Straw house Bechter

The flat structure with a rectangular ground plan stands on a solid concrete foundation slab. Jumbo bales of straw with a cross-section of 70 x 120 and a length of up to 240 cm were stacked on top of each other like large bricks and covered with a 3 cm thick layer of plaster. The result is load-bearing walls that do not require studs. The roof structure is formed by prefabricated wooden box girders filled with straw bales as insulation and resting on the outer walls.
All wooden surfaces are made of untreated spruce triple-layer boards. The straw bales, also untreated, were plastered with lime on the outside and clay on the inside; thus, the entire wall structure is compostable.

The building services could be reduced to a minimum: There are no heat pumps, no ventilation system or heating circuits. A wood-fired tiled stove, whose radiant heat can spread throughout the open-plan rooms, is sufficient to heat the approximately 175-square-meter interior. In the rooms farthest from the stove, such as the bathroom and bedroom, it is about two degrees cooler, which is what the planners had in mind. (Text in shortened form @ Baunetz_Wissen)