The Bower is an excellent example of sustainable building practices. It is made entirely of
strawbales and recycled materials. The first strawbale building in Sydney is a 258sqm passive
solar designed warehouse. 600 strawbales make up the in-fill walls, and the insulation is
superb.
Otherwise, the building used fully recycled materials in its construction: load-bearing posts
recovered from demolition sites, roof trusses from Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) Hospital
refurbishment, 5,000 secondhand bricks, second hand roof sheeting, and all doors and windows
were salvaged from waste on Sydney streets.
Strawbale building is relatively new in Australia, although as a method of building it has over
100 years of history in the United States, and only slightly less in New Zealand.
A great article on the building of the Bower appeared in recently re-released Strawbale
Homebuilding, from Earth Garden Publications [app. $20]. Articles on strawbale building have
appeared in Earth Garden (try issues 92 and 106 amongst others), Grass Roots (try issue 106
amongst others), and the specialist magazine Last Straw.
See also our Links page for some other strawbale contacts.
Some original builders of the Bower:
Shane Naughton, Milosh Obradovic, Jane Saunders, Max Elbourne, Ray Elbourne, Mikal Skeates,
Cameron Krone, John Bartholomew, Mandy Francis, Ben Glagovs.