earth alone. There is some good work being done on the Pine Ridge Reservation with strawbale round homes, look at these beautiful homes. One difficulty is the need to keep them from getting wet though. One solution is having large work parties, who can bang it out over a few days. Another solution is to pre-fabricate straw bale walls under a roof, then deliver them to the home site and slap them together in a couple days, which ModCell in the UK has developed. They build a timberframe, cram the bales in tight, then spray on a lime plaster on both sides. This wall frame is then stuck together, like a SIPs panel, but unlike a SIP, it's all natural and massive, like 2000 lbs a panel. NatureBuilt in Ontario, Canada has a similar product and more recent project photos. Also, their FAQ is in non-metric units for us clueless Americans. This site has details on a prototype home in Canada.

One of the important concepts of green construction is to use local materials. If I don't have access to the right earth mixture in my neck of the woods, why not use the wood in the woods and hay from the farms around here instead?

Below is a short video of one of these Canadian homes under construction with the pre-fab strawbale walls.
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