Course: Planning a straw bale building

We're happy to announce our first course in straw bale building!

We thought it best to start with a course for architects and planners - this is where the process begins when you are looking to start a project. So we have invited Kuba from Amazonails (UK) to come over and share his extensive knowledge as a natural building architect with us.

This course is limited to a few participants only, but we still have one or two places available.

Check out the preliminary course program here

Booking: Paul Lynch 0442509663

An "old" timberframe in Västankvarn

An old ugly shed was disturbing the surroundings, so we were asked to turn it into something beautiful. We were not allowed to buy any materials but had to reuse everything from the old structure. Even the old nails were used again! We came up with an open timberframe construction with an old metal roof and nice old floor.

All pictures here.

Solid spruce terrace

We have just finished a nice terrace in Ingå. We used big stones as foundation points, 125 by 125 joists on the stones, and 150 by 32 spruce decking. We made sure to include a lot of air space everywhere in the construction, so as to avoid using impregnated timber.

As you can see from the pictures we included a nice framing detail to pull it all together and a pergola at the end to create a more cozy space.

Clay course in Slovakia

Paul and Charlie just returned home from a great natural building course in Slovakia. The course was part of the european Grundtvig programme. We picked up a lot of exciting clay building techniques from clay- and strawbale building pioneers Bill and Athena Steen. Especially the earthen floors were interesting and something we are looking forward to promote in Finland. Also clay relief carving will surely surface in one of our coming courses - it is amazing the kind of detailed, subtle or dramatic effects you can achieve with this technique!

Anyways, check out some impressions from the course right here