Nebraska's Vernacular Straw Bale

December 28 visited Arthur, Nebraska. Saw a couple examples of Nebraska's vernacular straw bale tradition.

Martin-Monhart House, built 1925 Pilgrim Holiness Church, built 1928 Nebraska Sand Hills

Stefan and Kate's Adobe Home

The evening of December 27, stayed with Stefan Bell in Taos, NM. Stefan and Kate, who live in Mikawa, Hokkaido, are renovating a century old adobe home in Taos. Everything is custom built. For a beautiful earthen plaster finish, Stefan says that three things are needed: the right mix, the right temperature, and time.

Adobe ArchBathroom NichoBedroom

Ginna's Straw Bale Home

December 27-29, drove from Phoenix, AZ to Madison, WI. On December 27, visited Ginna's straw bale home in Santa Fe, NM. Stefan Bell, who built the straw bale walls of Toby and Maiko's home in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, led the construction of Ginna's home.

Wisteria vines

Passive solar design

Front door
Adobe archNicho

富山ストローベイルハウス協会

November 28 and 29 worked as a translator for Ben Nakamura and Associates Inc. (中村勉総合計画事務所). Prof. Nakamura was nominated by the Architectural Institute of Japan for an eco-architecture award sponsored by an organization in Singapore.

November 30 presented at the Center for Environmental Information Science Annual Conference in Tokyo.

December 1-4, helped the Japan Straw Bale House Association and Toyama Straw Bale House Association with the construction of the first straw bale building in Toyama. Actually only the master bedroom is straw bale. The building was designed by Hiroyo Nakata, a graduate of Nihon University. Hiroyo Nakata also manages a cafe in Toyama called Cafe trois.

Sweet Potato Harvest

Roughly a forth of the sweet potato harvest.
Kyle preparing beds for transplants and wheat. Chinese cabbages under row cover in background.

手づくり薪ストーブ

November 21 and 23 participated in a "handmade wood burning stove workshop" (手づくり薪ストーブワークショップ) taught by Takahashi-san, a artisan blacksmith/welder who lives in Fujino.

cut, bend, and weld rebar base

cut and fold metal wrap

fill metal wrap with firebrick

steel shield to interrupt flow of gases and reflect heat

assemble parts, drill and rivet.

total cost of materials for a functional stove with cooking surface on top: $160

On the way to the workshop, met Sawanishi-san, alias "Kosho" and other graduates of Permaculture Center Japan.Straw bales removed and replaced with a traditional Japanese bamboo lattice and earthen plaster.

Received a ticket from Itonaga-sensei to attend 未来ビレッジサミット, an ecovillage conference of sorts, on November 22.

Straw-Clay Block Test Wall

November 18 and 19 was in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, working on a Straw-Clay Block Test Wall using blocks made a month ago.Jinnouchi-san and Noda-san inspecting the test wall.Kyle testing the strength of the blocks. We now have a blog for the light straw clay project: 自然の家づくり職人ネット.Before returning to Fujisawa on the 19, visited Toby at "Square One".

飯舘村

November 16 and 17 was in Iitate village in Fukushima Prefecture meeting with the architect and general contractor of a model home being built with funds from Japan's Ministry of the Environment.The home will feature an ecological design using natural materials, including one wall of straw bale.
After finishing work on the 17, visited Shimpei Murakami (村上真平) who runs an organic farm and macrobiotic restaurant. Murakami-san has worked as agricultural extention agent in Thailand and other parts of southeast Asia. In 2002, I read a book written by Murakami-san entitled, "Lessons from Nature".He recently built a wood fired oven using Allen Scott's oven design.

那須 ストローベイル

October 31 through November 2, participated as a staff member in the Japan Straw Bale Association's annual seminar and workshop in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture.November 3, collected data from a straw bale building at a dairy farm and milk processing plant also in Nasu run by Amita Corporation.

Phil Cashman

October 29 visited Phil Cashman in Hayama (葉山) with Mio Saito, a senior college student in Dr. Itonaga's research studio. Phil was born and raised in Tokyo, attended college in the US, worked as a carpenter in Japan, studied permaculture in Australia, and now lives in Hayama with his wife and daughter.Phil is passionate about permaculture, seed saving, Japanese honey bees, natural building, etc. He's in the process of remodeling a timber-frame home with natural materials and ecological features.Walls insulated with discarded tatami mats and plastered with earth. Tatami mats, made of a straw core with reed finish, are a traditional flooring material in Japan.Russian Oven (ペチカ)
Phil is in the process of building a chicken tractor. Since Mio's senior project is to build a chicken tractor, I thought that the two should get together.

Square One's interior finish plaster

October 24-27 applied the finish interior plaster to "Square One", Toby and Maiko's straw bale home in Higashikawa, Hokkaido. Please see Toby's blog for photos. I also collected data from Square One, and appear briefly in this video that Toby shot:
video update
After finishing work on the 27th, Stefan and I celebrated by taking a short hike and then a long soak in a hot springs in Biei (美瑛). Stefan, alias "The Great Ballini", lead the straw bale building and earth plastering segment of the construction process.

Light Straw Clay Blocks

October 22 and 23 made sample light straw clay blocks with Noda-san and Jinnouchi-san in Higashikawa, Hokkaido. Noda-san is a professional plasterer from Urakawa, Hokkaido. Jinnouchi-san built and lives in a straw bale home and directs a forestry NPO call MoriNet Hokkaido. Last spring, the three of us renovated Cafe Bura Bura in Urakawa, Hokkaido using straw bales and earthen plasters. We're trying to develop a natural insulation consisting of local materials for a model ecological home planned to be built next year. Hanamoto Construction Company supplied the materials and space to produce and dry the blocks.

Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture

October 1 traveled to Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture to help the Japan Straw Bale House Association with a small straw bale project for a local resturant. A straw bale bench creating an outdoor dinning area with roof.

Square One ストローベイル

September 23-27, I was in Higashikawa Town of Asahikawa City in Hokkaido, the island farthest north of Japan's four main islands. I was working on Toby and Maiko's straw bale home, "Square One". In August, I installed sensors in the north wall. Below are photos of the boxes housing the dataloggers before and after the first coat of plaster.

Japan Minka Revival Association

September 22 attended a workshop in 塩山(Enzan), Yamanashi Prefecture sponsored by the Japan Minka Revival Association (JMRA). "Minka" means house in Japanese, but refers to traditional Japanese timber-framed homes with wattle and daub walls. Takeru YOKOKAWA, a friend of mine who I met at the international ecovillage conference in Tokyo this past April, has just been appointed school principle of a Minka School associated with JMRA. The main teacher is 大沢匠先生(Mr. Ohsawa), a architect living and working in Kamakura. The workshop consisted of two parts, 竹小舞(takekomai) and 茅葺屋根(thatched roofing). Takekomai is the wattle of Japanese earthen plastered walls.Before the second world war, many rural Japanese villages were self-sufficient in terms of roofing materials. Each individual home would cultivate its own reed field and harvest yearly. The year's harvest would be gathered and used to re-thatch one or more buildings in the community. Thatching was done as a community.

However, most of the reed fields are no longer cultivated and there are very few thatch roofers. Japanese thatched roofs are framed with poles and bamboo lashed together with straw rope. Also great for taking naps.

Travels with Ikuta-san in Chiba Prefecture

September 15-17 traveled in Chiba Prefecture with Shigeyuki IKUTA, secretariat of the Japan Straw Bale House Association.

Ikuta-san at "Love and Rice"

On September 15, collected data from Furyu, the straw bale cafe/gallery built last summer for Ikue MASADO (formally Saya TAKAGI).Ikuta-san and I spent the evening at "Love and Rice", an intentional community in 鴨川 (Kamogawa), Chiba Prefecture.Their motto is "Life is a Journey, not a destination". Fitting for a community that began as a collection of buses and vans.They're now in the process of building a home, and I was asked to consult and help with the production of abode.Inspired by a project in Norway called the Eco House, I've proposed the use of abode made of light-straw-clay. Light-straw-clay provides better insulation than traditional cob or adobe. It is also lighter than cob and traditional adobe, which may be more suitable for seismic zones. Light-straw-clay, having more organic matter (straw) than cob and adobe, is also more susceptible to moisture and decay, which will require greater attention to construction details. On September 16, we made test adobe of various sizes and compositions entirely from local materials within 1km.

Copped straw
Clay slip
Mix
Pack into a form
Dry

The width of the bricks was determined by the width of the framing members. Kamogawa has a heavy clay loam, suitable for light-straw-clay and rice cultivation.

On Septebmer 16, visited the construction site of a home being built using traditional Japanese timber-framing.

Construction drawing used by Japanese tiber-framers

Had lunch at 鴨川自然王国 (literally, Kamogawa Kingdom of Nature), a sustainability center, cafe, and working farm founded by Toshio FUJIMOTO, leader of the "student movement", a student antiwar movement in the 60's and 70's, who's noncompliance closed universities in Tokyo. Fujimoto spent a couple of years in prison as a result.

Passive solar design at Kamogawa Shizen Oukoku

In the afternoon, visited Riko HIRATA, a carpenter by trade, but spends most of her time farming. Returned to Fujisawa late Thursday night.