{"id":17371,"date":"2015-03-21T16:56:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T16:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/?p=17371"},"modified":"2015-03-31T15:16:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T14:16:28","slug":"why-you-should-want-to-live-in-a-house-made-of-straw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/why-you-should-want-to-live-in-a-house-made-of-straw\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we should build more homes made of straw"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"straw-homes2\"<\/a>JANE SLADE discovers that straw houses make ideal affordable homes for retirees<\/h3>\n

Paul Chatterton, a geography lecturer at Leeds University, spent a lifetime pondering how to make housing sustainable and affordable before setting up the 20-home Lilac\u00a0co-housing project in Leeds (pictured above).<\/p>\n

Using the design method of\u00a0building neighbourliness \u2013 he created groups of private houses made of straw around a community centre\u00a0housing a\u00a0laundry, tool shop and dining room where residents can congregate. Although not designed as a retirement village – it would work very well as one.<\/p>\n

The only\u00a0oddity is that\u00a0all the homes are made of straw. Paul, who has two sons with his GP partner Natasha, wanted somewhere to bring up\u00a0his family where there would be a strong sense of community and where houses would be affordable. He used straw for three reasons:<\/p>\n

1. Straw has good environmental credentials, carbon neutral.
\n2. Straw offers very good insulation \u2013 70 per cent reduction in heating bills.
\n3. The straw bales made it easier for him and fellow neighbours to design their own houses and\u00a0 assist in the build.
\n“Basically you build a wooden box and fill it with straw \u2013 like lego bricks,” he says. The houses comprise four-bedroom two-storey homes as well as one bedroom flats. \"straw-homes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“We were building a neighbourhood,” he adds. “We divided up the cost of the project and allocated equity shares to each member \u2013 everyone pays 35 per cent of their net income \u2013 so it operates like a mutual home ownership society.<\/p>\n

“Each member buys equity shares on a 20-year lease and the\u00a0cooperative is the freeholder.”
\nHis challenge\u00a0is to replicate this model \u2013 he is setting up an umbrella organization in Leeds to build 1,000 homes in 10 years.<\/p>\n

“There is enough straw in the north of England to build 200,000 homes a year,” he argues. And now straw homes qualify for standard mortgages there is no reason why they shouldn’t be rolled out like traditional build homes.<\/p>\n

\"straw-homes1\"<\/a>“The houses are full of character \u2013 they have a lovely sound and smell,” he adds.<\/p>\n

“They are healthy\u00a0too with no chemicals\u00a0so perfect for older people who may have health issues.<\/p>\n

“The walls are 33cm\u00a0 thick which is the depth of a gale and so very fuel efficient – our gas bills are just \u00a3200 a year.”<\/p>\n

The houses were built using ModCell\u2019s prefabricated straw bale panels. Modcell supplied the main envelope of the building including the walls as well as a straw bale roof system.<\/p>\n

They are cheaper to build too\u00a0\u2013 a four bed house cost \u00a3180,000 \u2013 17 per cent saving on traditional building cost.<\/p>\n

Paul’s cooperative also ensures the homes stay affordable as the equity is pegged to national wages and not houses prices, so deters speculators.<\/p>\n

“The downside is that buyers won\u2019t make a fortune from their homes but it keeps them affordable for future generations which is the major principal. It is a great concept for over 55s.”<\/p>\n

Charlie Luxton, sustainable architectural designer from More 4\u2019s \u2018Building the Dream\u2019 said:<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m pretty positive that there is a future for straw build because it\u2019s part of the mix of techniques that are currently being used on the market. It will not be the main way of building, but it will definitely be considered as a viable option as it is locking away carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstruction with straw is a financially viable option and it is a sustainably wise route to go down. We need to start learning to build in different ways and to explore other alternatives. Whether you are building family homes or properties for retirees straw is an ideal material.”<\/p>\n

www.lilac.coop<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JANE SLADE discovers that straw houses make ideal affordable homes for retirees Paul Chatterton, a geography lecturer at Leeds University, spent a lifetime pondering how to make housing sustainable and affordable before setting up the 20-home Lilac\u00a0co-housing project in Leeds (pictured above). Using the design method of\u00a0building neighbourliness \u2013 he created groups of private houses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[44],"yst_prominent_words":[3766,2227,688,7892,1598,7889,7890,7887,78,2186,310,7888,7891,7894,375,251,7886,507,7893,7885],"class_list":["post-17371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk","tag-uk-2"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 13:37:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17371"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17501,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17371\/revisions\/17501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17371"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newclone.retiremove.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}