Straw Bale Building

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Designing a Straw bale Building can create a home that is warm, breathable and asthetically pleasing.

You can be pretty much assured that no two stawbale houses will be exactly the same.

Straw is a natural readily available renewable material. It is affordable building material. In fact in many countries it is regarded as a waste by-product from the harvesting of wheat, rice, oats and rye so the only cost might be the transportation.

There are two main construction methods involved in strawbale building:

1. Post & Beam
2. Load bearing

There are many techniques and approaches to building with straw but one of the main benefits is that it is completely possible to build your own natural house with straw bales on your own with a little help from your friends.

Andrew Morrison from Strawbale.com runs courses in strawbale building as well as supplying all the material you might need to tackle your own straw bale building project. Check out the links below for information on Post & Beam and Load Bearing Construction
Post and Beam DVD , Load Bearing DVD

Passive Solar House

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The Passive Solar House is one in which is designed so that the materials used in it’s construction effectively collect, store and distribute solar energy as heat. Conversely a Passive Solar House will reduce the level of heat within the house in summer.

Passive Solar House Design (or Climatic Design) don’t require Active Solar Heating systems.

The design principles focus on the site location and layout of the house, local climatic conditions and the materials used in construction.

Passive Solar Design can also be applied through the retrofitting of older houses.

Find out more in “The Passive Solar House” Book. Click on the book image to the left for more information on purchasing book

CADD

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About CADD

CADD (Computer Aided Design & Drafting) is the use of Computers in Designing and Drafting. It is now commonplace among Architects and Engineers. CAD (Computer-aided design) is also refered to as CADD is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation

While CADD has applications across a number of industries, it’s use in the Civil Engineering and Architectural process has revolutionised the way homes are designed.

The use of CAD technology in Architecture has often been criticised and blamed for the lack of creativity in many modern buildings.

The digitisation of the architectural drawing and design process should not necessarily take away from the traditional skills involved in House Design.

Many renowned Architects still prefer to design using pen and paper and then have architectural CAD or CADD technicians convert the drawings to digital format.

There are many benefits to having drawings available  in digital format.

• Changes or alterations can be applied easily
• Drawings can be sent in their entirety via email to clients or other consultants for immediate review
• Designs can be converted to 3D offering clients the opportunity to view a realistic model of the planned structure, often with the ability to view a walk-through of the design

Learning CADD

CADD PRIMER is a beginner’s reference book on computer aided design and drafting. CAD is a computer graphics software that is commonly used to make architectural and engineering drawings. This book describes the general principles of working with CAD that can be applied to all the leading CAD programs.A major portion of this book is FREE. You can download more than 70 pages of useful information that describe CAD terms, principles and applications. To find out more click on the graphic of the book above or Click Here!

2D CAD software

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Information coming here shortly on using 2D CAD (Computer Aided Design) software

Passive House Design

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A Passive house or Passivhaus is one that is designed and constructed so that it requires very little energy to heat or light

Cob House

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Cob is a natural material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water and earth

Log House

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Log House or Log Cabin construction is one of the most natural building methods. Houses have been built using Logs for thousands of years. In fact the oldest known Log House in Norway is reported to be over 900 years old.

Log House Construction is popular in Scandinavia, North America and Canada where there is a plentiful supply of suitable timber. Firs, Pines and Spruce trees are popular.

For more information click "The wner-Built Log House"

At House Design Online, we are specialists in designing, importing and constructing Log House

True Log Houses are not to be confused with “Kit Houses”. If you need to find out more then read Allan Mackie’s book the “Owner-Built Log House”  for all you need to know about constructing a Log House.

Mackie guides the reader through the process of building a Log House from Site selection to the chase and preparation of the logs, the sharpening of tools and the cutting, lifting and fitting of logs, and right through to the House.