Interior designer Marcia Wolff wanted a house that's energy-efficient, ecologically sensitive, fire-resistant and, above all, beautiful. So she chose a building material that might surprise some ...

Roberta Strickler Jan 19, 2007 Jan 19, 2007 Updated Sep 11, 2013 Straw bale houses of the western Nebraska prairies were comfortable places built where there were no trees or sod. In Lancaster County, ...

BROOKINGS, S.D. -- How far would you go to get a house that only costs $1.25 a day to heat in the winter? Better question: Would you live in a house built with straw bales? That idea, which began in ...

Dear Jim: I want a natural way to build an energy efficient house without plastics, foams, adhesives, etc. Straw bale houses seem to be natural. Is the straw bale construction efficient for low ...

The straw bale home of Elise Lang and her husband, Michael Pierce, was finished in 2001. SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAPH Winding under the canopy of trees shading the long driveway, goats and sheep peered at ...

When Gavin Tenold started in the construction industry in his early 20s, his sole focus was finding a job where he could make good money but not cut into precious skiing time. Little did he know these ...

While the idea of building with straw bales is not new, the eco-friendly approach to building has been gaining interest in the past 15 years. In the low-tech method, bales of straw are typically ...

Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook A University of Michigan green building class plans to unveil a sustainably-built, straw-bale ...

The story of our family’s straw bale home began in the mid-1970s, when my husband, Lytle Robinson, retired and wanted acreage to carry out his fantasy of “living off the land.” In keeping with that ...

In Clinton, Mary Ellen Blakey is building a straw house even the Big Bad Wolf couldn’t blow down. Nearly 10 years ago, Blakey read a magazine article about straw bale houses, which piqued her ...

"She had this vision for a straw-bale house, so I did a lot of reading and she got the California straw-bale codes and then we designed the house," Boeck said. Once the plans were drawn, Fletcher ...