Shelter is one of humanity’s most basic needs, along with food and clothing. Folks have always worked with what is at hand, be it snow to make igloos for the Arctic winter or branches to make overnight shelters in the bush.
Stud construction, the norm in Canada and the United States, was developed because it allowed the use of smaller trees than those required for the timber frame construction, which had been the previous standard.
Renewable evergreen forests have ensured that studs have remained popular.
Read Also
Saskatchewan throne speech promises strong economy
Saskatchewan’s legislative agenda for the coming year will focus on meeting the challenges of new world trading relationships, said the speech from the throne.
But there are many other building materials used commonly throughout the world.
Indigenous bamboo is a strong and fast growing resource. In the hot part of the southern U.S. there are adobe houses made of sun-dried bricks. Prairie sod sheltered many pioneers.
Second generation western Canadians likely favoured oven-fired brick and stone houses from locally sourced materials due to their European histories.
In many parts of the world, poured-in-place concrete structures use abundant sources of sand or gravel as the main ingredient, reinforced with steel bars.
There is also cob construction, which uses sand and clay mixed with straw and other field residue.
The mixture is installed in layers and left to dry, with walls as much as two feet thick. As with the old sod house, it is critical to have good overhangs to keep rain from soaking the walls.
Stackwall or cordwood construction uses short or split logs, stacked like cordwood and separated and held together by mortar. Many of these techniques might not be energy-effective in northern climates.
Cliff Shockey from Vanscoy, Sask., sandwiched 10 inches of batt insulation between an outer layer of eight-inch stackwall and an inner layer of six-inch stackwall for a wall thickness of 24 inches.
The building has been standing for more than thirty years.
He also built a second house, an office, and a sauna using the same technique.
Various combinations of soil and cement are also used for building.
There is hempcrete, which is hemp mixed with Portland cement; poured earth, which is soil and Portland cement; cast soil, which is soil with gypsum; and papercrete, which is recycled paper with Portland cement.
Rubber tires and soil form the earthship. The tires are laid flat, tread-to-tread, and the inner spaces are filled and hammer pounded full of soil.
Earthships are sometimes built into a slope and backfilled on the backside.
The practice is used worldwide, and is effective in southern climates such as southwestern Mexico.
Straw bale houses seem counter-intuitive, especially given the experience of the three little pigs.
With outer stucco and inner plaster layers, the stacked bale walls become extremely strong and fire-resistant.
Some use post and beam framework for the supporting structure such as the Eco-Centre in Craik, Sask.
These self-supporting houses have been around for more than 100 years in Nebraska.
Straw bale structures use a variety of crop residue from crops such as rice, wheat, barley, oats, or flax.
The latter makes a lot of sense in farm country given that flax straw is often otherwise burned.
Alternative building techniques use locally available and economical materials. They produce buildings that are different and aesthetically interesting. Frequently the outer and inner surfaces of the buildings are done with hand plastering over an uneven surface, which creates a more free-flowing or organic appearance than the straight plane style of conventional construction techniques.
Sometimes the inside walls are curved or non-square, making interior spaces seem less confining.
Some techniques aren’t well suited for a cold climate.
Many have walls that provide a temperature buffering solar mass, such as concrete-earth, which is poor in prolonged cold.
Stone castles used fabric wall hangings not merely for decoration but to moderate chilling cold being emitted from the walls.
There are other practical challenges to the adoption of the alternative building techniques.
Typically they are labour intensive. Often volunteers are used in pioneer-style house-building bees.
Many of these volunteers are not locals, but from the larger community of eco-enthusiasts who are fulfilling both their personal commitment and their curiosity.
When it comes to housing, the construction industry is slow to change.
The use of alternative building techniques is not likely to see widespread adoption and it will fall to the hands of a few dedicated, specialty contractors or enthusiastic do-it-yourself builders to construct innovative and unusual buildings, using local resources that are abundant and inexpensive.
For more photographs of alternative building technologies visit producer.com/search and enter Oddie.
Will Oddie is a renewable energy, sustainable building consultant with a lifetime interest in energy conservation. To contact Oddie, send e-mail to energyfield@producer.com.
