The is a springtime view of my straw bale house that is featured in the “Building With Awareness: The Construction of a Hybrid Home” DVD and book. Click the image for a larger view.

While riding my recumbent bicycle home from the office the other day, I was caught by the reflections in my neighbor’s flooded field. They recently planted a citrus orchard and garden and were irrigating late in the day. I grabbed my camera to capture the soft glow of a typical New Mexico sunset.

When living in a straw bale home, Spring is the time to remove the insulation panels from the skylights (to prevent heat loss in winter) and to turn off the pilot light of the backup radiant-floor heating system (despite some nights that still dip into the 30’s, the home does not need backup heat at this time of year). The rainwater cistern is 80% full due to recent spring rains. This will supply enough non-potable water until the summer monsoon season begins in a few months. The photovoltaic electrical system generates more electricity in the Spring and Fall due to the fixed angle of the PV panels to the sun. It is also time to put the window screens back up as they are removed every Fall to maximize the amount of heat entering the windows from the low-angled winter sun.

The warm earthen tones of the home’s walls come from the mud plaster finish. The small workshop to the right is made of adobe bricks. These materials are very green as they come from the earth itself—with minimal processing.

If you would like to see how this green home was built, pick up a copy of the “Building With Awareness” DVD video and book combo. It is available at a bookstore near you and online. “Building With Awareness” is beautifully photographed and covers the complete design and construction process of building green with straw bale, adobe, and other natural materials. The purchase of our DVD video and book helps to support this blog and website on green building.

Article and photo by Ted Owens
You are welcome to use this photo on your website (for non-commercial use) as long as the photo is not altered in any way and that you link it back to http://www.buildingwithawareness.com

Do you want a hole in the wall for a window, or a place within the room to relax? Literally and figuratively, this decision is an opportunity for adding depth to your living space. Straw bale walls are thick, something that would be prohibitively expensive to achieve with most other building materials. Thick walls have the capacity to create spaces that are both separate from, and part of, the larger room. 

This window space is not in a straw bale house, although the effect would be the same. Iford Manor was the home of English architect and garden designer Harold Peto (1854-1933). This window has become a place within the larger room, defined by its own walls, floor, and ceiling. The depth of the side walls reflect a soft warm glow deep within the room—something that does not happen with a typical 6-inch-thick wood frame wall. Honey-colored walls, which are probably a lime plaster, have a subtlety of hues and values that wall paint can only dream of. 

It is the window detailing itself that truly makes the space. The woodwork continues the plane and boundary of the room, thus making a soft divide between the inside and outside. Solid glass alone would be harsh as the interior would just fall into a bright void. The dappled pattern softens the contrast ratio between the indoors and outdoors while still permitting a view. The opening is divided both vertically and horizontally, and those spaces are further subdivided into circular patterns of light and dark. It is this multilayering of detail that adds visual interest. The transitions from surface to surface are soft—soft angles, soft edges, and soft lines. This gives an inviting feel to the space because the window was thought of as a place.

post: Ted Owens
photo: Neosnaps

The simplicity of stepping stones across a pond in a Japanese garden.

By observing the natural form of the world around us, and combining it with the human-envisioned form of our creativity, we get what I would consider the essence of natural building and green design. It is knowing when to throw the level and steel tape to the side and create strictly from our intuition. It is taking inspiration from nature while inserting a more formalized pattern upon it. This balance, when done with care, is what makes something beautiful.

article by Ted Owens      photo: Simon Bisson