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When bales are stacked, alignment is done by pushing and 
hammering the bales into right position. Next step is straw 
trimming which makes the wall smooth. Well aligned wall insures 
the static safety but also many builders decide to increase the 
safety with mesh which also makes the plaster application easier. 
Plaster can be applied in case of straw building by hand or by 
machine. Manual, hand application is most common way though.
Functionality is supplemented with appropriate furniture. In 
case of straw bale walls special attention needs to be devoted 
to pre-determination of hanging furniture like cupboards or 
just wall decoration as pictures or other accessories. Since the 
plaster itself is not thick enough to hold all the weight and straw 
itself is to ‘soft’ to hold added item additional substructure is 
needed. Final image of straw bale plastered wall depends on 
application precision. Roughly, surface finish can be divided 
into three groups:
1. Organically shaped surface
2. Semi leveled surface
3. Completely leveled surface
Based on the diversity of design that straw bale building offers 
many requests can be realized. Straw bale building itself 
does not represent any functional disadvantages if details are 
carefully planned and delivered.
BROJAN, Larisa. Straw bale wall design alternatives. V: ÇATAK, 
Neslihan (ur.), DUYAN, Efe (ur.). ARCHTHEO ‘13: conference 
proceedings, December 4-6 2013, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts 
University, [Istanbul], Creativity, autonomy, function in 
architecture. Istanbul: Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi 
Yayinlari, cop. 2013, str. 43-50, ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 2956164].
Mednarodna konferenca je organizirana v okviru združenja 
Constructed Environment. Tematika konference je bila 
odnos človeka do naravnega in grajenega okolja. Udeleženci 
konference so bili s celega sveta (ZDA, Evropa, Azija, Južna 
Amerika itn.). Poleg javnih predstavitev prispevkov so bile 
organizirane tudi razprave na vodilno temo. 
Paper is focused on general properties of straw bale as a 
building material which is proven by numerous buildings to 
be an appropriate material choice in several aspects. The 
research is divided on to two parts in which advantages and 
disadvantages of such a building are discussed.
The building techniques are relatively easy to learn and 
performance of straw bale structures has a high value in terms 
of several aspects as long as the general guidance is considered. 
The primary benefit of straw bale as building material is its low 
embodied energy. Therefor the impact on the environment is low 
which is important since the awareness of building negative 
impacts on the environment. Above all, the isolation properties 
are on a high level as thermal as well as sound isolation. 
dva nova RTV stolpa (mali in veliki), trenerska tribuna, vetrna 
zaščita, ogrevalni objekt na vrhu zaletišča, konstrukcija za TV 
zaslon ter rekonstrukcija stavbe Kavka in sanacija obstoječega 
sodniškega stolpa. Prispevek prikazuje lokacije načrtovanih 
novih objektov in kratke opise konstrukcijsko najbolj zanimivih 
detajlov.
LOPATIČ, Jože (ur.), MARKELJ, Viktor (ur.), SAJE, Franc (ur.). 
Zbornik 35. zborovanja gradbenih konstruktorjev Slovenije, 
Ljubljana, Fakulteta za gradbeništvo in geodezijo, 22. november, 
2013. Ljubljana: Slovensko društvo gradbenih konstruktorjev, 
2013, str. 79-88, ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 2947460]
Mednarodna konferenca je organizirana v okviru združenja 
DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center) 
in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Na konferenci je bilo 
veliko predstavitev s področja arhitekture, teorije načrtovanja 
in snovanja prostorskega oblikovanja. Poleg javnih predstavitev 
prispevkov so bile organizirane tudi razprave. S kolegi smo 
sodelovali pri tematiki socialne vloge arhitekture in vplivom 
arhitekture na bivanjske navade ljudi. Vsi prispevki so objavljeni 
v zborniku z naslovom  ‘Sources of creativity, autonomy & 
function’, kamor je vključena tudi spodaj predstavljena študija. 
Koordinator konference je bil Efe Duyan. 
This paper focuses on the straw bale wall functionality. It is 
evident from analyses of straw bale houses, how diverse the 
design of straw bale building can be. Straw bale building has 
many advantages especially in sense of ecological aspect which 
is many times also the main reason to build with straw bales.
Floor plan design doesn’t need any special treatment; there are 
many possibilities especially when straw bales are used as an 
infill which is in most projects. But when it comes to building, 
at first special attention needs to be devoted to bales stacking, 
bales alignment and finally, the crucial segment of plastering. 
Since most of builders apply the plaster by hand, extreme 
precision is needed especially when flat surface is needed. 
Zaletišče HS225 – vzdolžni in prečni prerezi.
Larisa Brojan
CREATIVITY, ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF 
DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTING: STRAW BALE 
WALL DESIGN ALTERNATIVES
ArchTheo 13-THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE CONFERENCE
Istanbul, Turčija, 4. - 5.12.2013
Larisa Brojan
ADV ANTAGES AND DISADV ANTAGES OF STRAW 
BALE AS BUILDING MATERIAL
The Constructed Environment 
Lizbona, Portugalska, 4. – 5.10.2013