Environmental Engineering Reference
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bale as an inferior and cheap mode of building, nothing to be proud of.
Building showplaces with straw bale lends it the credibility that makes it
attractive to people in all income ranges.
Many of the earliest straw-bale homes in the Austin area were built in
locations that builders refer to as “off the grid.”This meant they were out-
side city or town limits, often in unincorporated areas where building codes
did not apply and city amenities such as power, sewer, and water lines were
not available. For early innovation and experimentation, this was advanta-
geous, as no building codes for straw-bale building existed and so the tech-
nique was not subject to codes designed for timber building. However, for
straw-bale building to move into the mainstream, codes were necessary.
Straw-bale activists realized this and started working on codes in the 1980s,
not only to allow straw-bale building to take place but also for at least two
other significant reasons. First, cognizant that the budding solar energy
movement had been set back by unskilled and sometimes unscrupulous
entrepreneurs who promoted inferior and sometimes non-functional solar-
powered technology, and incorrect or misleading information, straw-bale
activists wanted to ensure that those who employed straw-bale building
technology were held to a standard that would ensure the success of the
technique and hence its overall reputation. Second, bank loans and insur-
ance availability are tied to building code requirements.
BUILDING CODES: A CULTURE OF THEIR OWN
Serving as guest editor for a 1996 issue of The Last Straw (the primary
printed medium for exchange of information in the straw-bale building
movement) that focused on moving straw-bale building techniques into the
mainstream, David Bainbridge acknowledged “the wisdom of committing
to a cooperative approach to dealing with building code issues.” Bain-
bridge's technical training is in engineering. He often opens his presenta-
tions with slides of the steel-and-glass buildings he helped build in the past,
stating “I have a lot of bad karma to make up for.” His reference is to the
wasteful building practices of the contemporary building industry and the
energy-consuming character of their products. His reference to a “cooper-
ative approach” is in regard to the manner in which building codes for
straw-bale building in individual districts have each built on previous work
done elsewhere as well as the manner in which builders have shared infor-
mation with one another regarding successful and unsuccessful tactics in
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