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In this episode of Building Sustainability we talk to Bee Rowan about prefabricated straw bale panels, Bee’s background and lime stabilised earth in disaster relief areas.

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BS7 – Shownotes

I met up with Bee Rowan at EBUKI’s Clayfest held at Centre for Alternative Technology – A fantastic event which brought together the UK’s finest earth building professionals. Bee very kindly showed us round a build she has been involved in local to us. She then gave the Hartwyn students an inspirational talk and slideshow.

We had a lovely chat on three main topics. 1 – Ecococon straw bale panels (SIPS) 2 – Bee’s career background 3 – Lime stabalised earth One thing to note, this podcast was recorded outside while our team were getting ready for work. You might hear faint murmurs of background laughter , birdsong and occasional gusts of wind.

Ecococon straw bale panels

http://www.ecococon.lt/english/

Bee’s Background

StrawBuild – http://strawbuild.org

An article written on Gwendas Garage in Sheffield.

“There was lots of energy at that time. We were part of that feminist culture and we had the feeling that we could do anything! We loved bikes and cars, but we loved the idea of empowering women even more!”

Amazon Nails

The spiral strawbale house in Ireland, load bearing, two storey built in 2000/1 by Amazon Nails

Miscanthus Bale house

CAT article on Miscanthus Bale house

Report By Judith Thornton on the Miscanthus house for SBUK

Lime stabilised earth in Pakistan

https://youtu.be/594C58kxeeg

Bee has been working with Stafford Holmes who is a world renowned lime expert.

HANDS – https://www.handsinternational.org.uk/p/about-hands.html

Bee Rowan analyses lime stabilised soil samples – Photo credit www.blueprint-alliance.org

Builders without borders Nepal

Straw bale earthquake resistance test

https://youtu.be/x8Uz-2PonEk

Solar kilnsBlueprint Alliance


A massive thank you to Bee for taking the time to come and visit and talk with us. It was a fantastic and inspiring chat!

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