Straw Bale House
Calvert County, Maryland 

Galczynski Architects collaborated to bring a client’s green building ideals to the design of her dream house. Her particular dream was to build as environmentally responsible a house as possible – incorporating both new technologies and older, proven ideas. The result of the process was a house made of straw.

The exterior walls are of 24” thick straw bales to act as insulation for the large temperature swings experienced in southern MD. Solar electric and solar hot water are incorporated to heat the radiant floor slab. Passive solar design was employed through sun angle calculations to maximize solar gain to the interior in the winter and minimize it in summer. The house is currently under construction.

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