Parainen, Finland, 1997-2007
The design is based on straw bales and recycled windows, featuring sleeping spaces for four people, and the possibility to do simple cooking and stay in the house. It is a natural aspect of straw-bale construction to minimise openings in the walls.
The windows and doors of the house are therefore used as walls between the straw-bale walls which in themselves have no fenestration or openings. In order to minimise transportation, local materials are used as much as possible. The straw bales are made in the fields of the local farm and dried during the winter in a nearby barn.
The timber for the bearing wooden skeleton comes from the local forests, the foundations are made of unworked stone, and the recycled windows are from the old broadcloth mill in Littoinen. The tar is made in a small tar-burning pit a kilometre from the site, and the plaster is made of local clay, sand, straw and cow dung.
Three cottages (two of straw bales and one of straw clay blocks) and a service building are currently completed.