Stand B130 in the Grand Build section of Grand Designs Live is possibly my favourite part of the entire exhibition. It features companies that build with straw bales, cob, and timber frame makers. I spent quite a bit of time on the stand yesterday, talking to about building out of straw and cob.

Amazonails is a company that offers designs, advice, consultancy and training in the use of straw bales in construction and Sophie walked me through some of the concepts involved. We spoke firstly about how straw bales are a structural building material, which surprised me no end. You can build entirely out of straw bales without needing a wooden frame to hold the building up.

We then talked about how you render the bales, with line on the outside and clay on the inside.

This is an example of the clay render:
And the lime render:
With a lovely example of pargetting, or sculpting in lime plaster:
And finally, how do you build a straw bale wall? It’s actually very simple.

Here are the stakes that hold the bale in place:And essential equipment for tidying up the bales, which apparently get a bit ‘hairy’ when freshly laid, and for sculpting rounded corners:

For me, straw bale building is an exciting idea. It’s very cheap, very easy, incredibly green, and you can do a lot of it yourself. Amazonails do training courses, so you can learn how straw bale building works before embarking on your own project.