The amazing plaster machine in action pumping clay slip mixture onto north side of 1st cottage.
STRAWBALE WORKSHOP Words and photos by Fraser and Faith Gould
W
e voyaged from Fiordland in the South, from Puhoi in the North and everywhere in between to converge in the beautiful Hawkes Bay for an autumn barn raising. Well, bale raising; in eight days we built a 10m2 straw bale room with joinery installed, base plaster applied and an earthen floor laid. We attended several lectures, visited local straw bale houses and learnt pretty much everything we needed to know to embark upon our own straw bale building projects.
We were a diverse group: ambitious owner builders, high-end architects, existing earth and conventional builders, with an age range of three months to 70 years! We had come from all over the world, and as we found, the course had something to offer all of us. The course was organised by Sol Design. Sven Johnston travelled from Geraldine to run the workshop. Pat Mawson hosted us all on site, taught, and most importantly provided the experimental buildings on which we could learn
EARTHBUILDING MAGAZINE - www.earthbuilding.org.nz
which were two 10m2 rooms of the same design, one for each of his boys. We were building a new 10m2 room for his youngest son (first cottage) but a workshop had been hosted here previously so there was already a second building on which we could practice finishing plaster coats. Luckily for us the heavy and dirty work of foundations was completed before we arrived. The stem walls were experimental and constructed of earthbags, secured to each other with
SPRING 2020
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