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I've seen several straw bale homes being built here in the desert southwest, and it can be a successful building technique out here, if it's done right. It is critical to use bales that are very dry and very tightly baled (wired together). Loose straw is never used for anything. You have to protect the bales from moisture, both during the building process and after. A thick coat of stucco is usually used as the final protective coat, and is often applied both inside and out. You have to end up with the bales being absolutely protected from moisture.

It looks like these people made a number of mistakes when building their home. Loose straw in the attic or anywhere else is asking for trouble, and pouring a slab over hay bales sounds downright nutty. The location doesn't sound too good for a straw bale home either. I might consider building a straw bale home here in New Mexico, but I don't think I'd do it in a higher humidity place.

Another mistake I bet was made on this house was treating its construction like a political statement. Too often when a straw bale house is going up, it gets treated like some kind of Green Party political event. Volunteers show up and work for free, just to make some kind of point. I wouldn't want to live in a house that was built using traditional materials, if the builders were a bunch of untrained fruitcakes.

The windows of a properly constructed straw-bale house must be appealing...big wide sills, wide enough to sit on.

Since the SW lacks plentiful wood, this construction technique caught my interest as an innovative "make do" kind of effort, rather than environutty self-indulgence. A pity it's been dealt such a setback.