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We have just started building a BaleHaus at Bath University. The house is made from prefabricated straw and hemp cladding panels. The benefit of prefabrication brings great speed in construction on site. For example, the two storey Balehaus at Bath was built in just 3 days. We started on Tuesday and the roof was on by Thursday.

In the UK we have 3m tonnes per annum of straw available as a by product of growing wheat the same goes for hemp although in smaller amounts.

The key benefits of building this way is that we create a home that needs just 20% of a the heat energy of conventional house, all of the materials are entirely renewable, and because they are made from materials created through photosynthesis, the house becomes a domestic carbon bank.

The Balehaus at Bath has banked the atmospheric equivalent of 32,905 kg of CO2. The BaleHaus at Bath, even after accounting for the emissions created through the manufacture and transport of its components, is carbon negative!