All Straw House
All Straw House (under construction)
All Straw House, developed in collaboration with Guy Nordenson and Associates with support from Princeton University’s Sustainability of our Planet fund, advances straw construction with a novel tectonic system of cutting, stacking, and compressing highly compacted straw boards. Roughly three times the density of straw bales, it is capable of performing simultaneously as structure, insulation, and interior finish. At an approximate density of 370kg/m3, it is also pest and fire resistant.
A ubiquitous, affordable, and rapidly growing byproduct of grain agriculture, straw sequesters carbon at a global scale, making it an ideal, healthy, regenerative biomaterial for sustainable construction that can have an impact.
All Straw House was prefabricated over two months at Princeton’s Architecture Lab, with the assistance of a dedicated team of student researchers. Driven by the ethos of learning-by-doing, our approach hybridizes traditional materials with innovative architectural design.
33 prefabricated thatch panels provide a robust rainscreen. Each panel overlaps the one below by 21 inches. They are smoothed together to form a continuous coat, with the windowsill elongated to similarly cover the tapered thatch underneath. Tens of thousands of linear reeds form this 6 to 8 inch thickness, which is visible as a field of points. Inside, the 111 layers of the straw panels are exposed as a smooth surface, with wood ring beams every 22 layers, providing lateral stability. Tadelakt plaster is applied directly to the straw for a waterproof backsplash around the walnut sink.
The geometry of the house is a product of its materials: the limits of corbeling the straw panels and the required slope for thatch to drain, with walls and roof combined into one material assembly. Critical of the inherited assumptions of modernism, the prototypical All Straw House advances new straw tectonics toward a more regenerative, biogenic future.
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Credits
LTL Architects: Principals: Paul Lewis (co Principal Investigator), Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis | Project Managers and Senior Researchers: Patty Hazle, Jocelyn Beausire | Team: Kyle Reich, Michelle Schneider, Hongming Bruce Liang
Guy Nordenson and Associates: Guy Nordenson (co Principal Investigator), Alexandra Steelman
Princeton Research Assistants: Brooklyn Fraser, Mariana Garcia Rendon, Nolan Hill, Joyce Kim, Chenkun Ma, Vivi Lu, Ally Robertson, Moyu Yamaguchi
Support: Princeton Sustainability of our Planet Fund, Princeton School of Architecture, High Meadows Environmental Institute
Materials: Durra Panel, Beck Fastening, McGhee + Co. Roof Thatchers