Ecovillage Sieben Linden with Straw bale construction

Submission to the
World Habitat Awards 2006
Building and Social Housing Foundation
Ecovillage Sieben Linden with Straw bale construction
Presenting parties:
Freundeskreis Oekodorf e.V. and
Fachverband Strohballenbau Deutschland e.V. (FASBA)
Adress:
Sieben Linden 1, D- 38486 Poppau
Contact persons:
Mrs Elke Wiegand, Mr Martin Stengel, Mr Dirk Scharmer
Email: wha7Linden@fasba.de
Sieben Linden
Page 1
Table of contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Presenting parties
1.1.1. Freundeskreis Oekodorf e.V.
1.1.2. Fachverband Strohballenbau Deutschland e.V. (FASBA)
2. Project description
2.1. General information
2.2. Financial information
2.3. Social aspects
2.4. Environmental aspects
3. Three examples
3.1. Villa Strohbund of Einfach Gut Leben e.V.
3.1.1. Ecological highlights
3.1.2. Social highlights
3.1.3. Economic highlights
3.2. Strohpolis
3.2.1. Social features
3.2.2. Ecological Aspects
3.2.3. Economical Aspects
3.2.4. Cultural aspects
3.3. Brunnenwiese
3.3.1. Ecological aspects:
3.3.2. Financial aspects
3.3.3. Cultural aspects
4. Details about straw bale building
4.1 Load bearing and non load bearing
4.2. Present German approach to build with straw, timber and clay
4.3. Test and examinations
4.3.1. Clay plaster
4.3.2. Bale orientation
4.3.3. Producing bales
4.3.4. Technical qualities
4.4. Footprint analysis/ Future plans
4.5. Remaining barriers
5. Impact
5.1. Impact of Sieben Linden Ecovillage in general
5.2. Impact of the straw bale building activities in Sieben Linden
5.3. Impact of Straw-Bale-Building on Society
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6. Research about ecovillages
25
7. Indicators of success / Recognition
25
Referees
References
Appendix Villa Strohbund
Appendix Strohpolis
Appendix Brunnenwiese
26
26
Page 2
1. Introduction
The following submission deals with a consistent answer to the present ecological, social and economic
situation on our earth and the needs of all beings on this planet: The ecovillage called “Sieben Linden”
was designed to try practical answers for creating a sustainable lifestyle. With the idea of building with
straw, wood, clay and glass there appeared a building solution which has the potential to include all
important aspects of sustainability: Saving the planet with low energy housing, eco-friendly production
of the materials, a positive CO2-balance of the building-material and minimizing building waste. The
following concepts and activities will contribute to the welfare of all human beings by optimising both
the ecological and the economical aspects of building, as well as the health of the people who are dealing with the building-material and who live in the houses. Sieben Linden Ecovillage is not only a place
where some straw-bale-buildings have been built, but as well a place where the experience to work
with straw-bales has been shared with many people in seminars and working-weeks. Furthermore, the
official approval of straw-bales as building-material in Germany is a result of the activities of the two
parties that are presenting this application for the World Habitat Awards.
With an integral approach all these ecological, economical, educational and political activities are embedded in an inspiring community life.
1.1. Presenting parties
1.1.1. Freundeskreis Oekodorf e.V.
The first meetings in connection with the basic
ideas for the village took place in 1989 and a constantly growing number of “eco-villagers” have
been living together as a community since 1993.
In 1997 we discovered and bought the site in
Poppau - Sieben Linden in East Germany.
In 2000 we built the first residential houses for
more than twenty community-members. Since 2001 new houses in Sieben Linden are built
mainly out of wood, straw bales and clay. In 2006,
70 adults and 30 children live in the community,
occupying five residential houses and quite a few
wooden caravans as temporary homes.
The non-profit association “Freundeskreis Oekodorf eV” has about 250 members all over Germany and internationally. The association is running
a program with topics of social and environmental interest with about 100 workshops and seminars annually. Part of its educational program
are seminars about straw-bale-building and the
organization of internships on the straw-baleconstruction-sites.
It is also promoting public relations and outreach
both regionally and nationally as well as international networking for the idea of ecovillages and
a sustainable lifestyle.
St
One early layout from 1998 -not implemented
Birke Ø 0,2
Schonung
9,60
Anpflanzung
60,00
Villa Strohbund
Holzlager
5,00
10,00
20,00
20,00
5,00
Raucherinsel
10,00
Weg
Holzverkleidung
Strohpolis
AW
5,00
Nordhaus
Strohpolis
Werkstatt
AW
Nordriegel
Sommerküchenhaus
Blumen
Schonung
AW
Blumen
Hof
AW
Såhaus
Blumen
Blumen
Regionalhaus
Blumen
Blumen
Wiese
Weg
Weg
AW
Kabel
Amphitheater
Dorfplatz
5,00
5,00
Teich
Brunnen
Weg
In 1996 and in 2000 the ecovillage won the „TatOrte“-award for outstanding ecological activism
in East Germany.
Sieben Linden is one of the projects of the UN
Decade for education for sustainability 2004
– 2012.
15,00
Windrose
in planning
Sicker
10,00
Brunnenwiese
5,00
5,00
15,00
5,00
5,00
20,00
10,00
Biotop
5,00
6,93
37,00
Current Layout - black area‘s are straw bale buildings
57,20
B-Plan
40,89
ÖKODO
RF -2000
LAGEVE
RMESS
ER
LAGNE
U
ACAD-S
tropolis
-2000
Handsk
izzen
un Scan
von
Henning
86,44
37,00
Page 3
1.1.2. Fachverband Strohballenbau
Deutschland e.V. (FASBA)
The German straw bale building
association FASBA was founded in 2002 in Sieben Linden to make possible and promote this
construction method there and everywhere in
Germany.
The main activities of the non-profit organisation FASBA are dealing with straw bale building
research, the gathering and diffusion of expert
knowledge, networking and cooperation as
well as public relations. Since its establishment
the membership has grown up to 150 private
persons, institutions and companies. Everyone
who is interested in a good development of this
construction method can become a member of
FASBA. The board of directors of FASBA consists
of six engineers, architects and craftsmen who
coordinate the activities of the association and
its members. Meanwhile the focus of FASBA has
been extended to the promotion of straw bale
building in Germany and Europe. In 2007 a European conference will be organised in Sieben
Linden. Since 2003 FASBA is uninterruptedly involved in three projects of research and development supported by the German government
(Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection) and the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), one of Europe’s largest
foundations which promotes innovative and
exemplary environmental projects. The most
important milestone so far is the obtainment
of a general approval of straw bales as an insulation material for Germany in February 2006.
It’s the first general approval to straw-bales as a
building-material in Europe. Meanwhile, the first
manufacturer of approved building straw bales
has been established. The company “Baustroh
FASBA- Meeting of Establishment in 2002 with workshop
Page 4
ltd.” delivers straw bales all over Germany, by taking the material from fields nearby, controlling
its quality and therefore converting them into
“building-bales”. This special solution makes it
possible to maintain the big advantage of strawbales as a regional building-material and to meet
the need of control of the german building-authorities. (Deutsches Institut fuer BautechnikDIBt). For cooperation and networking FASBA is
hosting a homepage where interested people
can obtain all necessary information about straw
bale building. Several articles can be downloaded or sent by letter. Since 2002 several national straw bale building conferences, workshops
and events have been organised with 20 to 120
persons attending. One important aspect of these events has been the international cooperation. Known straw bale builders from all over the
world have been talking to our guests, such as
Barbara Jones, David Eisenberg, Werner Schmidt,
John Zhang, Chris Newton, Dietmar Lorenz etc..
Up to new horizons
1.2. Partnership
Both of the presenting parties are collaborating
with other organisations and companies in this
field of activities. Their partners are listed below.
Einfach gut leben e.V.
- Brunnenwiese Community
- Wohnungsgenossenschaft SiebenLinden e.G.
- Siedlungsgenossenschaft Oekodorf e. G.
- Architekturbuero Arnold Dransfeld
- Architekturbuero Wand 4
- GLS.Gemeinschaftsbank
- landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank
- Baustroh ltd.
-Gemeinschaftsberatung ‚Hand-in-Hand‘ (Eva
Stuetzel)
2. Project description
2.1. General information
Having a warm and safe home is one of our basic needs as human beings. Having this need met is essential to our wellbeing, our capacity to face the day with energy and joy and our hospitality.
The concentration of economic power in the big cities drives people to leave their homes in the rural
areas in industrialized as well as in developing countries. In rural areas, many elderly people get left
behind which causes huge social, economical and environmental problems. Lack of cultural events and
access to education, loneliness and need of institutional care are some of the results of the young moving away into the cities. The economic pressure causes a high mobility depending on fossil fuels and
even more loneliness. Everyday life in both rural areas and the cities in the industrialized nations is more
and more dependent on fossil fuels with all its huge impacts on climate worldwide and the Earth.
The “Sieben Linden” ecovillage is a socially and
ecologically oriented settlement based on the
principles of self-sufficiency and self-determination and designed to accommodate approximately 300 people when it is finished. It is situated
in an area where big scale industrial agriculture
is practiced, high unemployment rates prevail
and devastation of villages is common, in the
eastern part of Germany. Sieben Linden is a
The neighbourhood „Experiment Club 99“
A warm, save and ecofriendly (straw-bale) home
place to which people – especially young families – move from the cities, whereas all around
people leave the rural area to live in the cities.
The inhabitants of Sieben Linden are working
towards the creation of manageable and transparent structures which promote self-responsibility and help to strengthen co-operative relationships between human beings and Nature. The
village represents a holistic habitat which closely
integrates and harmonizes different areas of life
so that a positive human and ecological net balance and mutual resonance can develop. It is an
open and hospitable village, where, within an
ecological and self-organizational framework, a
variety of lifestyles and convictions can be ex-
pressed. The village community is made up of
smaller communities, called ‘neighbourhoods’,
which express different life styles and form different sub-groups. The concept is that people
get together in smaller groups, the neighbourhoods and that these groups plan, organize and
realize the construction of their own residential
houses. It is not designed for single-families or
single persons to build their own small houses.
The minimal size of a neighbourhood that gets
the right to build a house in Sieben Linden is 3
adults. Sieben Linden ecovillage is striving for
self-sufficiency in all areas of life: nutrition, objects of everyday life, building, energy, self-administration and planning, but also social, medical,
and educational facilities. It networks with spiritually and materially like-minded initiatives and
co-operates with other projects in the region
and the whole world.
The village community designs its buildings and
the building process in a comprehensively sustainable way. The purpose is to invent and re-establish truly sustainable construction principles by
combining modern and traditional knowledge.
The buildings provide appropriate housing for
Page 5
the temperate climate zone, but are adaptable to other climate zones as well. The buildings
are designed to significantly reduce the average
ecological footprint of construction and living. In
2002 Sieben Linden underwent a footprint analysis, carried out by the University of Kassel, and
this showed impressively the results of this approach. (See chapter 6)The buildings are durable and capable of withstanding possible climate
changes, economic changes, material and energy supply crises (peak oil!). The buildings provide
affordable housing space for social groups with
low income. The building process encourages
and helps people to fulfil their basic needs themselves while at the same time acquiring the skills
required. The construction process respects the
needs of people in other countries by avoiding
the use of materials which are based on exploitation of their resources. We also connect with the
world on the spiritual level by creating rooms for
stillness and beauty.
Straw and timber (later: clay and glass)
The answer of Oekodorf-Sieben-Linden to provide good living space for all the inhabitants is:
To build appropriate housing mainly with straw,
clay, wood and glass.
With straw, wood, clay and glass you can easy
build healthy, eco-friendly and very comfortable modern homes. All three materials have been
used for centuries in buildings but disappeared
nearly totally in the last 70 Years. The use of straw
bales as a building material was first developed
in the late 19th century in Nebraska, where settlers used them as wall materials to save the rare
wood sources. Meanwhile straw bale building is
practised all over the world whereas the use of
straw in Germany only started eight years ago
in 1998. This is mainly due to the strict German
building laws, the lack of scientific determined
Page 6
tests and approvals and the big amount of prejudice. The main effect of building with straw
bales is the reduction of CO2 Emission in production, transportation and as insulation material. A
more than positive side effect is the easy way of
handling the material for unskilled workers, the
regional availability and the low costs.
How straw bale building started in Sieben Linden and Germany
In 1998 Martin Stengel and Silke Hagmeier, who
later founded the Club99 and Einfach Gut Leben
e.V. invited David Eisenberg, one of the American
straw bale building pioneers to give a presentation of his work. Together with Harald Wedig,
from the Netherlands he showed impressive
facts and details. Two years later two straw bale
buildings were in progress, the Villa Strohbund
and the small Atelier in Guhreitzen from Dirk
Scharmer. In connection with the straw bale
building Warmuth in Junckershausen(2000) and
the straw home Boehnisch in Windeck- Werfen
(1998) these four houses formed the roots of all
German straw bale building activities. But in all
cases it wasn’t easy to get a building permission,
so in summer 2002 a group of people decided to
establish an association with the aim to encourage the straw bale building in Germany. Since
then the new German straw bale building association FASBA has grown to 150 members with
two branches one in Sieben Linden and one in
Lueneburg. FASBA has initiated several research
studies and test. On the homepage of FASBA all
findings and information are freely available for
everyone.
The main component of this submission are three
different approaches to the transformation of
this answer: Three different straw bale buildings
located in the Ecovillage Sieben Linden in Eastern Germany. They are called “Villa Strohbund, a
100 sqm community building, “Strohpolis”, a 550
sqm residential building, and “Brunnenwiese”
a 240 sqm residential and community building.
Except “Brunnenwiese” all buildings are finished,
“Brunnenwiese” will be completed in spring of
2007.
The direct benefiting groups of these three projects are the inhabitants creating their houses,
the workers finding work on the construction
site, the local suppliers of building material and
the volunteers in being inspired by social and
ecological activities.
2.2. Financial information
Under normal circumstances, the cost of straw
bale buildings in Germany equals that of conventional buildings, though the walls cost 10-30%
less than average. The real advantages are the
sustainability of the production and demolition
of the building materials, the low heating costs
that last the entire lifespan of those buildings
and the healthy environment created by the
thick clay plastering. There is a high potential of
lowering the actual monetary costs because of
the possibility to do-it-yourself instead of paying
experts to do it for you. Another important factor from the economic point of view is that the
money that is needed for straw-bale-building is
not given to industrial corporations that produce
the building material and for long transports, but
that it is invested in the local agriculture and in
the local workers that build the straw-bale-walls.
Most of the costs for straw-bale-building are the
wages for the people who build and plaster the
walls.
Number of inhabitants
living space (sqm)
total costs ( Euros)
Costs of material bought
from outside ecovillage
(Euros)
Expert´s salaries (Euros)
Loans (Euros)
financial sources
Euros/ sqm
hours of work by future
inhabitants
The three houses here in Sieben Linden vary
greatly in actual building costs, depending on
the background from which they were created.
Capital and manpower of the inhabitants-to-be
contributed in different proportions to these
three buildings.
• The building concept asks for human and
material resources that can be provided from the
local rural surroundings. It promotes agricultural
and forestry structures and enterprises which
promote primary products like straw bales,
clay and adobe, natural timber. All work on the
construction site can be done by local craftsmen
and/or by the constructing parties themselves.
• The maintenance and supply of the buildings
is cheap and can be provided self sufficiently
from the natural surroundings. The effect of rising costs for energy and supplies is significantly
reduced.
• All construction principles and materials are
available without paying licence fees to inventors or trade mark holders.
Villa Strohbund
community area for 20
people
100+2x12
25,000
2,000
Strohpolis
20
5,000
110,000
0
Club 99/ Einfach Gut
Leben e.V.
< 250
> 15,000
340,000
WoGe
135,000* (ecovillage inhabitants and others)
150,000
WoGe + Brunnenwiese
1317
ca. 2,000
1250*
ca. 3,000*
539
710,000
250,000
Brunnenwiese
7 private rooms+ community
area for 15 people
240
300,000*
80,000*
*estimated costs - building in progress
Financial and other data on the three houses
Page 7
As already mentioned living and working in
community provides countless possibilities for
individual and cooperative empowerment and a
rich social life.
• The planning process is designed for full participation of the inhabitants-to-be. Professional
help from architects or engineers is added to the
knowledge of the house building family/community.
• The building process furthers individual and
collective empowerment by encouraging people
to learn handicrafts as existential skills and offer
whatever they are capable of to the collective
building process, where even the children can
participate.
• The housing concept promotes a sustainable
lifestyle that is based on self-sufficiency.
• The design for the settlement follows the
ideas of cohousing: sharing communally used facilities; promoting contact and cooperation between like-minded inhabitants as well as people
of different age, education, skills, origin. Emphasis is put on building communal structures before building private accommodation.
• By substituting fossil energy as much as possible, machines and industrial materials by creative man- and womanpower, we counteract
today‘s tendency towards ever increasing unemployment. We experience the value of autonomous work instead of depending on a salary.
We hope to give impulses for positive change to
rural regions like the Altmark, in which the project is situated. In this area, as in many other rural
areas, the high unemployment rate (20%) is the
main reason for the emigration of its inhabitants
to larger cities.
• All construction materials help maintain and
promote the health of the inhabitants; the whole housing concept follows the criteria of serving
the wellbeing of people instead of benefiting the
corporate world.
The most important common feature is the use
of straw-bales as a building material. The wish
to use the most regional products for all parts of
the building in order to reduce the pollution through transportation is also taken into account
in all building projects in the ecovillage, even if
these products might be more expensive than
other products offered on the market.
Effects of straw bale building:
As a renewable material straw bales bind carbon
dioxide which mainly responsible for the global
warming. Using straw bales as a building material can help to reduce the CO2-expulsion in the
building sector. The production of an average
one family straw bale building saves about 25
tons of CO2 compared to a just as well insulated
building insulated with mineral wool.
One can say that the manufacturing energy of
the mineral wool needed for the insulation of
a one family house will last for building a straw
bale house and also for heating it for about 10-15
years.
CO2 balance
20000
kg CO2 per one family house
2.3. Social aspects
15000
10000
mineral wool
-10416
5000
0
-5000
straw bales
15396
cellulose
1402
-10000
-15000
CO2-balance straw bale building compared with conventional methods
2.4. Environmental aspects
The approach towards the environmental aspects
is slightly different between these three houses.
Due to different needs and building groups every group found its own answer for this important
topic, integrating the experience of those that
have been realized before.
Nevertheless, the three projects have many features in common.
Page 8
Manucfactoring bales directly in the fields
The annual quantity of straw bales produced
in Germany is 44 mio tons (2003). 20% of these
are freely disposable for non agricultural purposes. This potential of 8 mio tons of straw would
last for several hundred thousand family houses
without extra manufacturing efforts. All in all
190.000 One- and Two-family houses are build
in Germany yearly with a currant rate of 15 % in
timber construction. The Straw potential would
last several times.
The current recommended straw bale building
system of FASBA is particularly suitable for do-ityourself building because of the easy infill possibilities of the straw bales.
The thermal conductivity of 35cm thick straw
bale walls measures about 0,15 to 0,18 W/m2K.
Adding passive solar design, it is possible to
achieve heating energy consumption of about
15 kwh/sqm. This is 10 times lower than the average building in Germany.
Straw bales are produced without any additional
chemicals. They are the only insulation material
which can be delivered in organic quality. Together with wood and clay very healthy housing
can be developed.
At the end of the building life cycle the three
Cultivation of grain on about 50% of the agricultural areas
main elements straw, wood and clay can be ealily
disposed of. They simply go back into the natural
cycle without leaving troublesome residues.
And last but not least there is an exceeding scope
of design by working with straw bales and earth
plaster, e.g. round edges.
• Counteracting climate change through CO2
absorption during the growth period
• Minimum energy consumption during both
production and transportation
• high insulation capacity
• Building with straw bales is an outstanding
possibility to reach low energy housing.
• cooperation with and strengthening of the
local agriculture
• Ecological building style allowing lots of doit-yourself building employing simple technological means
• All components constituting the walls – Straw
bales, clay and timber - are regionally available
all over the country
• noise reduction during construction time
Other environmental aspects:
• Reducing heating energy through passive
solar energy design and optimal insulation
• Building-materials that have a big negative
impact on the environment – like PVC or Polystyrene – have been avoided completely.
• Drinking water comes from a well in the village, wastewater is cleaned by reed beds, cleaned
wastewater is used for irrigation in the vegetable
gardens and orchards
• Dry compost toilets do not contaminate water; the human excrements are safely composted
• Heating is always done with heating systems
with wood from local forests as a fuel
• Warm water is produced with solar energy.
• In all building recycled materials have been
used – at least for some parts of the building.
• Limitation of the area that may be covered
with buildings to 16 sqm per person so that the
soil sealing is kept as small as possible.
• No lacquering or other not environmentally
sound treatment of wood.
• The houses only need 50 kWh/m² or less per
year, which meets the German standards for “low
energy houses”.
• Cooking is done with gas or firewood or if
possible even solar cooker
Rounded embrasures
Page 9
3. Three examples
In the following you find a description of three different buildings in this project with their own special
aspects. It is an expression of the variety and abundance of possibilities within this framework of straw
bale buildings in the Sieben Linden ecovillage
Villa Strohbund (Club99, 2003)
Strohpolis, (Wohnungsgenossenschaft 7 Linden, 2005) Brunnenwiese, (Brunnenwiese community 2007)
3.1. Villa Strohbund of Einfach Gut Leben e.V.
Villa Strohbund was constructed by the association “Einfach Gut Leben” which is the official organisation of the neighbourhood “Experiment Club99”. The German words Einfach gut leben mean living
simply and well.
100 sqm community residential building „Villa Strohbund“
Page 10
A minute of silence to get in contact with ourselves and
the world around us
Felling trees by hand using tradional tools 500m away from
the building site
Carpentry work with round timber
First load bearing straw bale domes in Europe 2003
The residents have created a lifestyle as simple as
possible based on the awareness that „The world
has enough for the needs of humanity, but not
for its greed.” This quotation of Mahatma Gandhi expresses the approach of the members of
Einfach Gut Leben e.V. to finding new answers to
serve the needs of human beings as well as those of the whole world. In the German study „Zukunftsfähiges Deutschland“,the authors come to
the conclusion, that the use of non-regenerative
resources and the production of CO2 in Germany
has to be reduced by 90% per inhabitant, if the
goal is meant to be a truly sustainable lifestyle.
The members of Einfach Gut Leben e.V. therefore
examined all the aspects of human life starting
from the culture they live in as Germans. The result is a collection of commitments about how to
organize and design a lifestyle that respects the
need of all beings on this planet for all coming
generations.
These commitments include:
- living a life that serves the healing of all beings
by improving the quality of earth, water and air;
- serving a collective and individual growth of
every member of the community that is based
on social competence, self-empowerment, non
violent communication and deeply grounded
happiness;
- avoiding the exploitation of all human beings
by not using products that have been made by
people living in conditions of economic and
social oppression such as poor people in third
world countries or badly paid workers in industrially designed production processes;
- Fulfilling all existential needs by only using regenerative and regional resources that can be used
with a very minimum of transportation; establishing a completely vegan lifestyle which means
not to exploit animals or to take their lives;
- Sharing all personal income and capital and allowing differences in financial needs;
- Searching for a deep connection to the spirit
of nature and a deep understanding of the meaning and purpose of human life on this planet.
Starting from these commitments the neighbourhood was founded in 1999 as the first
neighbourhood of the village community of
Sieben Linden. The construction of “Villa Strohbund” as the communal dwelling house of the
neighbourhood started in 2001. Villa Strohbund
was one of the first legal straw bale-construction in Germany and the first in the Ecovillage
Page 11
Sieben Linden. It hereby introduced the idea of
constructing houses with straw bales into the
village community. It is a two-storey house with
100 sqm of effective surface that is used as communal living space with a kitchen and a dining
room, a big room for meetings and gatherings, a
naturally cooled pantry, a storeroom and a toilet.
Since 2003 two additional domes with 12 sqm
of effective surface each accompany it. The two
domes complete the communal living space of
„Villa Strohbund“: One is used as communal bath
for up to four people at a time, the other one as
a guestroom.
3.1.1. Ecological highlights
Villa Strohbund and the two domes were designed and constructed with the goal to show the
possibilities of radically reducing the ecological
footprint of fulfilling the human need for housing by combining traditional and modern knowledge. A first simple footprint analysis shows that
Logs being pulled by drafthorses
The foundation was made of recycled granite
blocks, assembled with only 40 kg (!) of lime-cement. The framework was made of round timber,
cut from own the forest by hand, pulled to the
construction site by horses and assembled completely by hand with the use of traditional tools.
All work on the construction site has been done
by human power such as hands and feet and
electrical or motorized tools have only been
used for transportation vehicles for the foundation stones, the straw bales and clay. Walls, floor (!)
and upper ceiling are built with straw bales from
the first organic harvest of the fields of Sieben
Linden and surroundings. The clay and the sand
come directly from the grounds of Sieben Linden. The plasters were prepared and applied to
the walls by feet and hands to form smooth surfaces. A finishing touch was brought to the walls
with a paint of boiled wheaten flour and chalk.
All other non-regenerative materials like windows, roof tiles, heating devices, and pipes...
were regionally recycled. All construction materials are vegan, meaning that the exploitation
of animals was not necessary to procure them.
All construction materials are either directly recyclable or can be composted after the lifetime
of the house which is meant to be at least one
hundred years. The construction process for the
whole house didn’t leave more than two or three
sacks of rubbish.
All rooms and water are heated by wood burning
stoves and by direct sunlight. The food is mainly being cooked on a solar cooker and a wood
stove. Nevertheless the whole neighbourhood
takes care of reducing the need to burn wood as
far as possible. So far most waste products from
the process of living in the house are ashes, wastewater and compost; when leaving the house
they turn into ingredients for natural food production on the surroundings of the house.
3.1.2. Social highlights
Villa Strohbund indoor
the whole construction process needed less than
5% of the average energy input compared to
standard ecological house building in Germany.
A more detailed footprint analysis undertaken
by the Technical University of Berlin is still in progress.
Page 12
The housing concept is integrated into the idea
of building communities with and for people
that wish to take their lives into their own hands.
In this case, the whole design including all details
was made by the inhabitants-to-be by themselves; professionalists were only needed for technical consultation and for the signing of the application for the building-permit.
The construction method doesn’t ask for highly
skilled and expensive professionals, but can be
learnt on site if there is at least one person with
The first straw bale of Villa Strohbund
Construction in progress (2001)
profound building experience. Help from family, neighbours, friends, and even children, who
playfully wish to join in, can easily be integrated.
All work on the construction site can be done
by local craftsmen and/or self sufficiently. In the
case of Villa Strohbund helping guests stayed for
about 2.000 person-days working and living with
the members of the neighbourhood. This has given their personal lifestyles many impulses for
questioning and changing to the interested public. Knowledge about the construction process
as well as the lifestyle in Experiment Club99 has
been broadcasted by several radio and television programs and by many articles in newspapers
and journals about the Ecovillage Sieben Linden
and this neighbourhood.
Living in Experiment Club99 is embedded in a
holistic lifestyle that also comprises a high degree of social contact between the members
of the community and some of the whole ecovillage. By this and by constantly taking care of
communication structures this supports human
growth on a communal and individual level.
The community avoids the use of any products
that are industrially produced or come from nonorganic or non-fair-trading sources in the socalled Third World. By this the members express
their respect to people that give their labour and
life resources to sustaining the life of people living in the richer northern hemisphere.
3.1.3. Economic highlights
The building concept only asks for human and
material resources that can be provided from
local rural surroundings. There is no need to import industrially and centrally manufactured materials. The amount of money needed to realize
Main entrance to the community building „Villa Strohbund“,
decorated ba mosaic fresco made by one of the habitants
‚... expressing our deep connection with the people to the so
called 3rd world‘
Page 13
the described constructions is radically reduced
compared to standard ecological housing:
The costs for all materials including transporting
them was less than 5.000 EUR out of which less
than 2.000 EUR for material coming from outside of the ecovillage. The whole costs for Villa
Strohbund and the two domes were only 25.000
EUR covering all expenses for planning and the
building permission, construction materials and
helping hands from outside the community.
Standard expenses for such ecological buildings
would have been more than 150.000 EUR. This
means that the realization of Villa Strohbund
needed less than 20% of financial input compared to the average. On the other hand around
15.000 hours of work done by some professionals and many learning helpers were needed to
replace work that normally is done by machines
(this includes all the many hours that were done
ineffectively by unskilled amateurs). By this the
need to borrow money and thus pay interest in
this case is zero and the small rent only covers
expenses for the use of wood and water, for insurance and the chimney sweep.
The profound skills learnt by researching and
applying these construction methods have become a source of income for the inhabitants
through their giving workshops on straw baleand natural building and their supervision of the
construction of other buildings-buildings. It has
empowered the inhabitants to plan and design
following dwelling houses by using the experience that was made by planning and constructing their first houses mainly by themselves.
3.2. Strohpolis
Strohpolis is a good example for “normal” building in Germany:
Strohpolis is the only residential building in Sieben Linden that has not been designed and built by a
special ‘neighbourhood’. The Wohnungsgenossenschaft (building cooperation situated in Sieben Linden) gave the impulse to design this house and also financed it. In 2002, 5 years after the start of the
settlement in Sieben Linden, only 2 neighbourhoods had proceeded to build their own houses. As the
ecovillage wanted to grow further without increasing the number of temporary accommodation such
as caravans / circus-wagons, the general assembly decided to build one big residential building for people who are arriving in Sieben Linden. Therefore, Strohpolis is not the house of a special neighbourhood,
but a house that was built to enable people to arrive in Sieben Linden without living in a caravan. It is
meant to be the place where the people live for the first years after their arrival in Sieben Linden, and
then build their own house with their own neighbourhood, which they found or founded during these
first years. It is a residential building with 3 floors, in which 4 apartments and 3 single rooms are situated.
The currently biggest straw bale residential building in Europe (539 sqm living space)
Page 14
3.2.1. Social features
Treppenhaus
6.13 m2
Balkon NO
6.15 m2
Abstell
4.67 m2
Bad
6.03 m2
Raum 13
12.6 m2
Kochen/ Essen
19.66 m2
Bad
5.7 m2
Diele
8.67 m2
Flur II
6.54 m2
Flur I
5.70 m2
Raum 14
15.42 m2
Küche
3.97 m2
Raum 15
13.38 m2
Raum 16
13.65 m2
Wohnen
16.4 m2
Raum 19
8.5 m2
Raum 18
15.93 m2
Raum 17
12.18 m2
Treppenhaus
11.65 m2
Balkon NO
6.13 m2
Balkon NW
16.56m2
Raum 6
12.6 m2
Abstell
4.67 m2
Bad
6.03 m2
Kochen/ Essen
19.66 m2
Diele
8.67 m2
DU
2.51 m2
Raum 8
13.38 m2
Raum 12
12.73 m2
Flur II
6.54 m2
Flur I
5.70 m2
Raum 7
15.42 m2
WC
2.92 m2
Raum 9
13.65 m2
Wohnen
16.4 m2
Raum 11
15.69 m2
Raum 10
12.18 m2
Balkon Sued 34.66 m2
Treppenhaus
11.65 m2
Abstell
4.67 m2
Bad
5.4 m2
Raum 1
12.6 m2
b.Bad
6.03 m2
Flur I
5.70 m2
Küche
8.65 m2
Kochen/ Essen
23.92 m2
Eingangsbereich
24.39 m2
Raum 2
15.42 m2
Bad
4.8 m2
Speicher/ HT
9.07 m2
Raum 4
17.44 m2
Raum 5
15.91 m2
Raum 3
13.38 m2
Ground, first and second floor plans
The function of Strohpolis – to be a home for
people who arrive in Sieben Linden for their
first period in Sieben Linden - determines the
architecture of Strohpolis. The repartition of the
rooms makes it possible to live there in very different social structures. The two upper floors are
basically two big apartments with 7 bedrooms,
one big living-room-kitchen and two bathrooms.
That solution is meant for smaller subgroups that
want to live closely together before they build
their own house as a neighbourhood.
But the big apartments can easily be divided into
either 2 apartments with 3 bedrooms and a kitchen / living room or into one apartment with
5 bedrooms and one apartment with one bedroom, according to the social structure and the
preferences of the inhabitants.
2 rooms in each (upper) floor have a separate access over the balcony, so they can be split from
the rest of the apartment and be rented as single-rooms that use the communal sanitary and
dining facilities of the ecovillage.
The ground floor is divided into smaller units:
There is one apartment with one bedroom, kitchen and bathroom and one apartment with
two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom.
Furthermore, there are two bedrooms that share
a bathroom and are not directly connected to a
kitchen. But it is possible that they connect to the
kitchen of the 2-bedroom-apartment, if this is the
wish of the inhabitants. But they can as well use
the communal dining-facilities of the ecovillage.
One room in the ground floor of the building
serves as a special kitchen for the preservation
of fruit and vegetables for the whole community. Such a room has been truly necessary for
the community of Sieben Linden, as the kitchen
where the daily meals are cooked has not the
capacity for the preservation of fruit and vegetables. That’s why one room which at first was
supposed to be another bedroom of the bigger
apartment in the ground floor, got dedicated to
this purpose.
Strohpolis currently gives a home to 9 children
(aged 3-9) and 12 adults. The existence of Strohpolis made it much easier for families with small
children to move to Sieben Linden, as for families
with children, it is extremely difficult to live in a
caravan.
Post and beam structure infilled with straw bales laid flat
3.2.2. Ecological Aspects
Strohpolis is not just “a” straw-bale-building,
Page 15
but it is the biggest residential straw-bale building of Europe. It has attracted a lot of interest
of the media. During its construction, there were
3 different TV-Teams that reported about the
construction of Strohpolis. In the biggest German journal about agriculture – the “Bauernzeitung” there have been three reports about this
building and the growing importance of strawbale-building in Germany. The fact that somebody dared to build a 3-story-building out of strawbales – and that it did work! - did contribute a
lot to the trustworthiness of straw-bale-building
within German society and the institutions that
have to deal with ecological building.
With the construction of Strohpolis, the legal situation of straw bales as a building material has
done a big step forward: the tests necessary for
the construction of Strohpolis were the tests that
formed the basis for the approval for straw bales
as a building material.
The positive ecological aspects of straw-balebuildings shall not be repeated here, as they are
explained elsewhere (see chapter 2.4. Environmental aspects). Straw-bale-building is not the
only ecological factor of the house, but most of
the others (heating with wood, solar panels, passive solar architecture, composting toilets, using
regional wood for wooden floors and balconies,
clay-plastering and inner walls, avoiding PVC and
other toxic material, etc.) have been mentioned
in the general description of Sieben Linden already and don’t need to be repeated in extent.
The heating-central that heats Strohpolis is a modern condensing-boiler that heats 3 buildings
with a total of 1000 sqm in a small local-heatSystem. This is the most ecological way to heat
with wood as the efficiency-factor of this oven is
at about 97 % and because of the good conditions of the burning, the pollution caused by this
oven is much smaller than the pollution caused
by smaller wood-stoves.
Timber construction without straw bales
Workshop
In addition to the “normal” ecological standards
of Sieben Linden, Strohpolis has a photovoltaicplant on its roof that produces about 6.700 kWh/
a. This plant produces more electric energy than
the inhabitants of this house use.
3.2.3. Economical Aspects
As Strohpolis has not been planned by its future
inhabitants, it is the house in Sieben Linden with
the least contribution of its future inhabitants.
Most of the work has been done by paid workers.
Page 16
Balcony as a scaffolding substitute
But as that is the situation for most of the houses
that are built in Germany and in other industrialized countries, Strohpolis can be taken as an
example for modern straw-bale-building used in
professional house-building companies.
The costs for the straw-bale-walls have exceeded
the estimated costs. They cost without plastering
40.000 EUR (estimated 35.000 EUR) for 430 sqm
walls and the clay plastering of the straw-balewalls cost another 40.000 EUR (estimated 30.000
EUR). An important aspect of the costs is that
Ready prepared for plastering
spraying clay plaster by machine
A little art found on the surface
The plastering team created the surfaces with their hands (and
souls)
Weatherboarding on the windward side
A gardener lives in the eastern part of the ground floor with
lovely sunflowers in front of the door
Page 17
only 30 % of the costs of the straw-bale-walls 3.3. Brunnenwiese
and only 10% of the costs of the plastering have
At the Brunnenwiese, people got together as a
been costs for material. The rest was the cost for
group where the ecological approach towards
labour. That has an important economical imlife is an expression of their connectedness to
pact – as the salaries of the workers remained
the world and own physical body. Knowing that
within the village and contributed to the living of
the social processes are equally important, they
the community-members. From a viewpoint of
found an architecture that serves both the needs
regional economy that is one of the most imporof living in community and also allows for privacy
tant impacts of straw-bale-building – the money
and individual lifestyles. During the entire builspent for building stays completely within the reding process, from the initial planning phase, and
gion and does not support industrial structures
the felling of the trees for the construction, until
far away.
the completion of the house, the future inhabitants were highly involved in cooperation with
3.2.4. Cultural aspects
the architect and the other specialists. According
As during the whole summer, Strohpolis invited
to their spiritual beliefs, also other dimensions of
volunteers to participate in the construction, 240
living in the architecture were involved as well as
people have gathered experience in building
in the way they work with each other and with
with straw-bales. This had no direct economical
the materials. Each morning the working day
impact, as the costs for the staff that was neestarts with a minute of silence to get in contact
ded to integrate these helpers and to teach them
with ourselves and the world around us.
what they needed to learn was about as high as
The neighbourhood community is working on
the savings that resulted from the work that they
the construction site with volunteers and craftsdid. But it had an important educational impact,
men from the ecovillage. To this group, the builas many people have gathered experiences with
ding process involves a social process as well,
straw-bale-building and are potential multipliers
allowing the individual to heal in the group profor this way of building. Among the 240 people,
cess and while handling natural materials, besiabout 50 % were specialists – craftsmen, engineers, architects or students of architecture. The
other 50 % were interested lay people that wanted to get to know a different way of building.
Brunnenwiese in decembre, 2006 nearly completed
Page 18
the first spade
Cooperation also as an interhuman experience
des acquiring new skills. Every person contributes according to his or her skills and possibilities.
The house contains 7 bedrooms and a large kitchen- and living room, a bathroom and a separate toilet (compost) for about 15 people. The
social idea is to share these rooms for communication but also to have individual rooms where
one can close the door. The warm chamber in
the middle of the ground floor as well as the meditation room on the second floor gives us the
opportunity to share social life in other aspects
than eating and cleaning. The dark room gives
you the feeling of being safe, warm in winter and
cool in summer, it might be dark or candle lit.
It’s a good space for sharing emotions, sorrows,
pain, fear and love. The meditation room creates
the space for the feeling of belonging together
beyond words. There will be children and elderly
people living in this house. It is planned to be the
first of three houses, designed and built by the
members of the intentional community neighbourhood Brunnenwiese which is part of the Sieben Linden ecovillage.
This project was started in the summer of 2004
and it was initiated by the people who are going to live in it. It was partly financed by the
Wohnungsgenossenschaft which also financed
Strohpolis and by the residents themselves on
their own risk. It is about to be finished and the
people will have moved in by January 2007.
3.3.1. Ecological aspects:
The spiral form is visible particularly well in the foundation
Moon phases wood sawn with a mobile sawmill
1) Materials and construction
We use nearly only natural materials. Foundations are made with as little cement and steel as
possible, where the walls and props for the ceiling are. They are insulated with cork from inside.
Under the wooden flooring in the ground floor
and the first floor regional chalkstone-rubble
was used, a very healthy material with water protective effects. Only between the foundations
and the wooden construction plastic was used
to keep moisture away.
Most of the timber was felled in our own forest.
The trees were felled at the appropriate time according to the moon phases and sawed with a
mobile sawmill. The timber framework is insulated in the ground floor with hemp and covered
with wood on both sides. On the upper floor
straw bales were used, covered with clay on both
sides planked with wood at the rainy parts. The
clay for the plaster was dug near the house. The
straw-bales were sourced near our village on an
Page 19
organic farm. The hemp for wall-insulation is
grown regional. For wind-proofing boards made
from wooden scrapings and nature-gum were
used.
The windows are made from alpine larch-wood.
This wood is weather-resistant without any treatment.
2) Low-tech heating system
In the centre of the house you find a big oven
which heats a small room. This room is about
10 square meters and spreads the warmth by
means of walls made of clay through the rest of
the house. This room can be used in winter like
a bio-sauna, for drying clothes, drying herbs and
fruit or other things. In summer this room in the
middle of the house keeps cool. There is no water system to heat the house and therefore no
pump and no electronic regulation. This gives
us a high independency from public electricity
supply. And in this system we do not need expensive and electric or electronic devices with
high embodied energy. The big mass of clay and
chalkstone-rubble in the walls and floors keeps
the warmth and provides a steady and comfortable climate.
Another oven, also available for cooking, can produce warm water whenever the 14 square-metre
solar panels are not sufficient. The hot water
from this oven and from the solar panels circulates without a pump - just following the physical
law that warm water rises - into a well insulated
1000 litre hot water tank.
The whole southern facade of the house is made
out of special insulated glass catching the sun
to reduce the heating energy (passive solar design).
The big oven in the middle of the house has got
a window in front, so that you can enjoy the view
of the big fire and after heating you can bake pizza, cake or bread in it.
The spiral form is visible particularly well in the foundation
All bedrooms have windows which you can open
near the floor. So you can breath the fresh air in
the night while retaining the warm air in the upper part of the room.
The bathroom, kitchen, and utility room, with
washing machine, are on the ground floor to reduce installation costs.
3) Insulation
In the walls of the ground floor we used hemp
for insulation, because hemp is a natural material highly resistant to humidity and parasites witPage 20
clay rendered surfaces in bedrooms and corridor
hout being chemically treated.
The first floor has a straw-bale-wall, which keeps
the warmth in the house and in the rooms, which
have no separate heaters. The rooms get warmer
by opening the doors, using the power of the
sun and having a big mass of clay on the walls
maintaining the temperature. In summer it stays
cool, in winter warm. The ceiling between the first
and second floor is also insulated with straw bales. They are covered with clay to serve the need
for fire-security and a good in door climate
3.3.2. Financial aspects
The house is built according to the organic form
of a spiral with a big tree-trunk in its centre. The
stairs give the vertical dimension to the dynamic of the spiral turning around the middle-tree.
The details of this spiral form can be seen on the
plans.
During the building period we worked together
with about 150 volunteers. Lots of them stayed
for more than two weeks to really get more information and contact to the social and ecological
approach of our neighbourhood and the ecovillage and its very complex structures.
Total planned costs for the building were about
300 000,- Euro (including all building costs, Architect, Permission and Taxes). Of this money,
the Wohnungsgenossenschaft Sieben Linden
covered 210.000 EUR, the inhabitant group paid
Meanwhile, detailed information about straw
90.000 EUR and invested about 3000 hours of
bale building is provided in almost every country
work on the construction, on facilitating social
and every language. In this submission it will be
processes on the working site and on art.
reduced to basic facts and key features.
This means building costs of about 1250,- Euro
/sqm + 12,5 h /sqm unpaid work of the building 4.1 Load bearing and non load bearing
group.
There are two ways to build with straw bales:
The wooden construction was about 20% more
The so called load bearing construction method
expensive than estimated. The heating system
uses straw bales as a statically building element,
and the water installation including all ovens
where loads of walls, ceilings, roof and wind are
(used for cooking as well) and solar panels will
carried from a sandwich element of straw bales
be approximately 28 000,- Euro serving for about
and clay plaster. The so called non-load bearing
15 people.
construction method uses straw bales as a heat
insulation infill material of timber construction.
3.3.3. Cultural aspects
In turn this is possible with ‚great distance post
The house was designed by the Architect Arnold
and beam‘ or ‚small distance timber frame‘ (see
Dransfeld in close cooperation with the building
illustration below)
group.
You find the four elements:
In Germany, the strict building-regulations made
The small room in the middle of the house is
it almost impossible to build load-bearing houses.
warm and dark. Its thick walls are built with clay
That’s why the straw-bale-pioneers in Germany
and it has the quality of earth. The room in the
started with the non-load-bearing construction
roof with its big panes of glass has the quality of
method. Building the three examples Villa Strohair and heaven. You have a panoramic view of
bund, Strohpolis and Brunnenwiese generated
the landscape and the sky.
lots of experiences and helped to optimise the
The water has a free flow without pump and
interaction of timber, straw and clay. The recogelectricity and the fire has a visible and central
nition that straw-bale-building received within
place in the living room.
4. Details about straw bale
building
Three different building methodes: Load bearing, post and beam, timber frame infill
Page 21
the last years makes it possible now, to start with
research that makes load-bearing construction
possible in Germany.
4.2. Present German approach to build with
straw, timber and clay
Presently FASBA recommends the non load bearing building method for Germany. Straw bales
can be used as heat insulating infill of wooden
constructions.
Reasons to prefer the non load bearing method
in Germany:
1. The yearly increase of wood in Germany’s
forests exceeds the current need of felling with
factor 1,5. The use of timber as a renewable building material can be defined as an eco-friendly
building method.
Hence there is no urgent need to reduce timber
as long it comes from sustainable sources.
2. Using a timber construction enables the early completion of the roof with the advantage of
dry installation of the straw bales in the walls.
This reduces the high seasonality of straw bale
buildings.
3. The load bearing use of straw bales is limited
to 1,5 to 2-storey buildings.
4. There is no approval for the load bearing method in Germany so far.
4.3. Test and examinations
4.3.1. Clay plaster
Using clay as an outer surface for the straw bales
seems to have the worst thermal resistance. For
was one main intention of all involved persons.
this reason FASBA decided to recommend an inIn the German building history a lot of buildings
fill system with bales ‘on edge’. In all three builwith an outside clay plaster exist. All the straw
dings, Villa Strohbund, Strohpolis, Brunnenwiese
bale buildings in Sieben Linden have clay plaster
the bales in the walls are orientated flat, only in
on the outer surface. A recipe published by the
the roofs on edge. The flat orientation is now
US straw bale builders Matts and Judy Knox was
outdated. A fourth straw bale building in Sieben
applied to Villa Strohbund and Strohpolis with
Linden for fifteen inhabitants is in planning by
excellent results in this practical test. Presently
architect Dirk Scharmer and the future residents.
a state-of-the-art approval for this application,
It will become a 500 sqm residential building
which includes laboratory tests and computer
(called ‚Windrose‘) where the latest conclusions,
simulation done by accredited institutes, is unsuch as orientation on edge, will be implemenderway and likely to be approved. Using clay for
ted.
inner surfaces increases the quality of the indoor
climate and is the most ecological material for 4.3.3. Producing bales
this purpose.
There had been activities on research and development to optimize the bales produced by usu4.3.2. Bale orientation
al balers. It was found out, that two ways are posOne of the results of the research that FASBA insible: The normal summer production directly on
itiated let to the result, that the most common
the fields and the winter production by making
orientation of building straw bales - laid flat Page 22
4.4. Footprint analysis/ Future plans
A first simple footprint analysis shows that the
whole construction process of the Villa Strohbund needed less than 5% of the average energy input compared to standard ecological house
building in Germany. A more detailed footprint
analysis undertaken by the Technical University
of Berlin is still in progress.
Testing the fire resistance of a clay plastered straw bale wall in
july, 2003
new small bales out of big round bales.
4.3.4. Technical qualities
In the future, SiebenLinden Ecovillage and FASBA will go further into research about the details
on straw bale building. And we will keep on teaching and inspiring visitors for this important
technique as a useful way of building houses in
industrial countries.
Resistance against biological influence
Further examinations deal with the resistance
against biological influences. Former analysis 4.5. Remaining barriers
Furthermore there is still a lot of research needed
done for the general approval showed a very reto be able to use straw bales as a building materistrictive range of application. The next revision
al more comprehensively. Especially in the fields
of the general approval should be broadened in
of mould resistance and load bearing building
such a way as to have more approved configuraspecific values and approvals are still missing. In
tions.
the course of the Europeanization of the builFire resistance/ Ignitability
ding regulations special admittances become
For the building permission of the 3-storey ‘Strohnecessary. This should happen in international
polis’ several technical properties had to be apcooperation within the coming years. Also at the
proved. Most important was to show that the igpractical field there is still considerable need for
nitability is not as high as feared by the building
action: proven procedures have to be found and
officials. It was approved that untreated straw
manuals and informative material be developed
bales can be classified as B2 (DIN 4102)- normal
and permanently updated. For the breakthrough
ignitability. Likewise important was to show that
of straw bale building in europe there is still a lot
the fire resistance of a both side clay plastered
to do and more funding is needed.
straw bale wall is matching the requirements for
multi-storey buildings. It was approved that the
walls can be classified with fire resistance of 90
minutes (according to EN 1363/ 1365)
Thermal conductivity
To obtain the general approval it was necessary
to find the exact value of the thermal conductivity (Lambda-Value) of straw bales. Doing this
examination it was fount out, that straw bales
has different Value depending on the direction
of the straw spears (cp. table 2)
Thermal conductivity of
Lambda-Value (W/mK)
straw bales
straw parallel to heat flow 0,08 (λ10,dry= 0,067)
(bales flat)
straw vertical to heat flow 0,052 (λ10,dry= 0,04)
(bales on edge)
Bale thickness
U-Value (W/ m2K)
0,49 m
0,16
0,36 m
0,14
Thermal conductivity of straw bales depending on straw orientation, Measurements of FASBA, 2003-2006
Page 23
5. Impact
5.1. Impact of Sieben Linden Ecovillage in
general
Sieben Linden is a place that inspires a lot of people. It attracts people of different ages and different ways of life to share this sustainable lifestyle
for a shorter or longer period of time.
One important impact is the change of worldview in many of our visitors. Experiencing a sustainable life-style that has nothing to do with
scarcity encourages people to shift their lifestyle
and world-view towards a more sustainable way
of living.
This effect is increased by the seminars and the
possibilities to work as volunteers in Sieben Linden.
Sieben Linden contributes to the well-being of
the region by being part of the cultural creative
network of the region and by encouraging young
families to move not only to Sieben Linden, but
also to the region.
We keep observing how detailed information
enhances the ecological consciousness of our visitors and leads to changes in their lives
5.2. Impact of the straw bale building activities in Sieben Linden
tributes to the spread of straw-bale-building in
the whole world.
Sieben Linden is offering other organisations and
networks information and support for the implementation of their projects. Hopefully, this will
lead to the realisation of houses in other regions
featuring these ecological and social aspects.
Activities around straw-bale-building, originating in Sieben Linden are:
• Consultations and tours of our buildings
• Networking with initiatives in the US, Denmark, Scotland, Estonia, Croatia and others via
the global ecovillage network
• Providing experiential learning for international groups and national environmental organisations ( travelling school of life, ijgd, BUND,
NABU)
• Education and practical Experience for visitors and interested groups (during the building
process there were at least 500 helping and learning guests from all over the world)
• Practical examples for including social
aspects on working sites for professionals
• Presentation in Conferences and in the Media worldwide
• Consultation and implementation of a straw
bale hall/ auditorium at the Monte Cerro project
in Tamera, Portugal
A great challenge was to find an adequate procedure for working with several hundred guests,
volunteers and trainees. After all, it can be said
that in the meantime Sieben Linden has accumulated the know-how and the tools for excellent
international transfer work.
Without the straw-bale-building-activities in
Sieben Linden, straw-bale-building in Germany would still be an absolutely marginal idea.
Thanks to the activities of Sieben Linden and
5.3. Impact of Straw-Bale-Building on
FASBA, straw-bale-building is now accepted in
Germany as a sustainable way of building that Society
has an official approval as a building-material.
This change of government policy is a very imStraw-bale-Building is a way of building that inportant step for this way of construction not
creases the cooperation between farmers and
only for Germany. As Germany is internationally
craftsmen. Straw-bale-construction offers jobknown for its strict building-regulations, the fact
opportunities for local workers. With straw-bathat straw-bales are an approved building-mateles, one can build attractive housing in rural envirial in Germany has a positive influence for the
ronment. As all materials for straw bale buildings
role of straw-bale-building all over the world.
can be delivered by local suppliers, straw bale
building strengthens the local economy.
Hundreds of people from all over the world worked as volunteers on the building-site, among
them many specialists and craftsmen. This conPage 24
6. Research about ecovillages
Various studies about the ecovillage and about
straw bale building focussing on different aspects
have been concluded.
The most important is a footprint analysis carried
out in 2002, although at that time the construction of Villa Strohbund was not yet completed
and the other two had not even entered the
planning stage back then. Therefore this analysis
didn’t focus on straw bale building.
The analysis was undertaken by the University
of Kassel in 2002, and compared three communities/ ecovillages with two “eco-friendly” households and the German average household.
The result was that the CO2-emissions per capita
in the Oekodorf Sieben Linden were 72 (!) per
cent lower than those of the average German
household. Sieben Linden scored especially well
in the fields of heating and housing, where the
community recorded reductions of CO2-emission by 90 per cent of the national average.
Heating
Energy supply
Total
Oekodorf Sieben Linden
200
50
250
sage is that beyond a certain standard of living
(that almost all households in Western Europe
have long since passed), greater well-being is to
be had not through the consumption of more
stuff, but by way of sharing and the building of
meaningful relationships within a human-scale
community.
The data on housing as reported in the footprint
analysis are shown in the table below (for more
information see References)
Eco friendly families
1200
700
1900
German average
3400
800
4200
kgCO2-equivalent per person and year
This footprint analysis was also done in other
communities like Kommune Niederkaufungen
(Germany), Findhorn (Scottland) and Ecovillage
at Ithaca in upstate New York. One thing all of
them had in common was the reduction of the
ecological footprint through the sharing of material goods, knowledge and culture.
These benefits of communality are reflected in a
relatively low ownership of ‘consumables’ – that
is, washing machines, lawn-mowers, cars, television sets and the like. Rather than everyone
owning each of these, people share. There are
community laundries. People gather in private
homes for watching DVDs and videos together.
Car-pools or less formal car-sharing arrangements are common. Moreover, the vibrant arts
scene within many ecovillages – choirs, dance
classes and community-organised concerts are
common and reduce the demand for televisions
and other toys and tools of distraction.
This, indeed, is the greatest gift of the ecovillage
movement: the de-linking of levels of consumption and well-being. Their most subversive mes-
7. Indicators of success / Recognition
• Sieben Linden Ecovillage won the “TATORTEPreis” 1996 and 2000, an award for outstanding
ecological commitment in rural areas in eastern
Germany (caused by Deutsche Bundesstiftung
Umwelt (DBU), the biggest ecological foundation in Germany.
• Sieben Linden is an official project of the UNdecade of education for sustainability.
• Several thousand visitors and volunteers
came from all over the world to Sieben Linden.
(Among them about 800 especially because of
the straw-bale-constructions.)
• Since the beginning of the first straw bale
house our building projects have been featured
in about 30 articles in regional newspapers,
about 20 in national newspapers and journals as
well as two radio shows and 4 TV documentations.
• The houses are all in good shape.
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• The developed housing concepts are being
«Gemeinschaftliche Lebens- und Wirtschaftsweiadopted for current building intentions in Siesen und ihre Umweltrelevanz», ein Forschungsben Linden and elsewhere.
bericht von Karl-Heinz Simon, Alexa Matovelle,
• Funding for straw-bale-building was receiDagmar Fuhr (Wissenschaftliches Zentrum fuer
ved from the German Ministry for Agriculture,
Umweltsystemforschung, Universitaet Kassel),
(via „Die Altmark Mittendrin“ and „Regionen AkKlaus-Peter Kilmer-Kirsch (Kommune Niedertiv“) and from the Landwirtschaftliche Rentenkaufungen) und Peter Dangelmeyer (Kommune
bank, the Pensions fund of German Farmers. That
Waltershausen); Kassel, Juni 2004
shows the interest of institutions that care about
agriculture and ecology for this way of building.
www.oekodorf7linden.de
• A research project running at present is cowww.fasba.de
financed by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
(DBU), the biggest ecological foundation in GerAppendix Villa Strohbund
many,
• In 2006 a first official straw bale building for
Appendix Strohpolis
the NABU Gifhorn was built.
• The transmission of know-how and experiAppendix Brunnenwiese
ences succeeded
• The regional creation of value and employment increased
• Consultation and support enquiries come
from all of Europe.
• The number of German straw bale houses
has doubled within the last 16 months on 50.
• Currently in Germany 3 schools in straw bale
building style with a total area of 4500 sqm are in
planning.
The biggest indicator for success is for us the
quality of live that we experience within these buildings and the good experiences that we
made during the construction process – that
encourages us to go on developing straw-baleconstruction and to build the future houses of
Sieben Linden with straw-bales.
Referees
1. Juergen Barth, Mitglied des Landtages, Domplatz 6-9, D-39104 Magdeburg, Germany
Phone: *49-3907-738888, e-mail: juergen.
barth@yahoo.de.
He is member of the parliament of the federal
state of Sachsen-Anhalt and the agricultural expert of the social democrats in this parliament.
2. René Dalmeijer Gorontalostreet 211, 1095WE
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Email: rene.
dalmeijer@hetnet.nl. He is president of the netherlands straw bale association Strobouw Nederland (SBN) and international networker. (Web:
http://www.strobouw.nl/)
References
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