A CASBA TIMELINE OF STRAW AND NATURAL BUILDING:
1973 - "A Round House of Straw Bales" by Bob Doolittle in Mother Earth News (https://tinyurl.com/yn7u3bmm)
Lloyd Kahn’s book Shelter includes an article ‘Baled Hay’ by Roger Welsch, highlighting the historical buildings made of baled hay in the late 1800s in the Sandhills of Nebraska where ‘straw bale building’ was born. Derived from the historical sod houses in the wider region, blocks of straw (after invention of the baling machine) take the place of stacked sod that didn’t hold together in sandy soil of the region.
1979 - "Hay Houses & Straw Buildings" by Mother Earth News editors (https://tinyurl.com/3t46p553)
1981 - Inspired by the Shelter article, architect Jon Hammond builds a straw bale-insulated house in Winters, California. Its publication in Fine Homebuilding Magazine sparks the modern straw bale building movement, with many straw bale buildings constructed during the decade, mostly in the American Southwest.
1989 - James Kalin invites Matts Myhrman, Judy Knox, David Bainbridge, Athena Swentzell-Steen, and Pliny Fisk to Oracle, AZ to construct a temporary load-bearing straw bale building in the Nebraska-style
1991 - "Houses the Cows Would Love to Eat" by Patricia Leigh Brown is published in the New York Times
1992 - The California Rice Straw Burning Reduction Act is passed, forcing rice farmers to find alternative methods for disposing of their straw waste.
1993 - The Last Straw: Up-To-Date Information For Straw-Bale Construction is first published by straw bale pioneers Matts Mhyrman and Judy Knox. It gathers and disseminates information about this rediscovered and newly developing way of building. TLS goes on to see numerous editors, three publishers and countless contributors continue the rich dialogue of this now international journal of natural building.
1994 - Matts Myhrman and Steve MacDonald publish Build It With Bales: A Step-By-Step Guide to Straw-Bale Construction (2nd edition released in 1997).
The Straw Bale House, by Bill & Athena Steen, David Bainbridge, and David Eisenberg is published, and would go on to sell over 125,000 copies
1995 - California State Guidelines for Straw Bale Structures (AB1314) is passed, spearheaded by Assemblyman Byron Sher in an effort to help rice farmers find markets for their straw. These are voluntary, and must be adopted at the local level before being utilized or enforced. In California, these Guidelines are the closest thing to a straw bale 'Building Code' that exists. The Guidelines borrow Tucson / Pima County Arizona’s straw bale code, the first-ever load bearing straw bale code.
1996 - The California Straw Building Association (CASBA) is formed after a chance meeting of like minds at a Natural Building Colloquium in New Mexico and the plane ride home. Turko Semmes, Greg McMillan and Chris Prelitz call the first meeting on the Carrizo Plain of San Luis Obispo County. About a dozen other interested individuals attend.
Bruce King writes Buildings of Earth and Straw: Structural Design for Rammed Earth and Straw-Bale Architecture, published by Ecological Design Press. This book covers technical information on these two building methods; useful for professionals but intelligible to a general audience and attractively illustrated
1999 - CASBA hosts the First International Straw Building Conference in San Francisco, CA. Organized by members Ann Edminster and Bruce King, it is attended by over 120 straw bale building experts from around the world.
Pamela Wadsworth-Goode and Kelly Lerner assemble CASBA's Building Officials' Guide to Straw-Bale Construction. A compilation of testing and information about structure, moisture, fire and other subjects to assist officials in permitting and inspecting straw bale buildings.
CASBA's Straw Bale Construction Sourcebook, a book of straw bale details and construction methods, is created and published. The effort is led by architect, professor and straw bale building pioneer Ken Haggard with contributions by many CASBA members.
2000 - Paul Lacinski & Paul Bergeron write Serious Straw Bale: A Home Construction Guide for all Climates, published by Chelsea Green
Daniel Chiras writes The Natural House, a complete guide to healthy energy-efficient, environmentally-sensitive homes, with a chapter on straw bale
2001 - A straw bale seismic & moisture testing program is initiated with a Calif. Dept. of Food & Agriculture grant and contributions from CASBA fundraising. The $250,000 effort was led by CASBA member Bruce King, PE., with help from other members including engineers Mark Aschheim, David Mar and Kevin Donahue, architects Kelly Lerner and Dan Smith, and contractor Tim Owen-Kennedy and his company Vital Systems.
Bill & Athena Steen write Beauty of Straw Bale Homes, published by Gibbs Smith
2002 - After a two year concerted effort led by architect Martin Hammer, with the help of Bruce King and Dan Smith, California Senate Bill 332 (SB332) was signed by Governor Gray Davis. This Bill revised the previous California Guidelines because they contained 'requirements that . . . were either unnecessary or detrimental.'
2003 - Catherine Wanek writes The New Strawbale Home, published by Gibbs Smith
2004-07 - Martin Hammer and other members worked diligently on 'Appendix L - Straw Bale Construction,' a proposed appendix which would officially incorporate straw bale into the California Building Code. After numerous disappointments, they turn their sites to the International Residential Code (IRC) instead.
2005 - Bill & Athena Steen write Small Strawbale, published by Gibbs Smith
Chris Magwood & Peter Mack co-author More Straw Bale Building: A Complete Guide to Designing and Building with Straw, published by New Society Publishers. This covers the entire process of building a straw bale structure; from developing plans, code compliance, building details, construction methods, financing and zoning issues
2006 - Bruce King and his Ecological Building Network receive a grant from the Ayrshire Foundation and contributions from CASBA to fund ASTM E119fire testing, an important step in the official testing requirements needed to satisfy building officials, and lending & insurance companies. An earth plastered wall passes with a 1 hour rating, and a lime-cement plastered wall receives a 2 hour rating. This and other testing, research and experience leads to publication of Design of Straw Bale Buildings, by Bruce King with contributions from other straw bale design and building practitioners.
Ken Haggard and Polly Cooper co-author Fractal Architecture: Design for Sustainability, published by Booksurge.
2007 - Wayne Bingham & Colleen Smith write Strawbale Home Plans, published by Gibbs Smith
2013 - Martin Hammer, David Eisenberg, Mark Ascheim and Laura Bartels succeed in getting Appendix S he IRC. ICC votes to adopt Oct 4, 2013.
2015 - Appendix S - Strawbale Construction appears for the first time in the 2015 IRC.
2016 - CASBA’s 20th Anniversary Conference is held on the Carrizo Plain with Bill & Athena Steen as keynote speakers…of course we brought a trebuchet.
California Housing and Community Development (HCD) adopts Appendix S for mandatory statewide use in the 2016 California Residential Code (CRC). Appendix R - Light Straw-Clay is included for voluntary local adoption. Over a decade of CASBA-supported, building code-related work pays off - building a residence with straw bales no longer requires filing an Alternative Methods & Materials Request to get a building permit in California and several other states!
2017 - CASBA director, David Arkin, writes ‘Fire-Resistive Strawbale Walls Survive North Bay Wildfires.’ Published in several places, including an article in Fine Homebuilding, it helped establish strawbale construction as a recognized fire resilient option. Fire resilience of straw bale and natural building becomes an annually-discussed topic at conferences going forward.
Bruce King authors New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate, that makes the case for bio-based buildings being an opportunity for carbon storage.
2018 - CASBA sponsors publication of a Straw White Paper, written by Massey Burke, covering how carbon is sequestered in plants and soil in regenerative systems. This illustrates the need for a straw Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), work which CASBA and others continue to support.
2019 - CASBA spearheads the publication of Straw Bale Building Details: An Illustrated Guide for Design and Construction through New Society Publishers. With contributions from many members, editors Jim Reiland and Lesley Christiana ushered this comprehensive guide across the finish line after 12 years of development.
2020 - Martin Hammer, Anthony Dente, John Fordice, Michael Smith and others succeed in getting Appendix AU - Cob (Monolithic Adobe) approved for the 2021 IRC.
2022 - Appendix AU - Cob (Monolithic Adobe) appears in the 2022 CRC, but only for voluntary adoption by local jurisdiction. Updates appear in the Strawbale and Light Straw-Clay Appendices, now titled Appendix AS and Appendix AR respectively.
Bruce King & Chris Magwood author Build Beyond Zero: New Ideas for Carbon-Smart Architecture
The Department of Energy, ARP-E (Advanced Research Projects) solicits grant applications for Carbon Storing Materials, including a graph showing carbon emissions associated with traditional building products compared with bio-based building products that store carbon. For the first time, the US Federal Government acknowledges straw as the best building material to minimize the carbon footprint of a building.
2023 - Verdant Building Products / Verdant Panel incorporates with grant money from the DOE, joining several other straw panel startups across North America and the world.
After hiring a consultant to begin an insurance-focused project to tackle underwriting, CASBA is proud to take part in UC Davis's first WiReS (Wildfire Resilient Structures) Conference, bringing Scientists, Researchers, Academics, Fire professionals, Insurance professionals, Community Leaders , Builders, etc... together for the first time to network on cross-disciplinary solutions for wildfire safety in the built environment.
2024 - CBSC approves revisions to Straw Bale Appendix, now named Appendix BJ, including acknowledging the “BOEBS” (Bales on-end between studs) system that uses plywood sheathing for lateral resistance like a conventionally-framed structure. Light Straw Clay Appendix, now Appendix BI, and Cob (Monolithic Adobe), now Appendix BK, is adopted into the upcoming 2025 CRC.
2025 - The Palisades / Eaton Fires in January, 2025 reignites a conversation around fire resistance and local availability of natural building materials. CASBA creates a Fire Rebuild Toolkit committee that gathers and collates testing data, builders, straw growers, code information and makes it available online for free with the hope of encouraging as much rebuilding with natural materials as possible.
2026 - CASBA’s 30th Anniversary conference is held in conjunction with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The conference is held at El Rancho Chorro and Cal Poly’s campus but a contingent of founders and new members returned to the Carrizo Plain to toast CASBA’s enduring legacy, still spreading straw and natural building gospel after 30 years, reinvigorated with a new generation of enthusiasts and cross-pollination with like-minded organizations.
CASBA launches a hands-on Professional Course in Straw Bale Construction in August 2026, in Cottage Grove, OR, to train the next generation of builders of straw and natural building materials.