S, M, L, XL
You might think the humble straw wall panels are only suitable for small projects such as extensions or individual houses, but the possibilities are much more exciting. Let’s have a closer look at how our panels can be used in applications of different scales, such as apartment blocks, industrial buildings, sports facilities and schools to name but a few.
Small
House extensions, garden studios, and homes of all sizes are typical ‘small’ applications for our straw walls.
House extension, Ireland
Built in 2023 in the West of Ireland, this 20m2 extension to a traditional stone cottage provides a new kitchen for the house. Externally, the extension is clad with standing seam metal cladding, clearly contrasting with the original warm stone walls. Clay plasters and rammed earth floors have been used inside, providing healthy and tactile finishes.
Nomad Cabins
Nomad Cabins offer beautifully designed, high-end modular tiny houses, which can be installed in less than a day in back gardens, woodlands or seaside locations. They allow people to enjoy nature with the usual comforts, whilst having minimal environmental impact. Nomad cabins come in several standard sizes and designs, but custom designs are also available. Various material and finish packages are offered to suit different budgets. More information on Nomad Cabins.
Casa de Mi Luna, Czechia
This family home on the edge of the Český Kras nature reserve in Czechia adopts local vernacular style and uses sustainable materials to create a haven for the architect Martin Žižka and his family.
Exposed timber, clay plasters and terracotta tiles lend the interior a warm, welcoming feel. Lime render and larch cladding, in combination with traditional clay roof tiles are used externally.
The living area is designed around the central staircase with a traditional clay oven, giving the home a ‘warm heart’.
Medium
Apartment blocks Eindhoven, The Netherlands
The en|en Architects created two pilot residential projects in Eindhoven area, The Netherlands.
The first one featured 5 semi-detached houses close to the city centre. The particularity of the neighbourhood is contemporary design buildings organised in small clusters.
Houses were developed in Collective Private Development (future neighbours develop their own housing project from bottom-up). The idea was to develop modern, Bauhaus-style houses, with use of traditional building materials.
The all-electric houses are net zero energy. Heating and hot water is provided by heat pumps. Energy for this and all other electrical household equipment is provided by solar panels.
The second one included 4 family houses located in a park-like location in Borijsk. The main themes were modularity and sustainability.
Friskole primary school Feldballe, Denmark
Built in a Danish eco-village of Feldballe, this 250m2 school extension was a testing ground for five sustainable design principles formulated by Henning Larsen Architects:
- Bio-based materials in construction that sequester carbon
- Design for disassembly
- Good indoor climate - good daylight levels and natural ventilation
- Free of toxic chemicals
- Reuse of local materials
The project has redefined the standards for sustainable construction, examining the entire life cycle of a building. Part of eco-community Friland, the school’s goal of preparing a future generation of thinkers, leaders, and community members committed to creating a more sustainable world was a catalyst for the design ambition.
More information about the project.
Buddhist centre, New York, US
Designed by Baxter Projects, a 1000m2 Zen Buddhist straw temple has recently grown in the Hudson Valley, New York. A totally off-grid sanctuary is made largely from bio-based materials. One of the buildings is an accommodation block with 6 single bedrooms, 4 bedrooms with a living space and a large kitchen. The second building is a community building with a meditation hall, art studio and a library with more than 7000 books.
Both buildings have clay plaster on all the walls, whilst the external facades are Baumit render. The buildings achieved an excellent airtightness with the blower door test result of under 0.3 ACH.
The buildings have 40 solar thermal panels that provide all the heat that is needed for 10 months of the year; 50 solar PV panels will be added later and these will supplement the energy generation for the rest of the year. There is a big battery that can store energy for up to 3 weeks without sunshine.
The project has taken 1 year from start to finish to build.
Large
EcoCocon factory Voderady near Trnava, Slovakia
Our brand new, highly automated factory near Trnava in Slovakia is a good example of a large building constructed with our panels. Factories are typically made from steel or concrete frames, clad with foam based insulated panels. Our factory couldn’t be more different, it is a low carbon hybrid construction system, combining load-bearing glulam timber frame with infill straw walls, achieving Passivhaus levels of fabric performance. The walls are unashamedly left exposed inside the building, showcasing the very product that is manufactured here and creating a welcoming, healthy working environment. After all, our ‘naked’ panels still achieve 45 minutes fire resistance so they are fully compliant with the local building codes.
The factory will start to produce panels in Q1 of 2025, with production set to increase to 60,000 square meters per year in the coming months.
Extra Large
Hyllie high rise apartments, Malmö, Sweden
In Hyllie in Malmö, the developer ETC Bygg is building its largest project ever, a 12-storey building with 65 apartments built entirely in wood and other biobased materials. There are 10 storeys of accommodation above ground floor café and retail. The top floor is storage and plant space. This unique tenement house is being built in CLT mass wood as the main structure, with EcoCocon panels forming the external envelope. The building has been designed to a passive house standard with extremely low energy consumption to provide long-term comfort and low energy bills. The goal is to create a climate-positive energy system in the building with its own energy production and storage, which means that the property does not need to be connected to the local district heating system or other sources of fossil fuels.
The apartments are designed in a way that they offer accommodation to young and old alike. The idea is that both the family with small children, the pensioner and the student should be able to live alongside each other. The apartment distribution is a mixture of one bed, two bed and some larger apartments.
All apartments have generous balconies of approximately 10 – 15 square meters that run along the entire width of the apartment, offering valuable amenity for relaxation.
Construction started in 2024 and the completion is scheduled for 2025.
