The tiny cottage is load-bearing straw bale house
with a sleeping loft under the straw thatched roof and earthen
plastered walls.
It stands on a stone footing, which in turn stands
on a drained gravel trench. The walls were made of tightly packed
bales of straw stacked and sandwiched between hazel branches for
stability. A 'ladder' wall plate was placed on top of the wall and
the structure was compressed with straps which are tied to anchor
points in the foundation.
The timbers for the roof structure were taken from
the local forest. The roof covering was made by the local
crafts-man, Henryk Romanowski using wheat straw thatch. The walls
were plastered with an earthen clay plaster outside and in, which
leaves a beautiful finish of curved and sculpted walls. Here are some design details and construction
pictures of the
straw bale house on Paulina's website.
Paulina teaches all over the world. Here are her
next
natural building workshops. |