With the rising costs of oil, the acquisition and transportation of building materials, especially lumber, has become exorbitantly expensive. And as if our forests weren’t being taxed enough, the amount of lumber that will be required to rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding regions, as well as to continue stocking the current normal demand, is mind boggling. So over the past several weeks I’ve found myself, as a straw bale designer,coming back to the practicality of the load bearing straw bale system. Load-Bearing is the original system employed by the early builders in western Nebraska back in the late 1800’s. It was done as a necessity by these former builders because of the lack of timber in the region. Basically, the bales are stacked in a running bond around the perimeter, leaving holes for windows and doors, which are framed out with bucks, or boxes. This is all sandwiched between the bottom sill plate and a box beam top plate, placed on top of the wall. It is then compressed between these plates with wire or strapping. The top plate is then leveled around the perimeter, by tightening or loosening the compression mechanism. At this point the roof framing is ready to be built. Both sides of the straw bales can be pinned with bamboo or not, and then finished with 1” to 1-1/2” of plasterer. As with any system of building, there are many advantages and disadvantages involved. Within this, the overall practicality of the system must be addressed. Choosing a system because it’s “cool” is not altogether practical. Choosing a system that utilizes local and renewable materials is much more right on. Furthermore, choosing a system that addresses a national…even global issue, such as material availability and sustainability, puts us on a track of accountability and responsibility that we seem to have derailed off of some time ago. It is dealing with real problems with real solutions. Building with load-bearing straw bale walls as opposed to post and beam or even conventional construction, can reduce up to 50% of linear board feet. If well thought out and designed, this reduction can even be higher. This is a tremendous amount of wood especially if you consider this at a large scale. Within this window of practicality, one must also consider whether this system belongs. Issues of climate, such as excessive rain, snow, temperature, seismic conditions, etc. must be addressed, as well as material and skilled labor availability. In other words, building a straw bale house in the humid tropics is just as silly as building stick framed house in the middle of the grain fields. The load-bearing straw bale system is nothing new. It is a simple system that was organically born out of necessity. The necessity for shelter by the early settlers in the Midwest region who utilized what they had at hand. For many it seems new because there is not a lot of talk about it and the majority of straw bale structures today tend to be post and beam. There are many who think that load-bearing structures are not allowed. The truth is that yes, it varies by local codes but that can change. Check your local codes to find out what exactly it does state. There are many who have devoted a lot of time to further the efforts of implementing this system into the code books. A great resource and pioneer for this is Bruce King and the Ecological Building Network. www.ecobuildnetwork.org There is a lot of information including reports and testing results to be found. Much of it can be used to further these changes to the national and global livel. With the wake up call once again incited by much of the disasters in the past few months, as well as the growing oil crisis, the time has come for us to re-evaluate the way we expand, to shelter the growing masses. Up until now the environment has not been a notable consultant within the planning stages. Huge loss of life, livelihood, and natural beauty will continue, if we continue the practice of developing and building with the total disregard for nature’s processes. Load-bearing straw bale building is yet a small building block among many, that offers a real solution to this issue, and it is one that we as a movement must support and exemplify for the inhabitants of tomorrow.