book recommendations... where to start?

Say a fella was looking to purchase a book that covered the topic of strawbale construction and currently knew relatively little about it. What should I be looking for?

Im on the plains of central oklahoma, straw country if there ever was one.
Im living in a conventional stick frame home that consumes$300 in electricity to cool In the peak of summer, and im about to take delivery of $2800 in propane for the winter.

Somethings gotta give.
Whats the best value on a entry level education for strawbale?
Thanks!

Search all these posts, as I'm sure you have then try the ever present YuoTube. Spend a lot of my own time doing just that.

We just recently purchased a book and DVD set called Building With Awareness: The Construction Of A Hybrid Home. I really enjoyed it and feel a lot more informed after watching it. They used the infill method with post and beam construction. If that's what you're after, I'd recommend this. You can find a trailer on youtube.

Hey Chris,

First, nice job with the canvas WordPress theme. I'm a WordPress web designer, developer, and business consultant so it's easy to tell.

If you're looking for books, I can't help you, but check out the permaculture design course we're filming with SW US permaculture expert Scott Pittman:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/340525589/online-permaculture-design-course-with-scott-pittm

Cheers!

Chris

I have a few favorites.

Steen, B., Bainbridge, D., & Eisenberg, D. (1994). The straw bale house. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

Hollis, M. (Ed.). (2005). Practical straw bale building. Landlinks Press.

Hodge, B. (2006). Building Your Straw Bale Home.

Steen, A. S., & Steen, B. (2000). The Beauty of Straw Bale Homes. Chelsea Green Pub..

The first three are very informative; the last one just highlights some really beautiful homes without any real building info. I would suggest getting on Google Scholar and finding some good articles for this topic.

I've been asked to write a how-to book about straw bale retrofits, and am hoping to get to it some time this year. I have written a couple of articles on the topic (in Natural Life and Mother Earth News magazines), and though it's not terribly specific I do have some information---and a bunch of how-to photos---on my web site www.pajaconstruction.com.

Cadmon Whitty

Andrew Morrison has great information at strawbale.com. I consider him one of the best in straw bale technology. You can search hundreds of blog posts on his website and he has a great book and a couple really really good DVDs.