Straw delivery

This month we began stacking, lathing & plastering bales for the U.S. Forest Service District Ranger Station in King City.  Here are sketches of the project.

Designed by WRNS Studio, with Plant Construction as general contractor.

Bale Squeeze placing a stack of straw bales

Bale wall before lathing

Bale wall with lathing

Courtyard

Yesterday Buddy, from Ornamental Iron Designs, brought his daughter along as he checked on the curved stair railing and other features at our project on a lake in the Central Valley.  Here is a stitched together picture taken looking into the courtyard.

Davis Train Station

We recently passed by the Davis Train Station on the train, and saw the strawbale benches we made from that vantage point for the first time.

Here’s a little video and slide show!

Here is an interesting explanation of why fresh air is good for us!

We first conceived the design for this house on a windy hilltop during a design charette with the entire SM staff, college interns and the two daughters who will share a bedroom there.

Since then the project has traveled the path to completion largely unchanged from it’s original scheme which features a tall single story kitchen and great room and a two-story bedroom wing, situated to provide shelter from winds and to take advantage of the wide and varied views.

Conceptual view from the road....

View from the road....

Great Room & Fireplace...

The Great Room features a fireplace, an office nook and an open-beamed ceiling.  It opens out to a patio to the west, and a courtyard to the south.

Great Room under construction

Skillful Means designed a home for land in the Sierras that features broad views in all directions, hot summers and cold winters, which is now being built by the owner…..The building is designed to be comfortable all year round.  ”Conventional” peaked-roof sections linked together by undulating  sections with flat  roofs covered in vegetation.  The green roofs will cool the building in summer, and abundant south-facing windows will collect heat in winter.

A curved window wall acts as a solar collector, and provides broad views from the living and dining areas. PV modules shade the kitchen.

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A two-story tower houses a private get-away, with doors opening onto the roof garden.    The glass-enclosed spiral staircase to the tower is designed as a solar chimney which will draw ventilation through the house in summer, and warm the tower in winter.  

Construction is progressing at a great pace, and the goal is to be living in the house in a few short months!

The house is in two wings. Bedrooms are  above the garage/shop.  The living and dining areas, with patios on both sides, are connected to the bedrooms by a mudroom/laundry.

The house is carefully positioned to take advantage of broad views,  and to provide a sheltered courtyard on the hilltop.

Our strawbale house in Oakdale is taking shape: bales and lathing are almost complete, and the roof tiles are ready to go on.   Plaster and drywall will be next.

At left,  Skillful Meanie Benito Steen works on the entry to the round tower.  Downstairs will be an office, and upstairs will be a sitting room with a balcony for views of migrating birds, the Sierra Mountains, and more.

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James Campbell walks past the entry door along the open colonnade that runs the length of the house and through the living and dining areas.

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A straw bale bench will follow the curves of the window wall that looks out on a lake and snowy mountains beyond.

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Skillful Meanies Cindy Lan, project designer, and Andy Fitanades, project supervisor, regularly confer on the many details of the project.

Earlier pictures are here! and here!