Straw bale, passive solar friendly architects

My mom is wanting to build a house in Stevens County, Washington utilizing a number of unconventional systems and I was wondering if anyone out there knows of any architects that might have experience in that region. Specifically we are concerned about permitting and looking for some help with incorporating passive solar heating, straw bale construction, and a bio-carbon wastewater system. If there is anyone in that area with experience in the design or building of something like this we'd love to talk to you.

Have you checked out the permit/inspection exemptions the county has? http://www.co.stevens.wa.us/landservices/documents/BuildingOrdinance.pdf section 1.4.2  has info on it.

If you have a waste disposal system then tri-county will have to approve it. If you have a simple 5 gallon bucket composting system though (mixing kitchen scraps and human waste as compost) then you might be able to argue there is no waste disposal system to inspect/approve.

I would get more info from the county first about what they would need to see for a code-approved structure, you might find a timber frame structure with strawbale infill works and you can go through the normal approval process instead of asking for an exemption.

You could look into working with Chris Keefe from OrganicForms Design. I think he lives in Oregon and seems to do some really great work. I haven't worked with him personally but have heard good things. His website is http://organicformsdesign.com