Straw Homes
The challenge of meeting the basic human needs for food and shelter are magnified beyond comprehension when it involves the 1.3 billion people of China. The growing need for housing, especially in rural areas, is being met in a unique way by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in China. With limited materials and the need for sustainability, it means there’s still a place for “old” technology.
In 1999, the central government of China moved to limit the use of clay bricks in housing construction in order to protect swathes of farmland useful for food production. The usual alternatives to clay bricks have been concrete and steel, but ADRA has developed a third option. It has implemented the use of a construction material more in tune with the environment and the technology available in remote areas: straw-bale housing.
The ADRA project is supported by the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation and wider ADRA network in Canada and the US, and also Australia from 2005.
The Hong Kong-based ADRA–China director, Arthur Schwarz, says the technique was born out of pioneering necessity in the US sand-belt plains of Nebraska in the late 1800s. “Grass sod used in other places was out, because the soil was too sandy, and timber was scarce. So they made do with what they had,” he says. “And what they had was a lot of straw!”
The straw baler, which binds straw into bales, turned out to be effective in creating building blocks. “I suppose they originally thought it’d do until they could build something more permanent,” he says. “But they found the homes to be comfortable and quiet, and cooler in the summer and warmer in winter. Above all, they were durable when protected from moisture and subsequent rot.” In fact, some homes have stood for 100 years.
It is such houses that ADRA is constructing in China—some 600 so far, with more to follow. In China, the basic raw material—straw—comes free with every rice harvest. The straw is a waste product that normally gets burned, contributing to air pollution, or left to rot.
Most of the straw homes have been built in China’s north-west region, where many people have been trained in construction techniques. The ADRA project also seeks to train local labourers, designers and managers in construction techniques. “Beyond that we seek to train trainers in straw-bale technology and create a demand for straw-bale homes,” says Mr Schwarz. “We are continuing worker training for a village in Liaoning Province that wants to build their own straw-bale houses and institute other environmentally friendly innovations.”
Mr Schwarz says the material is ideal for the climate, with insulating qualities double that required in his cold, native Canada, with energy savings of up to 70 per cent of typical village houses. The houses are built with simple post-and-rail techniques, then once the bales are in place, they are covered with plaster, a readily available material that must be applied in a certain way if the home is to be weatherproof.
The plastering is the trickiest part of the operation, so special training is given in the technique because the locals, who’ve practised plastering for centuries, often feel they’ve got nothing more to learn.
But with the job done right, the home will last, even though a little cracking appears from time to time. ADRA has a long list of satisfied customers from as far away as Inner Mongolia. So built right, the houses do last, and are strong enough to keep out much more than the big, bad winter wolf blowing the breath of the frozen northern steppe of midwinter.
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