The Build Well project, a project of the Ecological Building Network, has produced a stunning new video, featuring long time straw bale construction advocate and structural engineer, Bruce King, as the host and narrator. Well worth a watch, this short documentary talks about the history of straw bale construction and the use of straw as a building material. It goes on to showcase the straw bale building revival in various new forms — including straw structural insulated panels (S-SIPS) — and the future of building with straw and other plant and bio based materials, including hemp and sheep’s wool.
These natural plant and animal based products reduce the carbon impact of our buildings by harnessing nature’s own processes, plus they create healthy buildings for the people crafting them and the people living in them. A bio-based building revolution would be one of the fastest ways to draw down atmospheric carbon and help reduce the impacts of climate change! Bruce believes that we can turn the built environment into “a carbon absorber within a generation.” So let’s get to work, together!