[freshhawk]

Actually it would be very different to run a sewer to this house than to a traditional house.

When you are piping large amounts of raw sewage around you need strict rules to protect people, property and the environment. So now you need to get it up to code, and pay trained people to check that it complies.

Straw is a promising material but I think we've already tried harvesting logs in "large quantities" and it hasn't worked out perfectly.

[dodedo]

As I said, I have people in my family who have built strawbale houses to code (California code including earthquake provisions, no less). The stylized aspect is distinct from the strawbale and inset-in-land aspect.

Regarding logs, I'm currently sitting in a house with wood framing in the suburbs, and every house around me as far as I can see is also framed with wood.

[freshhawk]

Oh yeah, nothing particularily hard about building strawbale houses to code.

My point was about this particular style of amateur building not being amenable to things that require standards.

[ars]

The framing is designed to minimize the use of wood, while this house uses extravagant quantities of it.

[ryduh]

Would you be willing to post information about the strawbale houses that were built to code? Where can I find more information on that?

[dodedo]

I'm not too close with that side of the family, all I know is what I've gleaned during some extended visits. However, this looks like it might be a good starting point: http://www.strawbuilding.org/sbweb/content/strawbale-codes

Strawbale houses do not look significantly different from normal wood-frame, drywall and stucco homes. If I hadn't been told I would not have known.