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Building Material 9: Straw Bales
Straw bales provide an extremely strong building block for homes. They can act as the actual structural building block or as the fill for insulation in a traditional post-and-beam structure, where the frame supports the home, as opposed to the straw bale. After the bales are stacked, the walls are plastered. The thick walls provide excellent insulation and are about 75 percent more energy efficient than conventional homes [source: Morrison]. Contrary to what you may think, straw bale houses are not a fire hazard. Rather, they provide roughly three times the fire resistance of conventional homes [source: Morrison]. Because the bales are so tightly packed, there's no oxygen and no chance of combustion. To learn more about how to build a straw bale home, take a look at How Straw Bale Homes Work.
But if you'd rather leave the straw bales to the farmers, there are plenty of other options for natural building materials, including the next one that panda bears like to munch on.
