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Straw-Bale StrengthA Maryland Quaker School Opts For An Eco-Friendly Building TechniqueThe Friends Community School, a Quaker-based institution located in College Park, Maryland, is building their new classroom facility entirely out of straw bales.
This fall, the Friends Community School, a 21-year-old College Park-based institution, will move into an enterprising new facility near Greenbelt, Maryland, less than ten miles to the east: a 27,000-square-foot, $5.7 million "green" structure built entirely out of straw bales. The building, which will sit on a 17-acre plot of land and house upwards of 200 students, will be one of only two in Prince George's County to be certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building System, the U.S. Green Building Council's benchmark for the design and operation of eco-friendly structures. Fitted with such fixtures as radiant floor heating, waterless urinals and a "living," rain-sustained and vegetation-covered roof - not to mention the bales themselves, which provide energy-retaining insulation - the building will be composed almost entirely of sustainable materials. Low and slightly curved, tucked against a patch of adjacent wetlands, its walls are constructed from thick rectangles of locally grown straw, stacked one atop the other and secured together with mud. The structure's lime-plastered exterior resembles a southwestern-style adobe in both texture and color - a smooth, pale-brown hue. Wide windows and open porticoes fill the classrooms and the large gymnasium space with natural light. The project is being undertaken by the Furbish Company, a sustainable building firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, that for several years has been a forerunner in environmentally conscious construction. In addition to several local straw-bale buildings - the company's president, Michael Furbish, lives in one - the group has constructed homes and offices with living roofs and solar-powered HVAC systems in both the United States and Canada. "Participating in this project has been really exciting," says Baltimore native Alyssa Dennis, one of the group of young workers who are helping to build the new school. "The versatility and benefits of straw-bale construction continue to amaze me. It's such a solid, environmentally sound method of building." The tenets behind green architecture also run in tandem with the school's Quaker philosophy, which, in part, touts the symbiotic, responsibility-driven interaction between human beings and the surrounding environment. And the construction is financially friendly in addition to being eco-friendly; an energy-efficient structure yields lower electricity bills, which, in turn, will help channel funding away from maintenance costs and toward bolstering the school's educational programs. Slated to open by the start of the school year in September, the building will be the largest known straw-bale structure on the East Coast.
The copyright of the article Straw-Bale Strength in Green/Simple Living is owned by Rachel Adams. Permission to republish Straw-Bale Strength in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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