The purpose of this non-commercial site is to network with those who are interested in strawbale building and spark a dialogue about strawbale house designs. This innovative building method is exploding in popularity and there is enormous potential to provide affordable homes for all of humanity, all without damaging our environment.
This site is about unique small house plans, small home plans, floor plans, custom plans, architecture, small house designs, building green eco-friendly homes, sustainable building, blueprints for affordable homes — all built with straw bales. All styles are included: country, cottage, bungalow, traditional, modern (contemporary), mountain, beach, cabins and other popular styles. Emergency shelter plans are free. For those not familiar with straw-bale construction, please check out my companion site at www.GRISB.org.
So here is what I am thinking. House plans can often be improved with fresh perspectives, so instead of investing hundreds of hours in creating polished looking plans that may have weaknesses, I am posting these conceptual drawings to gather reader comments and then take the designs to the next level. Yes, it’s a somewhat unusual approach… but so is strawbale building. The ultimate goal is to develop finished plans of these small, affordable and sustainable houses and make them available in the near future.
If you’d like to jump right in and start browsing house plans, click on Categories in the menu on the right.
Here’s a brief overview of my designs. A typical 300-800 sq.ft. house made of natural building materials could be built by a DIY builder for about $3,000-$10,000 (about $10/sq.ft.) and have the following features:
– gravel-filled earthbags on a rubble trench foundation (with insulating fill material such as perlite or scoria in cold climates)
– straw bale walls, either load bearing or post and beam, depending on the design
– earth-berming for improved energy performance (with earthbag used below grade, straw bales above)
– earth, stone or recycled brick floors
– earth or lime plaster
– affordable roof options such as spiral (reciprocal) roofs, green roofs, poles, pallet trusses, metal roofing for collecting rainwater, thatch, etc.
– R-45 roof insulation (cellulose, wool, cotton, rice hulls…)
– small diameter, sustainably harvested wood
– non-toxic finishes and materials for cabinets, etc.
– wood stove
– energy-efficient windows, doors and appliances, such as solar or on-demand water heating, etc.
– passive solar design
– recycled materials throughout (sinks, tubs, hardware, tile, shelving, etc.)
For readers who are new to the natural building movement, here are a few links to show what others have done using straw bales, earthbags and other low-cost natural building methods:
– Simon Dale, Low Impact Woodland Home, Pembrokeshire, UK: Reminiscent of a Hobbit house, this incredibly beautiful home offers inspiration for those seeking a simpler, better way of living and building.
– EarthDome House at TerraSante Village, Tucson, Arizona: This small, 12′ dome is right at home in the desert. It is made of earthbags with a ferrocement roof insulated with recycled styrofoam.
– Tony Wrench and Jane Faith, That Roundhouse, West Wales: Author Tony Wrench and his partner have enjoyed the good life in their sod-covered roundhouse for many years. They have become internationally recognized champions for their efforts to create more equitable housing rights.
– Pedro and Christina, House Alive, cob house in Xipolite, Mexico: House Alive does great work through their workshops and seminars. This particular structure demonstrates the use of cob and thatch to make a beautiful, affordable home in Mexico.
– Simone Swan, adobe vault in Presidio, Texas: Trained under the renowned Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, Simone Swan carries on the timeless tradition of building vaults and domes of earth. The vault shown on this web page could be built almost for free by an owner-builder (excluding mechanicals, permits, etc).
– Penny Livingston, straw bale vault, Permaculture Institute of Northern California: This vault utilizes straw bales for both the walls and roof. This minimizes materials and labor, and creates a superinsulated structure.
– Akio Inoue, earthbag domes, Tenri, Japan: One of the most experienced and knowledgeable earthbag builders, Professor Inoue has completed at least 23 earthbag buildings in 7 countries.
– Khimsar Sand Dunes Village, adobe guesthouses, Africa: These strikingly beautiful guesthouses are based on centuries-old indigenous building techniques that enable them to blend in to the environment seamlessly. See also this link.
– Loei Leela Wadee Resort, adobe vault and thatch roof in Loei, Thailand: Simple yet elegant, these guesthouses are designed to stay cool in the summer and comfortable in the winter.
Here’s a partial list of unique eco-friendly structures and features being developed:
First of all, strawbale houses can be made in any shape imaginable, and so I am including round and rectangular houses, polygonal (hexgonal, octagonal, etc.) and organic shaped houses with curved walls.
There are earth-sheltered houses, starter houses, houses with lofts, houses for urban and rural areas, as well as homes for hot, mild, cold, dry and rainy climates.
Other plans are for backyard offices/studios below the size required for a building permit, resort rentals, guesthouses, modern offset gable (clerestory) designs, apartments, energy efficient designs such as zero energy houses, courtyard designs, greenhouses, outdoor kitchens, disaster-resistant houses, hidden rooms, and several cool pantries that require no electricity for cooling.
I’ve tried to cover all the most popular styles, such as cabins, bungalows, cottages, country houses, beach, craftsman style, mountain and other vacation homes, New England traditional style and Polynesian.
More specifically there is a spiral house, tower house, shophouse, bioshelter, zero energy house, strawbale vaults, octagonal house, earthbag shop, survival shelters, wilderness cabin, beach house, woodland house, barrel vaulted shop, oval shop, garage with 2nd floor apartment. I’ve also included a roundhouse with spiraled pole roof, 2-story roundhouse, duplex, solar ranch house, chalet, Habitat house, narrow lot house, farmhouse, cruck house, bunkhouse, self sufficient homestead house, hermitage, summer kitchen, emergency shelter plans and more.
These plans will be added gradually over the next few months as time permits, so please keep checking back. If you have a special request, please leave a comment.
To browse house plans, click on Categories in the menu on the right.
I look forward to reading your comments!
From Bill and Marla:
We’re interested in the Mountain Cottage plan and building it with SB’s. Can you tell us if your plans are post & beam or load bearing walls? We’d need post & beam for our area (Indiana). Also, can you tell us the approx interior dimensions?
Owen: Yes, I can draw it as post and beam. That’s why I only show preliminary drawings on my website. This allows me to modify each plan to customer’s needs. I’ll work with you to get it just the way you want.
Interior measurements: Exterior walls are 18″ thick, so deduct 36″ from the footprint = 22′ x 29′.
Hi Owen, Thanks for the great website. I’m trying to find out where I can legally build a small load bearing strawbale house. Any ideas how to find that out (specifically I’m looking in the US and especially in CA, OR, NV, WA and Wisconsin)? And short of that, do you know how to find out what the codes are in a given area re building with strawbale or cob? Thanks for your help! Katy
Load bearing designs will only be accepted in remote rural areas with few or no building codes. It’s ridiculous, but that’s the way things are in the U.S.
So that rules out most or probably all the west coast. There could be pockets up in the mountains that allow this, but I doubt it.
Nevada should be real easy. Other than that, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and probably Idaho are good choices. Texas is very lenient.
I don’t know of a central source for checking codes. You’ll have to check county by county. Where I’m from the building department is called Regional Building Authority.
Maybe you could start a blog about this?? (WordPress blogs are free and easy to use.) I guarantee you it will be very popular. Lots of people want to know where they can build low cost alternative structures.
Here’s an interesting blog by a sympathetic building official: http://sustainablebuildingcodes.blogspot.com/
Hi Owen,
First of all thanks so much for all the great info. I am new to the idea of straw bale home building, but I am also very interested. Are the interior walls made of straw bales also?
Most interior walls are wood framed to save space and make it easy to run plumbing and electrical. Some walls made with adobes, CEBs, stone, etc. are used to increase thermal mass. These are most common around wood stoves to retain heat. Straw bale interior walls are almost never used because they take up too much space.
I am looking for a strawbale house plan that has large, like 20 X 18, a split bedroom plan with master on one side and 4 other bedrooms on the other. 2 bedrooms to share bath and others with their own baths with shower, no tub. Master 14X16 with 2 separate closets, bath with stacker washer dryer in the bath room, large shower that is walk, wheelchair accessible, 2 separate sinks and toilet away from the sinks, no tub. 3 car garage. So do you have anything like that and if so, how affordable are your plans? Thanks, Judy
Hi Judy. I do custom plans. Something like this would cost about $500. Email: strawhouses AT yahoo.com
Hi Owen,
I’ve just been looking at your site. Really creative ideas. My husband and I have previously designed a solar passive house which we have enjoyed living in for the last 2.5 years. It has the large and clerestory windows to the north because the house is in an eastern Melbourne suburb of Victoria, Australia.
I’m thinking of your Saltbox style for another block.
Is it really cost effective to go up? (With scaffolding costs etc.)
Happy planning. Good on you.
All the best from Elizabeth
Thanks, Elizabeth. Is it more cost effective to go up instead of out? Most building professionals would say yes. But it really depends where you live. In high density areas, where land is more expensive, then it makes more sense to build up. The scale gradually tips as you have more room and land is less expensive. However, there are still those who say multi-story is always less expensive due to foundation and roofing costs. The most definitive answer can be determined by careful analysis of all costs in a spreadsheet.
I am undeniably thankful to you for providing us with this invaluable critical info. My spouse and I are unquestionably grateful, entirely the data we needed.
Thanks for the informative article, it was a good read and I hope its ok that I share this with some facebook friends. Thanks.
Hi
What is the maximum area squared, for a load bearing strawbale building?
Great website…
Cheers
Dermot
Check the codes where you live. But if there are no codes, then there isn’t necessarily a square foot limit. Imagine a very long building that’s say 24′ wide. As long as you don’t exceed the bearing capacity of the bales then the building can be as long as you want, assuming you provide adequate intermediate bracing with shear walls or buttresses.
So the key is bearing capacity, which is related to bale density, span, roof loads, etc. and not exceeding the maximum unsupported wall length, which is somewhere around 25′. Be careful not to create too many openings or overly large openings.
Owen, I have a 800 sf deisgn for adobe that I would like to have translated into starwbale. I need to have it done to New Mexico Starwbale Code, and it needs to be stamped by a NM Licensed Architect/Engineer. Can you do this, and what are your fees?
Sincerely,
Brad Welton
magdalena, NM
Yes. Please email me from the About Us page above and we’ll discuss the details.
Hi Owen,
I am planning to build on my cotton farm in Lubbock, Texas. I have been reading about SB construction and have a friend that is building one in New Mexico. An important question that I have is, how strong these houses are, once built. I live in a very high wind and tornado area.
Thank you,
Shere
They can be as strong as any other house if built correctly. Strawbale has passed at least one seismic shake table test (Nevada). Google it. Options for increasing strength include pinning, mesh on both sides of walls tied together, and post and beam. Use strong hurricane ties so your roof doesn’t blow off.
I have built a 5000 sq.ft.home north of Slaton. No problem with high winds. Tornados,best to go underground if this really worries you. The strawbale house is the only way to build as far as I’m concerned.
Send us photos and brief project description and maybe we’ll put it on our Natural Building Blog http://naturalbuildingblog.com/
Hi Ron, I sure wish I had heard from you earlier. My house will be finished in January. I couldn’t find anyone to help me build it with straw bale. Dang!
Do you mind if I quote a few of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your webpage? My blog site is in the very same area of interest as yours and my visitors would definitely benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this alright with you. Thanks!
You don’t need permission to use short quotes from people if you provide links to the sources. But thanks for asking.
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This would be good reference for alternative housing in the Philippines, especially in the rural areas. I’ve been looking for small house designs until I found this blog.