This year, during the Village Building Convergence 2010,
Eva led the installation of one of Portlands first residential straw-clay retrofit projects.
In just a few days, with many hands, we filled walls that previously had no insulation. The new insulation is estimated to have an R-Value of between R-1.6 and R-2 per inch. When finished, this “wall sandwich” will have an overall R-3o value, which definitely exceeds the requirements of current energy codes! This project is at the Planet Repair Institute (PRI), nestled amongst many wonderful natural building and permaculture projects. PRI is at the home of Mark Lakeman and is the birthplace of City Repair, the annual VBC project, as well as of Communitecture, the sustainable architecture & planning firm. Mark is working with natural builder Charity Li Montez to legalize straw-clay building in Portland, OR. (Update! They did it! Check out this info from ATAC about permitting this technique…)
The photos show the project with a base coat plaster we applied once the straw-clay insulation had dried. We will be applying a beautiful finish coat in early Spring. Stay tuned for updates! See more of what we did the second year here…
