Email
Print
Feed
Second Nature |
Tweet |
Photo by Gary Payne
Straw-bale building techniques fit perfectly into a brave—and green—new world
As designers and architects seek more environmentally friendly construction materials, one San Diego architect continues to improve on his signature, strawbale construction—an efficient, economical and trendy way to build human habitats worldwide. Drew Hubbell, the younger generation in the father-son team of San Diego’s Hubbell & Hubbell Architects & Artists, has been incorporating relatively cheap straw bales (the cost for one 80-pound straw bale averages $3.50) in homes he’s designed since the mid-’90s.
According to the Worldwatch Institute (worldwatch.org) —a leading source of information about environmental, social and economic trends affecting our transition to an environmentally sustainable world—buildings on the planet account for one-fourth of the world’s wood harvest, two-fifths of its material and energy usage and one-sixth of its fresh-water usage. These demands will be exacerbated by population growth over the next generation.
“Mankind clearly must find a way to provide safe and decent shelter for all without ravishing the global ecosystem,” declares Worldwatch.
Drew Hubbell passionately believes that building with straw bales is one positive step in that direction. The importance of constructing with sustainable materials that use less of the world’s natural resources and energy is becoming more and more evident, he says.
“What is the point of having a good house if you don’t have a decent planet to put it on?”
—Henry David Thoreau
“Once you have experienced building with straw bales, you’ll say, ‘This makes sense,’” Hubbell says. “It is a quickly renewable ‘green’ building product, and its super-insulating properties lead to lower energy costs associated with heating and cooling.”
Artist and architect James Hubbell leads the Hubbell team. He has developed projects all over the world for more than 40 years. Drew’s professional relationship with his father began in 1994.
“I began building with him at the age of 4, mixing cement and laying adobe blocks,” Drew remembers. “We collaborated on a few projects while I was in architecture school in the mid-’80s, and now we have a very strong staff of artists and architects who help make projects become reality.”
The team’s first bale building went up in 1996 in Borrego Springs. It was a 700-square-foot guesthouse designed in a half-circle, with passive solar features and metal roofing recycled from an old barn.
“It turned out wonderfully, and the owners love to show it off,” Drew says. “People even paid to attend the bale-raising workshop in 118-degree heat.”
A decade later, Hubbell & Hubbell is responsible for about two dozen projects in San Diego County utilizing straw bales as wall material. Bale projects account for around 20 percent of their work, while “green” building projects account for more than 80 percent of client commissions.
A more recent Hubbell bale home is the 3,400-square-foot East County residence shown on these pages. The original owners turned to Hubbell & Hubbell not only for their straw-bale experience but also because they wanted a design that captured the spirit of their land in Jamul. About 400 bales were trucked in from the San Joaquin Valley to finish the job.
Using bales in a post-and-beam framework is unique enough by local standards, but another surprise in the project was the incorporation of a huge East County boulder in the blueprints. “The homeowners had a great attraction to the granite boulder and wanted a home built around it to celebrate it,” Drew says.
Besides being cheap, clean and lightweight, straw also provides such advantages as energy efficiency and resistance to seismic stresses. Drew Hubbell has greatly simplified the method of anchoring the bales to the post-and-beam substructure, reducing the amount of materials and labor required.
“All of our bale buildings have a solidness and connection to the earth that is difficult to achieve with other building materials,” he says. “The thick and deep-set windows lend an Old World feel. The look is very Colonial Spanish adobe but with much stronger seismic realities.”
Bale-building technology fits perfectly in the new global consciousness to build structures with more ecological savings—savings that Drew Hubbell has been urging anyone who will listen to put in the bank.
Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »
