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Bruce King Structural Engineering Design / Green Materials Consultant / Code & Peer Review California CE #44445
PO Box 6397, San Rafael, CA 94903 USA (415) 987-7271 [email protected]
February 27, 2013 2013 IRC Committee International Code Council Re: proposed Appendix R - Strawbale Construction for the International Residential Code This letter is a statement of strong support for inclusion of the proposed appendix. I have been designing building structures for 35 years, and over the past 18 have worked on 45 straw bale structures both residential and commercial. Through the non-profit I founded, the Ecological Building Network (EBNet), I have had the pleasure of watching and fostering the advent of straw bale construction in the following ways:
• 2001 With a quarter million dollars in support from the State of California and other sources, EBNet conducted and published seismic, wind, fire and moisture tests of straw bale structures. That work is summarized and discussed in the subsequent publication, Design of Straw Bale Buildings.
• 2011 EBNet has written and introduced a new standard to ASTM Committee E60, Guide to the Use of Agricultural Resource Materials in Construction. That draft standard is now in the first round of balloting.
Though most often used in residential low-rise construction, straw bale walls have already demonstrated value when used in low and mid-rise commercial and other structures; there are already many examples of offices, stores, postal facilities, schools, garages and more. They demonstrate that it is possible to wean our buildings from foreign oil both by insulating very well (R30 per the State of California), and by deriving the insulation material itself from the farmer’s field – not petroleum. They are extremely effective at resisting both earthquake forces and fire, and can play a huge role in a new green construction industry. Thus I urge the Committee’s approval these provisions. Sincerely,
Bruce King, PE Director, Ecological Building Network
March 6, 2013
IRC Structural Committee
Re: Appendix R- Strawbale Construction for the International Residential Code
Dear IRC Committee members,
I write this letter in strong support of the inclusion of Strawbale Construction in the International Residential Code. I am familiar with the proposal, and have provided input over its years of development.
I have structurally engineered nine strawbale buildings, including three commercial or institutional projects. I have also engineered a strawbale school and numerous residential buildings in China in response to the 1998 Hibei earthquake. I participated in the in the design, observation, and documentation of structural testing for strawbale wall systems in the 2001 Ecological Building Network strawbale testing program, and was in co-charge of the monotonic and reversed-cyclic in-plane tests at the University of Illinois. In 2004 I oversaw in-plane cyclic testing of a strawbale wall at California Polytechnic University. I also designed and conducted a project-specific strawbale vault test for the Harrison Residence in 2000. The Harrison Residence won a 2002 Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California.
From the observation of testing, analysis of testing results, and my experience engineering and seeing the construction of strawbale buildings, I have come to see that strawbale construction when properly designed and constructed has excellent seismic-resisting qualities. It is a ductile, energy-absorbing system with inherent redundancy. Even when pushed to its limit it does not fail catastrophically. These are very valuable qualities for seismic-resisting systems.
I strongly encourage the inclusion of the proposed Strawbale Construction in the IRC. It would be of great benefit to engineers, architects, and code officials for future strawbale buildings. It would be a vast improvement over a mix of obsolete strawbale codes currently in use in various jurisdictions in the US.
Please call if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
David Mar, SEPrincipal
Strawbale Support Letter 3.6.13.odt
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The IRC has the opportunity to provide a positive framework, grounded in science and caution, for straw bale construction worldwide. As a professional who designs these buildings and a parent who is raising 2 children in one, I wholeheartedly support inclusion of Appendix R – Strawbale Construction in the International Residential Code.
March 11, 2013 2013 IRC Committee International Residential Code Re: Proposed Appendix R – Strawbale Construction for the International Residential Code Committee: I am writing in support of the inclusion of the subject section into the IRC. My support comes from experience with both the existing IRC code structure and hands-on experience with straw bale construction. My experience with the code ranges from permitting many of the first bale structures in counties across Colorado to implemeting ICC code requirements in U.S. Army Corp of Engineering projects in Afghanistan. I have built over 30 custom bale structures for clients ranging from single family residences to commercial and institutional projects. The commercial and institutional projects were grocery stores, agricultural facilities and schools. In addition to my work designing and building bale structures I have overseen or been involved with a number of tests on bale structures including the first comprehensive compression testing on plastered bale walls in 1999 at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At Odisea we have performed numerous small-scale tests on individual bales, plaster materials, and combinations thereof. As stated above, I am writing in support of the inclusion of the proposed Appendix R into the IRC. I have reviewed and made contributions to the draft version and believe it meets the standards of the ICC requirements. Including bale construction into the building codes will signal a fundamental change in the way materials and systems are reviewed and approved by our building officials. Natural materials, including cellulose fibers (straw) and earth, must be part of the larger context of “green” bulding codes, otherwise they will continue to push the limits of sustainable construction outside of the mainstream where their full potentional will remain marginalized. Should you have any questions regarding the content of this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or (970) 704-5828. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter. Sincerely,
Jeff Ruppert, P.E. (Colorado Lic #32762, California Lic #76296) Principal
1107 Virginia Street Berkeley CA 94702 • (510) 526-1935 p • (510) 526-1961 f • www.dsaarch.com • [email protected]
February 27, 2013 2013 IRC Committee International Code Council Re: proposed Appendix R - Strawbale Construction Dear Committee members, I strongly support of the proposed inclusion of Appendix R – Strawbale Construction in the International Residential Code. I am very familiar with the proposed appendix, and have provided substantial review and input for all of its content throughout its development. Daniel Smith & Associates is an architectural firm with experience in a wide range of sustainable building design practices, with particular focus and experience with strawbale construction. Since 1994 we have designed 40 strawbale buildings, including 3 commercial or institutional projects. The non-residential projects include the Trinity Springs bottling plant in Idaho, the Shorebird Nature Center in Berkeley, California, and the Presentation Center welcoming center and dining hall in northern California. The latter project is LEED Gold-certified, and won an AIA Sustainability Award in 2007. Internationally I have designed a strawbale residence in Ireland, and have assisted in the design of strawbale housing in Mongolia, of a strawbale seismic-resisting building system in earthquake-affected Pakistan, and a prototype house in Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. I participated in the design, observation, and documentation of testing for strawbale wall systems in the 2001 Ecological Building Network strawbale testing program, and am a contributing author to the resulting book Design of Straw Bale Buildings. A straw bale vault test led by structural engineer David Mar was facilitated by and conducted at my office in 2000. I encourage the inclusion of the proposed Strawbale Construction appendix in the IRC. It would be of great benefit to architects, engineers, and code officials for future residential strawbale buildings. It would be a vast improvement over the out-dated and seriously flawed strawbale codes currently in use in various jurisdictions in the US. Sincerely,
Daniel Smith, Architect California License # C-10243, LEED-AP
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February 27, 2013 2013 IRC Committee International Code Council Re: proposed Appendix R - Strawbale Construction To whom it may concern, I am writing in support for inclusion of the proposed appendix on Strawbale Construction in the International Residential Code. Our firm has been designing buildings for 25 years, and have we have designed 5 strawbale buildings - one residential, two institutional and two un-built projects over the past 10 years. Our first strawbale building was the Dining Hall at Camp Arroyo, an environmental Education Camp in Livermore, CA. At 7,500 sf, the building was the largest strawbale structure in California when it was built in 2001. It has performed extremely well over the last decade and maintains a very even temperature year around. The project won a National AIA Top Ten Green Project award and a PG&E Savings by Design award. We fol-lowed that with a strawbale home in Healdsburg, CA that also was an AIA Top Ten Green Pro-ject winner in 2003. Lastly we designed a strawbale complex for a retreat center in the Sierra foothills, with a two-story strawbale dormitory. We have also designed other residential straw-bale projects that were not built. Strawbale is an excellent building material in the right application. It is one of the lowest im-pact materials available in terms of CO2 emissions – due to the low embodied CO2 emissions of the strawbale and the reduced operating emissions due to the high insulating value. Our firm has a great deal of experience with sustainable, low-impact materials. In 1996, I re-searched and wrote ReSourceful Specifications – Guideline specifications for Environmentally Considered Materials and Methods. The Specifications were originally written for the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and later incorporated into the GreenSpec Directory, published by BuildingGreen.com. With input from Bruce King and other early pioneers of Strawbale construction, we included an early draft for a strawbale specification in the Guide-line Specifications. I have reviewed the proposal for Appendix R – Strawbale Construction – and fully support it’s inclusion into the IRC. This is important work and I urge you to approve it.
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