We are very pleased to have been contacted to help with the Builders Without Borders project at the U.S. Botanical Gardens.  We donated a standing seam tin roof and slate for their strawbale building and helped with design issues during the construction process.  We believe in their efforts and understand the need to provide housing for the less fortunate that is both sustainable and earth friendly.  As a sponsor of their efforts, we would ask that you visit their site and if you can, donate. Please follow the link to their website for more information and view our photos (photo album below) of the project.  The building is available for viewing at the "One Planet - Ours!" exhibition May 24, 2008 through October 13, 2008.



Strawbale Construction
comes to Washington D.C.

Joining a summer-long exhibition at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington D.C., Builders Without Borders will create a straw-bale eco-house to demonstrate energy-efficient design and green building techniques. The exhibit will be on display from Memorial Day through Columbus Day, Saturday May 24 - October 13, 2008.

The U.S. Botanic Garden is on the National Mall, across the street from the U.S. Capitol.

The USBG is producing this exhibition, called One Planet - Ours! to showcase earth-friendly techniques and technologies including edible school yards, urban orchards, a solar greenhouse, photovoltaic panels, a vertical wind turbine, green roofs and rainwater harvesting.

The Builders Without Borders display will focus on affordable construction with natural materials, including straw bales, clay, terne roofing, slate, wood and bamboo. Visitors will step inside a small building with walls of stacked straw bales, with wooden ceiling and wainscoting, finished with smooth clay plaster.

They may also relax under a bamboo shade trellis to view informational panels tracing Americas traditional green-building heritage, from cliff dwellings and adobe pueblos of the Southwest, to an historic straw-bale church still standing strong in the Nebraska sandhills.

The BWB team will also offer hands-on workshops during the summer on special Family Days hosted by the USBG. Dates include Saturday June 21, July 19, August 16, and September 27. Kids of all ages will be invited to stack some straw bales and get their hands dirty plastering with mud. Just follow the aroma of cookies baking in a solar oven.
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We had a record amount of rain but all parties pulled together to keep the project going.  We will be adding photos as the phases complete.