Building a garden office with straw

Just as gardens and grass go together, so do garden office sheds and straw. There are now increasing numbers of smallbuild examples of this popular building material including this Straw Bale Office designed by Gaia Architects in Perthshire. It's a 30 square metre garden office with a curved glulam roof on eight poles braced with stainless steel shipping fixings. The project has been developed using almost entirely local, natural and reclaimed materials, such as untreated sheeps wool insulation, straw bales for the walls covered in lime harling and limewash, sharpened hazel twigs, clay-straw mix filling, reclaimed douglas fir floor boards, woodwool and a reused gas pipe as a window.

The Strawdio is a music studio built of straw in the south west of England. Owner Piers Partridge has documented the build in an excellent online journal on the site and also included detailed costings and plans. The foundations are concrete block and natural stone on compressed scalping with a reclaimed pine board floor and underfloor insulation provided by straw bales sawn in half and wedged between the joists. Straw bale walls are finished with three coats of lime plaster inside and out and the whole thing is 6 bales high at the front, 7 at the back.

Another great example of a straw project from start to finish is chronicled at the
Build it with bales blog where a one bedroom straw cabin has been built on a park home chassis in East Yorkshire. It has renewable electricity, solar hot water and an environmentally friendly toilet system and its makers believe it to be the first mobile home in the world made from straw. You can even book holiday accommodation here. More details on the site.

If you'd like to find out more about building with straw try Straw Bale Futures or the Strawbale Building Co and of course the UK Strawbale Building Association.

Straw bale garden office

A tremendous garden office meeting room built for and by Outpost architecture and design studio based in London. Here's what they say about it:

"Our straw room is a self-build project that highlights the ease of building with natural building materials making it an affordable and accessible solution for the UK’s housing needs. The walls are solely load bearing straw bales, with then lime render to both the inside and outside surfaces. This construction technique creates a building envelope that has high thermal mass, high U-value of 0.1 and fantastic acoustic qualities. All the materials we used (straw, sheeps wool, lime render and timber) are low embodied energy materials that create an architecture with health and well-being benefits over traditional construction methods."

More details and images at the link above. 

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What eco-friendly materials will be used to build the garden office of the future?

It's always hard to predict the next developments in the garden office industry but here's an interesting report from Sell House Fast who spoke to nearly 600 architects, engineers and construction professionals to ask them which eco-friendly building materials they expected the property industry in general to use more of in 2020

Around three quarters plumped for bamboo, just over a third went for straw bales and more than a third chose cork, a particularly interesting choice as we're already seeing more cork used in garden office builds such as the compostable garden office we recently featured on Shedworking and the cork garden office pictured above which recently made the finals of the Shed of the Year competition in the eco category.

The attractions of these materials are many: bamboo is light and has tensile strength, a good replacement for imported building materials; straw bales have naturally high insulating qualities; and cork does not absorb water or rot and is naturally fire resistant (it is also ideal for flooring and insulation due to its noise as well as shock-absorbing attributes). -------------------------------------------------------

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Straw Bale Shed

Shedworking is a big fan of using straw in a shed build and Uncle Wilco at Shedblog highlights a particular good example of this at readersheds.co.uk where you can find plenty more images. It was built by James Dexter from Norwich who comments:

"May be extended underground at some point to start subterranean 'base'...actually I would be interested to hear if anyone has used their shed as a starting point to dig underground. If the shed is conceived as a 'retreat', then it seems to me that psychologically the next step is to with"draw secretively into the earth itself. No?"

Choosing a shed - Iron Shirt

Devon-based Iron Shirt offer what they describe as bespoke "fantasy" garden studios, summerhouses, workshops and even homes. They pride themself on their low impact eco cabins which used straw bale construction, green roofs and incorporate solar power. Materials are local and recycled wherever possible and the buildings are built to blend into the landscape. And on top of this, if you source materials or take part in the building, their prices are reduced. There are some lovely examples on their site. Above (and just below) is the Love Shack which comes with glazed oak stable doors, turf and sedum roof, wood burning stove, stained glass windows and an interior finished in papiere mache.Below is the Garden Guest House, built along similar lines. Lots more mouthwatering photos, including straw bale houses like this one below, at their site.

Low impact

I wanted to leave you with something inspirational this summer before Shedworking takes its annual staff holidays and while Simon Dale's low impact woodland home is not technically a shed or a garden office, it feels like an archetypal shedworking atmosphere. Built in Wales, this is how Simon describes it:

"The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings."

It is dug into the hillside for low visual impact and shelter with stone and mud used for retaining walls and founations. It has an oak frame, straw bale insulation, and lime plaster on the walls. It's a truly fantastic site and you should definitely have a browse around it.


Simon is also involved in the fascinating eco-village Lammas project in Wales. You should also have a look at the Building a home of earth blog here and an article from the Mail on Sunday by Jane Fryer which poses the question, why are the authorities intent on tearing down the most eco-friendly home in Britain?

Largest eco-house open day (plus garden office)

As part of Oxfordshire Ecovation Open Days, 18 houses in the area will be opening their doors to share the techniques and opportunities of eco-renovation (November 24 and 25). There's plenty to see (with lots of details on their site) from former council houses to 17th century cottages. The organisers, who claim this is the largest eco-house open day ever organised in the UK, say:

"Some of the houses use standard materials that could be bought at any builders merchant. Others use experimental technologies including straw bale and sheep wool insulation, solar panels, wood burners and a heat pump that draws water from the Thames."

Among the buildings on display is the Strawbale house pictured above at 55 Henley Avenue, OX4 4DJ, which is a garden office and spare room built from strawbales and recycled materials with wood burner and composting toilet. It's open on the Saturday from 10am until noon, and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm.

Revolving shed - technical expertise appeal

Shedworking reader Sam Krijan has been in touch to tell us of his intriguing plans to build a rotating shed on the spot pictured above, remote from his own home. If anybody has knowledge of turntable mechanics (and/or how George Bernard Shaw's rotating shed worked), please do email him. It sounds like the final build will be an interesting one: Sam plans to use solar energy, catchment water and local building materials, maybe including straw bales. The overall size will be determined by the turntable, but should not exceed 10x10. We'll post updates on Shedworking.

Raffles Garden Buildings: thatching

Andrew and David Raffle specialise in the dying art of designing new and restoring historic summerhouses and garden structures with thatched roofs. This means working with moss and heather as well as more wellknown rustic materials. Their site is marvellous, particularly the picture gallery here and features articles on an interesting range of projects including:
* The Heather House at Florence Court, County Fermanagh, home to the Earls of Enniskillen, for the National Trust
* The reconstruction of the 18th century Witches Hut at Hestercombe Gardens (pictured above)
* A new hermitage in the Wilderness Garden at Elton Hall in Cambridgeshire
* The Moss House in the Spring Gardens, Belvoir Castle (pictured below)
* Gettting hold of 6,000 clean knuckle bones to repair Knuckle bone Arbour, Castle Ashby

According to an article in Country Life, both brothers served apprenticeships as thatchers in Derbyshire, but in 1983 they decided to specialise in building and restoring rustic huts. The article continues:

"After much historical research, they embarked on designing their own. 'We thatch with heather, straw or reed, and we use timber which still has the bark on it,' says David Raffle. 'Some people ask us to put in a hidden door, so we build in a bit of curved wood which can act as a door handle, opening into a secret storage space behind.'"

I also particularly like their chicken shed, pictured below.

Build your garden office out of Cob

If you fancy building your own garden office, consider using cob, a very old building technique which combines earth, straw, sand and water in a sturdy way to form lumps ('cobs') which you then press together to form walls. As long as it's not too rainy, you'll be fine and many people live in cob homes in the UK, especially in Cornwall and Devon. And of course it's superduper eco-friendly. Devon-based Cob experts Earthed - artists and builders who create sustainable structures specialising in cob, roundpole timber frame, lime and stonework - run educational workshops teaching you the basics of cobbuilding so you can create something like the above Wythenshawe cob building. For more smashing pictures click here.

Another option is Cob in Cornwall run from Helston by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce who design and construct new cob and strawbale walls and buildings - an example of a studio build is pictured below.
As with the Earthed site, there's plenty of information on their web site to convince you that cob is the way to go. Here they are on heating:

"Earth buidings have outstanding thermal capabilities. The walls are generally built up to two feet thick, making it an ideal material for both cool and warm climates. These properties make cob an ideal material for creating garden courtyard spaces. The ability of the earth to absorb and then re-radiate the heat of the sun can create a micro-climate suitable for growing tropical fruit trees and for personal comfort."

Katy and Adam have also written a book on building with cob which you can read about here and see a sample chapter. And below is a picture of them at work.

Colne Valley Postal History Museum/Shed

Keeping up our recent post office-shed theme, here is the Colne Valley Postal History Museum, privately owned, established and run by Steve Knight. It houses more than 100 ex-British Post Office letter boxes not to mention 19 Stamp Vending Machines and associated artefacts. Public open days are held each year and it is also open by prior arrangement with the Curator. Here's what he says about the build:

The inner walls are insulated with 1" polystyrene block, faced with marine ply painted GPO Light Straw. Two 4ft fluorescent strips are fitred to the boarded out roof line. Electrical supplies are in conduit and there is a distribution board in one corner. To conserve heat and improve the appearence it is carpeted with a hard wearing short-pile and a 100w ceramic panel heater ensures everything stays dry over the Winter months. VHF Telephone service is provided, but traditional copper cable connections are also possible via our own telegraph poles and into our K6 telephone Kiosk.

More photos and details at readersheds.co.uk
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Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

We're fully into Flower Show season now and there are several interesting shedlike structures, though no specific shedworking ones, at theHampton Court Palace Flower Show. Above is The Homebase Room with a View inspired by the Ionic Temple at Rievaulx Terrace in North Yorkshire. The main structure could be used for fair weather shedworking and also has a rather nice green roof. Below is the Papillon Pavilion designed by Andrew Marson which features a lovely pavilion which man and butterfly can happily share.
Holiday Inn's "The Green Room" says it is

"designed to demonstrate ways to improve your living space and make the most of your surroundings by literally bringing the outdoors inside. Visitors will be taken on a journey to discover and explore a transitional space that can be partitioned to provide a comfortable safe haven for a good night’s sleep, but can also be opened up to provide an inspirational space to entertain and enjoy nature."

I like it.Below is The National Year of Reading Garden, which has rendered straw bale walls and what look like some nice sheddish structures in two corners. The World of Water Garden naturally features lots of water as well as a timber building.And finally, the two most shedworkinglike in the whole show. First, Domoney Ltd's The Croft Spot Secret Garden which includes an appealing summerhouse. And finally, the pick of the show, Burgbad Bathrooms' The Burgbad Sanctuary which is

"inspired by the tranquil temple grounds typical of South East Asia, this seductive spa garden is designed to provide an unashamedly escapist retreat for those living in less idyllic climes. Amid fern fronds and rare orchids, a lushly-planted bathing pavilion creates a year-round refuge, in a space that appears open to the sky. Following the principles of the emerging South East Asian gardening style, the design juxtaposes exuberant swathes of jungle planting with hefty blocks of angular landscaping, in an attempt to capture the serenity of the region’s ancient temples."

The show runs 8 – 13 July, first two days RHS members only. If eagle-eyed readers spot any more, please let me know.

Thatched summerhouseworking

In a desperate bid to encourage a bit of summer, here is a lovely summer house from Architectural Heritage whose Thatched Edwardian Summer House is a faithful copy of an Edwardian original built by Henry & Julius Caesar (rustic house builders to the King), of Knutsford, Cheshire, as mentioned earlier in the week. The original design dates back to around 1910. It's hand built from English oak with reclaimed oak plank flooring, boasts an interior lined in herringbone pine with built-in banquet seating to the rear and side. The leaded glass windows contain hand blown bullion glass, while the windows to the front elevation are decorated with handpainted wild flowers, songbirds, frogs, ears of corn and harvest mice. The fire retardant wheat straw roof is constructed by a local Master Thatcher and the rustic oak plank exterior will weather down to a pleasing silver grey over time. It stands 12' 9" by 10' 6" wide.

Hobby Huts - Fat architects

London-based architects Fat is run by Sean Griffiths, Charles Holland and Sam Jacob who have produced some of the most interesting buildings of the last few years, including the famous Blue House in east London which is a kind of live/work venture. I particularly like their Hobby Huts (pictured) which are low cost structures in Hoogvliet, a suburb of Rotterdam. The huts can be rented by local small businesses, crafts people, artists and are part of a larger regeneration project that includes a park and community hall (also designed by FAT).

Also appealing are Fat's steel-framed 'accommodation units' for the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Aberdeenshire (also pictured). According to Fat: "The proposal refers to the idea of basic shelter such as huts, tents, yurts, and shacks. It is intended as a sophisticated reworking of these ideas." Eclectic to the end, the design was apparently also influenced by recumbent stone circles, the shaggy coats of highland cattle, plastic wrapped bales of straw, agricultural machinery, semi-derelict buildings in the landscape, and anoraks.

That Roundhouse: how to build a green 'shed'

That Roundhouse is actually rather more than a shed, it's a wood frame, cordwood and cob ecohome with recycled window walls, a straw-insulated turf roof and powered by solar power and wind turbine. It also has a compost lavatory and reed beds for grey water. And it has also had a, pardon my language, hell of a battle to get planning permission (details on their site). Happily, they've recently been granted this which as they say is Good News. There's a huge amount of information on the site too including lots of marvellous photos and the chance to buy the book of the house: it's so good it's been translated into Norwegian. And here's how they made their small visitors' den which is shedsize and was built very swiftly:Many thanks to Annie Leymarie for the alert

The Story Garden office

The British Library in collaboration with eco-educational charity Global Generation will open a temporary community garden on the land to the north of the British Library building in May in response to the local community’s wishes for more green space. Local people and British Library staff will start planting the garden next month.

The British Library [full disclosure, they publish several of my books] and developers Stanhope say the one acre site will be somewhere for people to come and plant and cook together. It will include a kitchen and office in converted containers as well as a straw bale rounhouse, pictured above. Other features are an orchard and a MAKE space in partnership with UAL Central St Martins and Somers Town Community Association which aims to deliver specific projects for the local community of Somers Town.
 The Story Garden forms part of the British Library’s plans to develop the 2.8 acre site to the north of the St Pancras building to include space for exhibitions, business and learning facilities.

Slaney Devlin of the Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum said: “The Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum is aware of the importance of green and open spaces in improving the health and wellbeing of those living, studying and working in Somers Town.  We hope that the planned community garden will be a new green resource in the area and will catalyse a growth in planting and gardening in the wider community."

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Natural Architecture

We've mentioned how you might grow your own garden office before. Now comes a marvellous book, Natural Architecture, by Alessandro Rocca, architect, critic and professor at the Milan Polytechnic. Here's the blurb from publishers Princeton Architectural Press:

"The artists and architects in Natural Architecture have transformed the act of building into an art form capable of sparking new relationships with nature, landscape, and the environment. Though far from basic or primitive, these creations are built from humble elements - branches, twigs, pebbles, straw, stone - found at their site. Fulfilling a wide variety of intentions - sometimes structural, sometimes sculptural, sometimes sacred - the works presented here inspire a sense of awe and reverence for the forces of nature. From a bridge in Tibet connecting an orphanage and a nearby village, to a hut fit for mythical creatures, to a pavilion in Iceland with a roof made of water perpetually frozen in an exuberant shape, each project resonates with a sense of purpose and innate beauty."

Via Designboom where you can see some of the projects featured.

Meditation Hut on the Hill

A lovely build from straw bale specialists Organicforms Design, a meditation hut on a 19 degree slope. Lots more lovely photos at their site.

Herb drying tower at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Our look at shedlike structures at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show continues with the A Letter from a Million Years Past from Korean artist Jihae Hwang whose garden's important message is all about stopping landscape destruction for the benefit of people, plants and places via an evocation of the Jiri Mountains in South Korea, home to1,500 species of native Korean plants that have medicinal value, many of which have been threatened with extinction.

The central point of the garden will be a traditional Korean herb drying tower, crafted by Alex Gibbons from Cumbria. Alex is one of the remaining craftspeople in the UK who creates earth-buildings, using mud, straw and sand to build bespoke creations. The tower references similar buildings in South Korea, used to dry and store herbs.

At the end of the show, some of the plants from the garden will be donated to the Maggie’s Centre in Nottingham. 

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Plankbridge launches new Tiny House model

Shepherds' hut specialists Plankbridge have announced a major new model, their take on the tiny house which they say can help "to solve residential housing needs and creating a unique and high-quality holiday let."

It's a two-storey house on wheels, so in a sense fits with their 20+ year record of making mobile spaces for living, on the brief of keeping "heritage and a vernacular architectural eye at the core of the design" as Plankbridge's statement explains:

"There is a beautiful Dutch barn standing out in a field near Sixpenny Handley, on the Salisbury Road out of Dorset. Richard [Richard Lee, co-founder] has been an admirer of this barn for years, and it turns out so have lots of other people as it is apparently a photographer’s ‘go-to’ location. Old Dutch barns, with their curved corrugated iron roof and cladding, but no walls and often with a sloping catslide roof to the side, suggest a scaled-up shepherd’s hut. They seem to date from the 1800’s in the UK and are known as hay barracks in the USA. They tend to be for storage of straw bales these days. You do see conversions of these actual old barns to housing, in varying degrees of success. All of this history and heritage informed our new design."

Downstairs features include a living area with sofa and space for table and chairs, sliding doors, adjacent kitchen, utility area with an oak worktop and space for a washing machine, and hand-made local willow baskets under the stairs. The shower room is the same as in the company's shepherd’s hut designs, with either an electric or LPG-powered shower, wash basin, and lavatory. Upstairs, there is space for a double bed or two singles, drawer, and cupboard storage. The whole thing is insulated with Thermafleece sheep’s wool and there are various heating and air conditioning options.

More information on the tiny house design here.

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