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Straw Bale Office, Dunning, Perthshire

Design

The client required a small office space in his garden, to be as 'green' as possible. The 30 square metre building features a curved glulam roof on eight poles braced with stainless steel shipping fixings. None of the timber is treated, but detailed so that all areas such as the raised floor platform receive adequate ventilation. The building is unheated and double glazed except for re-used window casements from the demolished shed.

Materials

Beyond the use of larch poles and turf and soil from the garden, 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 even a reused gas pipe as a window.