Our Northwest

Building and Living Off the Grid in an Idaho Straw Bale Home

Host intro:

If you build a home of straw, will you end up like the first of the three little pigs – in misadventure? Not anymore. Straw bale homes are sturdy, permanent and have a high insulation value, which helps with energy conservation. In this Our Northwest Home feature, Mary Hawkins learns about building and living off-the-grid in a straw bale home.

Listen to the radio feature here (4:25) Link to the video here (11:40)

How An Architect Builds: A Conversation with Greg Kessler

(pictured: a sketch of Greg Kessler's new home, now under construction)

Host: Planning to build your dream home? Architect Gregg Kessler says before you do, you must think beyond prevailing notions of “home”, and ask yourself some fundamental questions about what truly matters to you. Mary Hawkins reports in “Our Northwest Home.”

Hawkins: Dream homes are the stuff of everyone’s imagination, according to Greg Kessler. And those notions of home can mislead us into some big homebuilding mistakes. 

Photos of Kessler's Home in Progress

 
Above  is an architectural rendering of the home.  The home includes several internal spaces: two are under the same roof. The rear building that includes the garage (to the right in the above drawing) is detached. Two courtyards figure prominently in the plans.  Below is a photo taken on the evening of  May 17, 2010 from a different angle than the artist's rendering. The siding isn't complete, nor have the window awnings been built - but the structure is almost complete.