proyectos

Watershed Straw Bale Residence

California

A two-storey house on a 170-acre (roughly 69-hectare) property alongside Porter Creek, in Sonoma County (California), designed by Arkin Tilt Architects as a self-sufficient, off-grid settlement. The house is organised into east-west-oriented volumes that step up the hillside to minimise impact on the landscape. It combines several earth and plant-fibre systems: lime-rendered straw bale walls on the upper floor, rammed earth, reclaimed redwood and Watershed Blocks —low carbon footprint stabilised earth blocks— which act as a retaining wall and support for the building, reducing the embodied CO2 of the structure. The passive solar design lets direct sunlight into the main spaces during the cold months, while eaves and external louvres keep out summer radiation; the roof, partially vegetated, is completed with metal panels. The project illustrates a mature combination of straw, earth and reclaimed timber to achieve comfort with minimal embodied and operational energy.