As student projects go, building a house takes beating. But this weekend in Mallow, Co Cork, Rob Hopkins' students will be putting the finishing touches to a strawbale house. The house will then be one of the central attractions of the Mallow Homes and Gardens Festival which runs from June 21st to 24th. The students have been learning about the technique of straw building in a series of three weekend workshops headed by Mr Hopkins, permaculture designer and teacher in the discipline of sustainable structures. Strawbale building has been gaining popularity in Ireland over the last couple of years, with homes in Monaghan, Mayo, Leitrim, and Belfast.
Planning permission is pending for a strawbale house in Waterford.
While these houses are traditionally rectangular, Mr Hopkins has opted for a circular building with a turf roof which he felt would be more striking as a permanent structure for this particular setting. The weekend workshops started with a slide show of the actual process, from concrete foundation to finish, before participants had hands-on experience in the art of building a wall with straw bales. The attraction of physically building your own house is that you are more in control than many other people in the market today - it's a very empowering feeling in that way. Over the weekend, Mr Hopkins and his team hope to render the outer walls of the house with lime. The workshop will address the concept of dry sealing the structure and making it heat efficient.