Hybrid round wood post+beam strawbale home
Timber+trowel built this home along with Cré natural building on Pender, with the help of the owner-builder family and some other subcontrators.
This post and beam home was built on an ICF foundation to enable a basement on the particularly sloped piece of land.
The post and beam frame was engineered for minimum plywood usage and seismic resistance as well to maximize the use of the logs produced in the clearing of the previously forested site in their round state. The use of knife plates was chosen by the engineer.
The walls are of straw bales pinned externally/internally with bamboo.
A special plaster recipe based on Kaolin clay was applied to the interior of the home, over base coats of local clay, and lime plaster mixed with type S lime was applied to the external base coats of local clay plaster.
This is an example of a natural build built by an owner builder with our help, while abiding with local building regulations and the use of a local engineer. It is a good example of how it is possible to build alternative homes within he conventional housing system— this house was later sold for a considerable profit— proving the concept of building your own natural home to be not only possible, but potentially profitable as an investment!
