Product Description

Constructing a straw bale solar home requires the merging of solar design with alternative building techniques. Books are useful for accessing information on these topics quickly and easily, while videos are a great way to show actual building methods and techniques firsthand.

The Building with Awareness DVD/guidebook combination brings you the best of both worlds. The award-winning DVD is inspiring and informative, with over five hours of material on every aspect of building a green home. The handy reference guidebook complements the DVD, with color photographs, diagrams, suggestions, and step-by-step methods, all condensed into a nuts-and-bolts format. Used together, these two valuable resources provide a visually dynamic and easy-to--understand library of information.

Take a front-row seat on the work site, learning from the experts as they notch and stack the straw bales and mix the mud.
Learn about foundations, post-and-beam wall framing, roof construction and insulation, interior thermal mass walls for improved efficiency, rain-water cisterns, electrical wiring, and photovoltaic systems.
Learn earth-plastering techniques that create beautiful wall finishes.
Understand how window placement and other structural elements can help to heat and cool your home and lower your energy bills.
See how the structure works as a whole and how both energy efficiency and superb aesthetics can come from the same materials.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229694 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 152 pages

About the Author
Ted Owens is president and co-owner of Syncronos Design Incorporated which promotes the use of appropriate technology and sustainable design in our built environment. Combining interests in design, appropriate technology, film and video, his main focus since 1996 has been on energy- and resource-efficient building design.

Customer Reviews

Awesome resource for green owner/builders using adobe, straw
This is one of the TOP 2-3 resources I have come across for an owner/builder that wants to see ALL STEPS of the construction of a house using adobe and/or straw. While the primary envelope of this small house is straw bale, it includes a mass wall of adobe and the project included a workshop built with adobe. It is disappointing that they did not include the construction of this workshop from the ground up in the detailed video presentation.

The video and the small format book (the size of a DVD case) are packed with information and detail. From the layout of the foundation, digging, forming and pouring of the grade beam and ALL other parts of the construction of the house this is a great way to get a complete understanding of all the parts of building a house. Straw bale builders will probably get more info from this since you see the post and beam structure of the house raised and framed the infill of the walls with bales, wiring, and scratch and finishing color plaster ideas. They show the construction of a rain collection system using a buried plastic septic tank for non-potable use (don't know why this limitation).

For the price ($24 at the time of this writing) this is better than 99% of other resources I've come across. For adobe construction, Tibbets' Earthbuilders Encyclopedia CD has much more detail on adobe construction, but does not have any video like this item. FIVE STARS only because I can't award six!

Recommended.
The pairing of the excellent dvd and a companion guidebook. The book shares the same high-quality production as the dvd, and goes into a bit more detail here and there on topics that the dvd doesn't. Worth a few extra dollars.

Building with awareness
DVD shows how to build a straw bale house step by step. This DVD and guidebook make me easier to understand the process of the building.