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Tipping+Mar, an engineering firm in Berkeley, has
won this year's Design Excellence Award from the Structural Engineers
Association of California for David Mar's engineering of a straw-bale
studio in Joshua Tree. The structure, which was designed and built by
Skillful Means, uses only straw, mesh and stucco to develop strengths far in
excess of code requirments for high seismic areas.
The project won the award over much larger and more
costly competition, such as the new San Francisco Airport building. The
design was developed, mostly, at David and Anne Torney's dining table
during the course of several excellent meals. The criteria for the design
were that the building structure be primarily of
straw, should make integral use of bales for
structure, and use commonly available materials and methods
(ie: no gunnite) The design principles and methods have already been
used in China and Mongolia to construct safe, low-cost buildings with existing
second-world technology.
Visit the Skillful Means website for a look at the
project: www.skillful-means.com Click on
"projects", then "vault". enjoy....
John Swearingen
Skillful Means--Architecture and
Construction
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