Sustainable Design Stacks Up

Can houses be built out of straw? Before you scoff, a pair of Parkville homeowners did just that–and explain how a straw-bale home can be both an economical and environmentally friendly decision–as featured in a recent article in Kansas City Homes & Gardens.

According to the article, straw bales “stack up” in many ways: they are “economical, allow the walls to breath, are biodegradable, durable over time and easy to maintain.”

They can also be aesthetically pleasing too (see the Parkville home, below).

According to the homeowner, it was our modern approach to building that inspired his straw-bale home: “We come up with more and more ways to seal out the natural environment and we end up trapping poor quality air indoors and moisture inside our walls, so the idea of building a more simple and natural type of wall construction really appealed to me,” he says.

Schutte Lumber supplied the Douglas Fir for the wood structure, floors and ceilings. Check out more of Andrea Darr’s article, “The Last Straw“.