Renovation of existing buildings, to reach modern thermal standard, is a present and
future trend in eco-building. Straw- be it entire bales, insufflated loose Straw, or Straw-
based prefabricated panels- is an excellent material for reaching a high value of
insulation at reasonable cost to both our budget and environment. Today we Will
explore it’s use for both retrofitting old buildings and as “wrapping” for new buildings.

Tiziana Monterisi, Herbert Gruber

Tiziana Monterisi, Herbert Gruber

Open Space Technology empowers participants to shape the agenda, explore ideas,
and contribute their expertise. Experience dynamic and self-organizing sessions where
your personal passions set the course of the discussions. Together, we will delve into
the forefront of sustainable building, exchange knowledge, and foster collaborative
solutions. With the freedom to move between sessions and the opportunity to share
your insights, these sessions promise to be an inspiring platform to collectively
envision and shape the future of strawbale building. Be part of the conversation that
drives change! In this variant on open space technology, it will be possible to present
the topic you wish to discuss before the event, or spontaneously at the beginning of
the dynamic. Contact esbg2025@casasdepaja.org if you wish to reserve a space before
the event begins.

Some of the oldest existing straw bale buildings (over 100 years old) were built with
“small bales” in a technique now called “Nebraska” in honor of its origins. In this
building technique, the bales are laid like bricks, and crowned with a wall plate which
will distribute the weight of the roof beams over the walls. There are no posts, and the
straw walls carry the loads of the roof. In more recent times, this technique has been
adapted to building load-bearing “Nebraska style” walls with “Big Bales”- which being
larger and denser, permit the construction of bigger buildings. There are also more
recent techniques, which use the straw as the principle structural element, but place
the bales in a different way than the traditional ones… All of these techniques and
their variations can be considered using load-bearing straw elements. Are these
techniques still relevant in our modern, technological age? Come and explore this issue
with us, and learn to trust straw as one of the few existing materials with can be used
both structurally and as insultation.

presentation about new RFCP (french network) profesional rules and association

with Tom Rijven. Recent research and new details.

Barbara Jones, Tom Rijven, RFCP members

Often, in professional gatherings of this sort, more attention is given to a few “star”
projects, and ignore all the amazing work and inovations of lesser know players. We
don’t want this to happen in the world of “straw bale buildings.” This space is open to
all the participants in this event. The idea, is that any person wishing to share a specific
straw-based project (or projects) can do so. We will provide you with a template for
creating a poster (or posters) showing photos of each project, accompanied by a description. These posters will be posted on the walls of the exposition space on
Thursday or Friday, and on Saturday afternoon we will have a facilitated space in which
you can circulate, meeting up with the project makers to ask them questions, and
hopefully to plant seeds for future collaborations. It may be possible to present the
building in video format as well. Contact esbg2025@casasdepaja.org for more
information.

Here in Spain, the RCP (Spanish Straw Building Network) has been doing straw bale
Olympics at our events for many years (see our Olympics from 2016 – from min. 2:10)
and 2022; we got the idea from the Colorado Straw Bale Olympics of 2012. It will be a
great time to laugh and play together. Hope to see you there!

we will visit 2-4 houses. Details will be published before registration has been opened.