Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Straw Bale?

[Catherine Harper (tylik]

On Wed, 29 Apr 1998, Rob Sandelin wrote:

> The long term viability of straw as a building material is not very clear. I 
> am wary of straw bale enthusiasts because they consistently seem in denial 
> about many of the problems of straw bale, gloss over them as if they were not 
> real, and go on and on about it.  If you are in a desert climate, It might be 
> a good idea. If you are in a wet, maritime climate, in my opinion, you would 
> be foolish to mess with straw bales for anything other than an outbuilding.

Have people in the cohousing community looked into such solutions as cob? 
I've heard mostly talk of strawbale.  Still has disadvantages as well as
advantages, but seems more generally suited to the maritime climate. 
(I've been thinking of building us a little cob shed back behind our house
just to check it out...) 

                                Catherine