Icon A

House of bales (straw mud and stone)

The idea: build an environmentally friendly, passive solar house in the hills, with a small ecological footprint that will keep us warm in winter, cool in summer.

The solution: Strawbale, mudbrick, stone house in the Adelaide hills.

The challenge: Keeping on budget, getting trades people to take us seriously, build it in less than 18 months.

The outcome: Slightly over budget. In Summer 24c inside when 40c outside. In Winter 18c inside when 4c outside. Halved our energy bills.

Icon B

Main Eco-Features

Passive Solar

Passive solar with true north facing windows to bring in winter sun*

Mudbrick

Mudbrick walls inside for thermal mass

Solar Hot water on north facing roof

Solar electricity cells on north facing roof

Water Tank

90000 litre water tank supplying year round water

Strawbale walls on exterior to provide high insulation (and low footprint)

Main Eco-Features

Stone wall in middle to absorb heat and keep temperature constant

Double Glass

Double glazing on windows for insulation

Eves

Eves that keep out summer sun

Clerestory windows to allow light into  rooms and hot air out in summer

Flooring

Marmoleum flooring – low allergy and natural material

Biolytix

Biolytix septic system that waters our orchard underground

Icon C

OUR STORY

Our vision was to build an ecofriendly house within our budget and close enough to the CBD (Adelaide) to keep our jobs. 

Sound familiar? We took 5 years looking for a property only to find land prices sky rocketed while we did so. Eventually we landed a 10 acre block 20 minutes from the city and our dreams began to meet reality.

Strawbale Workshop

Play Video