Building with Earth: Design and Technology of a Sustainable Architecture

onto the centre of a cross made of two
bundles of straw. The ends of the bundles
are then lifted up around the loam, which
formed into bottle-like shapes and covered
with loam. The bottle is then held horizon-
tally, and the neck wound around the verti-
cal member, while the bottom is pressed
against the neck of the previous bottle.

Lightweight loam infill

Since they fail to provide sufficient thermal

insulation, the traditional techniques

described in earlier sections cannot be used

in modern construction in cold climates.

To provide thermal insulation, the frames

Inclined roofs filled with lightweight loam

(or the exterior covered with layers of com-

monly used thermal insulation materials).

This technique has the advantage of less

labour input and no shrinkage whatsoever.

Systems with greater thermal insulating

effects are shown in chapter 14, p. 108. The

lightweight additives are described in chap-

ter 4, pp. 48 to 51.

Infill with stranglehmand earth-

filled hoses

Modern solutions of filling the openings in

timber skeleton structures or timber-framed

houses with stranglehmor earth-filled

hoses are described in chapter 8, p. 75 and

chapter 10, p. 89.

82 Wet loam infill

9.7Timber frame wall

with infill of straw

loam rolls (German:

Wickel) (after Houben,

Guillaud, 1984)

9.8Making loam

rolls with straw (after

Vorhauer, 1979)

9.9 to 9.11Modern

method of making

straw loam rolls (BRL)

9 .12Traditional

method of making

straw loam bottles

9.7 9.9

9 .10

9.8 9 .12

9 .11