LEONARDO PARTNERSHIP: EXPECTED RESULT 2 BROCHURE OF DATABASE OF STRAWBALE BUILDING PRACTICE IN EUROPE.

2.1 INTRODUCTION 2.2 CREATING THE DATA BASE: TYPE OF DATA 2.3 USING THE DATA BASE: VISUALIZATION OF DATA 2.4 2.5 TOOLS FOR COLLECTING DATA : - Google docs structure - Strawbale network mail list - Best Building Practice data sheet - Interviews among partners EVALUATION OF RESULTS -2.5.1 Summary of google questionnaire results - People: personal prole - People: national data - Training: activities - Projects: national data - Project: barriers to strawbale building -2.5.2 Map of Buildings in Europe -2.5.3 National Regulation Overview

EXPECTED RESULT 2 BROCHURE OF DATABASE OF STRAWBALE BUILDING PRACTICE IN EUROPE.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In order to improve and propose a European teaching method and a European guideline for Good practice in Strawbale building we considered of primary importance to get to know better the state of actual reality of each partners country and all other countries members of the european strawbale network. We planned to create a database on: - people involved in strawbale building from all European Countries, - existing teaching methods and curricula for strawbale building, - projects nished or under construction in all the European Countries, - different approaches to strawbale building technology practised in each European country, - approaches to natural building by National Building Regulations of each European country. The collection of the data should be a reference and tool for the implementation of the curricula in each country and the base for the selection of the Best European Building Practice to be evaluated and presented in the web as a result of the entire Leonardo Project. The process of establishing how to collect data and the elaboration of results was slower and more complex that the initial idea.

Initial proposition of frame work for database results- 2nd meeting Barcelona 2010

SET UP WORK

INPUT

GROUP TRAINING

GROUP SURVEY

INPUT

SET UP WORK

WRITING
CONTINUOS FEEDBACK

CONTINUOS

GROUP CODES

Initial proposition of frame work for expected database results- 2nd meeting Barcelona 2010

2.2 CREATING THE DATABASE: TYPE OF DATA

FIRST STEPS TOWARD DATABASE: TYPES OF DATA AND HOW TO ORGANIZE IT ? We planned to collect data on: People, Codes and Training Programs that are active in the different European Countries. The initial proposition presented at the rst Leonardo meeting was then analyzed and reschedule in order to meet a more realistic relation between expected results and available resources. The work we have done consisted mainly in the edition of the questionnaire for collecting data. The follow up and analysis of the collected data, that is presented in the following pages. Anyway the frame of work initially proposed it seems to us still of great interest for the enhancement of strawbale building practice and education throughout Europe.

Suggested FRAME FOR THE SURVEY

PEOPLE
1) Map (VISUAL) of People and Organizations existing in each Partners Country (and Countries of Networkers List made at ESBG) 2) Data on individual and organization's experiences and activities (Google Docs)

CODES

1) Map (Visual) of Process of approval for a strawbale building and approval for straw as a building material 2) Data on legal/illegal buildings built by type of construction, builder, owner (google docs) 3) List Explicit reference to barriers and "helpers" to build legally

TRAINING

1) Map (Visual) of Existing Training Organizations and Professionals with links with official and no-official organization 2) Data on curricula information and materials used and available sorted by different techniques (google docs) 3) List Explicit reference to barriers and "helpers" to official integration in ECS system 4) List of building used or to be used as references for building techniques for each country

2.3 USING THE DATABASE: VISUALIZATION OF THE DATA

Data visualization is one of the most actual eld of investigation among scientic community. The ongoing growth of data input on the internet and the availability of new software are giving the possibility to collect a great amount of data, that only a good visualization can make really open and accessible. Great examples of this debate and the future perspective are available at: Wolfram|Alpha: Examples by Topic or are perfectly illustrated in the TED talk: Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen | Video on TED.com or recent MIT investigations presented at: Carlo Ratti: Architecture that senses and responds | Video on TED.com Strawbale building has been made possible mainly thanks to self organized networks of passionate people. The need and potential of this network could be increased signicantly if we create a tool of visualization that can act as a map of navigation for the sailor. The future of the internet is going in this direction. At the moment the free software available is not good enough and the resources of Leonardo are not sufcient to create such a tool. Possibly the continuity of the Leonardo program can lead us to this aimed result. The construction of such a map manually like the example presented in the image below is too static and inefcient to be seen as a desirable result.

Type of map for Map: People-Training Visualization of data

In This Map Are Organizations and People integrated in the Project and where the person or organization located (enterprises or association that belongs to) and all the people or projects or organizations that are involved directly with the persons that are participants. This Kind of map is very useful because gives an immediate idea of trends and potential....see touchgraph software To make this kind of map a quiet big amount of information is gathered so we suggest to make this map only for the partners countries. The further development of networking chart can be assured by the IEE funding. The data that are stored within this map are "too heavy and tricky" to be asked in a "google docs" questionnaire so the draft of the maps will be sketch up in bilateral meetings. see below more pictures of networking charts: touchgraph - Imgenes de Google

Initial suggestions for expected database results- 2nd meeting Barcelona 2010

Initial proposition of frame work- 2nd meeting Barcelona 2010

Type of Map for Code-Process a suggestion

Still s t r o n g discretionary power and great variety of initial conditions. Great "tradition" of illegal Area

URBAN

RURAL

Owner

Architect

Planning Permission

Owner

Architect

Insurance For ArchitectT.Architect-OwnerBuilder

Building Permit

To Live

To Sell

Owner

Architect

The relevance of Codes in addressing barriers for strawbale and natural Local+ Regional+Nacional materials is clear to all. Code The difculty to "read" the different codes at Extra Code Landscape european level is great. Sewage and Energy The potential of a greater knowledge and accessibility to solutions applied and available in each EU country is a great resource for the strawbale community. Local Architect's Association + Local Government The wish we have stated at the start meeting of the Leonardo project to create simple visual and ECS Credits + Old System yet serious maps of actual legal process of approval for a strawbale Architect Ass+National Building Code: admits EU test building in EU has proved on material if made in an to be a too great task for authorised laboratory the resources of Leonardo that has Extra Control ETA is concentrate more into necessary or National Eta is the elaboration of necessary technical documentation Builder of good building practice and training.

T.Architect

Building

Regional Control on Final Built Building

This Map is just Scheme/draft...but the idea is to keep a simple diagram of process of approval of a building in each partner Country. Is simple but gives information about: -People with legal Responsability in process -Level of codes and authorities involved - People and Institutions that need to be "educated" The map is to be integrated with more and more "clouds" of opinions and synthesis of

tricks and milestones made by professionals with experiencies. This Map with all the inside "clouds" of commentary is again to be made in bilateral meetings do to the fact that tracking information on this trough google docs is too heavy and tricky. The google docs we propose to be use to ask data on numbers of legal houses...regions involved...systems approved etc etc...

2.4 TOOLS FOR COLLECTING DATA Google Docs, Mailing List, Bilateral Meetings
Dear strawbale builders in Europe This is a call to ll out a questionnaire about SB in Europe! As you maybe already know, some countries are working together as partners in a European funding program titled "European Learning Partnership for Strawbale Building". The partners of this Leonardo project are: Belgium, France, Germany, Slovakia, Spain and UK as a silent partner. In this mail we want to present you a questionnaire that we have developed to collect general data on SB in Europe with the following themes: 1 2 3 4 5 people: personal prole of you as SB networker organizations: national data of the organization, in which you are active training activities projects: national techniques of strawbale buildings barriers to legal SBB construction

The results of this questionnaire will help us to continue with other important tasks in our Leonardo project - to develop European training units and European building regulations. We also will use the analysis of the results (= your SB experience) in a next Leonardo project, for which we are in the middle of application with 12 European countries - we have of course good hope that the funding will be granted for another 2 years of cooperation. As participants of our questionnaire we are now addressing you, a member of the European mailing list of SB networkers. Here is the link to the questionnaire: So, please, ll out the 50 questions and spend about 30-40 minutes of your important time for this SB questionnaire! Your experience with SB, your opinion and vision will help us to continue with the useful work of the Leonardo project. You all will receive a documentation of the results. During the ESBG 2011 some of the Leonardo partners will represent aims, progress and results of this current Leonardo project, to share our work with the European SB community.

The relevance of Codes in addressing barriers for strawbale and natural materials is clear to all. The difculty to "read" the different codes at european level is great. The potential of a greater knowledge and accessibility to solutions applied and available in each EU country is a great resource for the strawbale community. The wish we have stated at the start meeting of the Leonardo project to create simple visual and yet serious maps of actual legal process of approval for a strawbale building in EU has proved to be a too great task for the resources of Leonardo that has concentrate more into the elaboration of technical documentation of good building practice and training.

Thank you very much! Strawgreetings of all Leonardo-partners Valentina - Spain Sissy, Dirk, Burkard and Dittmar - Germany Zuzana and Boris - Slovakia Cdric, Dirk and Claude - France Bee (and Kuba in the beginning) - UK Gigi and Peter - Belgium

2.5 EVALUATION OF RESULTS 2.5.1 Evaluation of Leonardo questionnaire for strawbale buildings 03.10.2010 in Carcassonne
Basic resume (original google docs summary has 25 pages. link here) 37 networkers of European SB organizations got the link to ll out the questionnaire. It was answered by 13 people, while 2 of them were not on the list. So it was 1/3 of the possible answers that came back. One answer was not usable because of some mistake in the program. The answers came from 7 men and 5 women, while one has answered twice, once as networker, once as owner of a business. The answers all came within the rst week after the questionnaire was edited. We restructured the questionnaire to make it clearer, especially we tried to avoid to have it answered twice by the same person. We structured the personal part with questions to personal enterprises and the network part for SB organizations, that could be skipped if not appropriate. This was added in the introduction to make it clearer. The options other was mostly eliminated, and replaced by more alternative options, since it is complicated to evaluate and it gives a wrong percentage in the overview.

People: prole data

People: national data

Training: activities Projects: national data Projects: addressing barriers

Projects: Map

National Regulation Overview

PEOPLE: PERSONAL PROFILE This information is Just to Know about the person that is lling out the questionnaire... your data will not be transfer to anybody and your opinion will be treated without giving relevance to your who you are. 1.2 Which SB organization do you represent? The majority of the organizations are none governmental (over 60%) and 70 % of the answering persons where board members, some are active members (31%) or in charge of a special area of activity (23%), only one was employed (8%) 1.5 What is your educational background? 60 % have a university degree/ 25 % are craftspeople and as many are self taught builders 1.6 What is your profession/job now? 33% are architects and engineers/ 40 % are teachers and trainers/ 25 % are business owners/ 17% are craftsmen and equally 17 % are employed by their association

1.7 What is your role in strawbale building ? The main activities are networking, organizing events (70%), sharing experience and giving lectures (62%) teaching and training and promoting (54%) followed by designing, doing research and writing books and articles All answering people where involved in different activities 1.8 What would help to empower your role? The ranking of the answers where as follows: test and research, then share informations, support of local authorities and at last practical training

1.9 In how many SB buildings have you been professionaly involved? Most where involved in about 1-5 building projects, only 2 had more then 20 projects, 2 had not been professionally involved with SB yet 1.10 What do you value most about SB Building? Top ranking was healthy building and energy efciency (low CO2), then use of local rexssources and empowerment of people, then costs and benets, followed by: people envolved and at last aesthetic quality 1.11 When did you hear of strawbale building and started to get "in touch" with this building technique? Longest experince was since 1989, 5 heard of SB only within the last 3 years 1.12 What were important milestones in your awareness/knowledge of SB building? Primary milestones where conferences, events and informations on internet (67%), then some kind of journey or visit in other country and print media(50%), trainer or teacher and realized building (33%) or workshop (25%), then architects and friends (17%), the least where named craftspeople and ofcials of instituitions 1.13 In which language do you prefer to receive your knowledge and information on SB building ? Mostly English media and then informations in national language 1.14 In your experience, which source of information is/was most valuable in solving practical problems? Mostl valuable was the professional contact with experienced people and practical experience on building site/ then documents on internet, training courses and at last printed media 1.15 In your experience, which source of information is easiest to access? Easiest to access where documents on internet and printed media, only then it was personal contact and training courses, although these where named the most valuable ones in 1.14!!! 1.16 In which techniques are you most interested? More then one answer was possible: inll techniques, loadbearing and prefabrication where

named almost in equal number PEOPLE: NATIONAL DATA This part of the questionnaire has the aim to understand the structure of SB national networks 2.1 In which type of network or SB organization are you participating in? Many are in more then one network structure/ most in European, National and Global mailing list and also in a national SB organization (70%), some are also in a National or European working group (45%), only 15% are also in a regional SB organization 2.3 What is the formal structure of your network or organization? Most of all are part of a National network or National association 2.4 What is the prole of the majority of the members of your network or organization? Mostly the members are architects and engineers and selfbuilders (50%), then craftsmen and house owners (25%), at last there are also a companies mentioned (6%) 2.5 How many ofcial members are part of your network or organization? Most organizations have more then 150 members, (but only 5 answered this question) 2.6 How many interested people does your network or organization reach regularly per year? The people reached by the organization are always higher then the number of members 100 - 500 (33%), 500 1000 (17%), more then 1000 (25%)

2.7 Does your network or organization have a person or group specially dedicated to funding? 50% answered with no, 33% answered with yes, 2.8 What kind of funding do you for your network or organization? Most organizations are nanced by member fees (46%), 23 % have fundings of national government or European Institutions, but there 38% with no fundings at all and are no regional or local government fundings 2.9 Choose the most valuable activities of your national network or organization 77% empowering straw bale building practice, and then with 57% good information and good human relations, and with 46% support of professional work, 31 % A way to goals far beyond private reach, 23 % mentioned good professional relations have

where there

reach

/ We added organizing events and conferences 2.10 In your opinion, what does your network need to improve? No one answered that there is no need of improvement, that means that there is a need to improve The most improvement was wanted in the involvement of members (83%), but only 33% wanted better organizational structures/ 50 % wanted more funding, 42 % need improvement on actual projects and activities, 25 % need better human relations

2.11 Who makes the decisions in the network or association? Most decisions are made by board members (62%), and by general assembly (33%) Maybe that is why involvement of members needs to be improved ? (2.10)

2.12 Which institutions collaborate with the network? Most answers where no collaboration with institutions (46%), followed by Universities (31%) and National government and technical professional associations (23%), regional government, European institutions and building certication institutions reached 15 % There is a gap between collaboration and funding, the collaborating organizations seem to get themselves some of the funding money

2.13 Which institutions would you like to collaborate with? There is a great opening to collaborations Almost all would like to collaborate with European Institutions and with Universities (83%), there is great interest on European work and collaboration Local (33%), regional (42%) and national (50%) government are also welcome (fundings are here more difcult to get), there is also interest to collaborate with technical professional associations (58%), building certication institutions (42%), and schools (33%) Due to the great interest we added a

question about European exchange

TRAINING: ACTIVITIES This part of the questionnaire has the aim of gathering information about existing training activities 3.1 a In which training activities is your organization involved? Lectures and conferences are the main activities (67%), then workshops and demonstrations (58%), than courses (42%), that means there is more theory praxis 3.1 b In which training activities are involved? On personal level it is lectures, conferences and workshops (70%), then courses (50%) and demonstrations (40%) 3.1 c Please give, if possible, contact of 3 people or institutions that you know that are giving courses or SB training activities in your country 7 persons gave names of organizations trainers

then you

data

and

3.2 What are the target groups for your SB training activities? Main target groups are architects, craftspeople and selfbuilders (90%), students (80%),and curious people (60%) but only very few for trainers (20%)

3.3 Is your SB training program included in a formal learning program? Nobody gives training activities in a formal learning program!!

3.5 What kind of certicate do you give? Mostly there is no certicate (63%), some give certicate of attendance (38%) and no one gives certicate of credits

3.6 Where do you give your course? Courses are given mostly on building site or own facility (67%9, some in public facility (22%) only one in ofcial training center (11%)

3.7 In how many training activities are you involved per year? This question was answered by only one person 3.8 How long do your training activities last? Mostly training activities take one weekend (78%), one day (44%), 5 days or a few hours (33%), more then 5 days (11%) and divided into several blocks (22%)

3.9 How much theory is involved in your training activity? There is always some theory, about 25% to 50%, it is never without theory but also never only theory 3.10 What strawbale building technique do you teach? All are teaching inll systems, some are teaching loadbearing systems, but no one only load bearing 3.11 Which kind of material do you use in theory training? All are using power point (100%), some use printed media and photos (67%9 and some show videos (44%) 3.12 What are you doing in your practical training program? Most work on real building construction (67%), then there are demonstrations or small practice units (56%) and visits of building sites (56%), some are building prototype units (44%) 3.13 What would help to develop your training program in the future? Tools and educational material was named rst as essential and important (78%), then fundings, networking with other trainers, promotion and physical structure (rooms), ofcial certication is valuable but not necessary 3.14 Who is giving support to your training activity? Mostly no support and support from other associations (33%), some regional and national institutions (13%), there was no support from EU, from universities or local institutions for training activities

PROJECTS: NATIONAL SB BUILDING DATA Here we want to nd out general information about SB building in your country. 4.1 Which techniques are used in your country? Post and beam and frame structures (with permissions 77%), Loadbearing is mostly possible, with permission (50%) and without permission (33%), Greb (without permission) and CUT are mostly unknown and only once used, the same is with hybrid systems, prefabrication was always named with permission (55%), 33% did not know and 17% did not use prefabrication 4.2 Do you have in your country a database of realized SB buildings and involved people ? Some have database of realized buildings and buildings in process (more then 65%), almost as many for craftspeople and architects, for link lists and internet resources, database of owners and network partners are mostly in process 4.3 How many SBBuildings have been built or are under construction in your country? Most countries have about 100 to 500 buildings in SB 4.4 What type of SB building do you have in your country? Private house named mostly with more then 60%, small garden houses rank between 10% and 60%, public houses and storage or warehouses are mostly under 10% 4.5 How many of the buildings have been built with legal permission? Inll construction more then 60%, load bearing mostly less than 10% and twice more then 60% 4.6 What is ofcially required to get a permission to build a strawbale house? Tests results (75%) are mostly needed and engineer or technical professionals (67%) or architect (58%), national approval for material (42%) or for building system (33%), sometimes references to other SBB (33%), insurances for architect, building company, selfbuilder and for building (~ 30%), European building code was named only once 4.7 Who is responsible for the building construction and for how long? There where only 5 answers, named mostly 5-15 years responsibility for architects, engineers and building companies, craftspeople are responsible for a shorter period, owners and authorities are mostly not responsible This question was not helpful, since the issue is too complex, should need more differentiation

PROJECT: ADDRESSING BARRIERS TO SB CONSTRUCTION This part of the questionnaire has the aim to understand what can help most to spread SB building construction 5.1 What would improve the number of LEGAL SB buildings in your country? National guidelines and national codes and tests are essential (70%), research, political support and certied training are effective and often essential, European guidelines and ETA are not so essential but helpful, marketing, lobby, networking and education of building ofcials ranked mostly as effective but not essential

5.2 How easy is it to get a permission to build a strawbale building? Inll construction is easy and very easy, load bearing is mostly difcult and almost impossible, only sometimes it is easy

5.3 How easy is it to get a permission to build a strawbale building? Minor problems solved by having a project authorized by engineer and architect who takes the responsibility (5) There are major problems associated with obtaining a permission for loadbearing strawbale structures making it impossible to build them (4) Minor problems using references to existing codes/ tests/research from other countries (2) There is no problem associated with obtaining a permission for loadbearing strawbale structures (2)

2.5 EVALUATION OF RESULTS 2.5.2 Map of strawbale building in Europe

Data visualization is one of the most actual eld of investigation among scientic community. The on-going growth of data input on the internet and the availability of new software are giving the possibility to collect a great amount of data, that only a good visualization can make really open and accessible. Great examples of this debate and the future perspective are available at: Wolfram|Alpha: Examples by Topic or are perfectly illustrated in the TED talk: Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen | Video on TED.com or recent MIT investigations presented at: Carlo Ratti: Architecture that senses and responds | Video on TED.com Strawbale building has been made possible mainly thanks to self organized networks of passionate people. The need and potential of this network could be increased signicantly if we create a tool of visualization that can act as a map of navigation for the sailor. The future of the internet is going in this direction. At the moment the free software available is not good enough and the resources of Leonardo are not sufcient to create such a tool. Possibly the continuity of the Leonardo program can lead us to this aimed result. The construction of such a map manually like the example presented in the image below is too static and inefcient to be seen as a desirable result.

2.5 EVALUATION OF RESULTS 2.5.3 National Regulation Overview

The task of getting a panorama of the national regulations on building and how professionals of each country are dealing with the legal process of strawbale construction, requires a greater deal of effort. Since this was not the main Leonardo project goal, the energy of partners have been dedicated more to training and best building practice documentation. Regulation has a great impact on technical requirement of building materials and on skills and responsibilities of professionals and therefore to training and education, but only in a indirect way. Training is regulated by other codes at national and european level. We have used the google questionnaire for inquiry at european level on legal barriers to strawbale building. Check list below and doc of the next page to ask among Leonardo partners how is the situation of the country. The tools used are not giving satisfactory results: they are still not clear enough to be a good support for addressing the issue. What has been a clear results of reexion on regulation is the incredible lack of information and integration between EU and National regulation. The demand for local language regulation is strong. The opportunity embedded in EU references and therefore availability and usability of test and codes among different countries is seen also with some worry.

GENERAL CHECK LIST: mark all option that are true....add or change the texts if need....and use the model of SK Regulation to describe in your own word the process
1 x Phases of legal building permission Planning Approval Building Approval Building Control Living Approval ....... 2 x x Where do you present docs? Local government Regional Government National Government ..... 3 x x x Who has to present docs? Architect (is the one get together) Owner Builder Engineer Technical Architect ...... 4 x x x x x x x People involved in permission Architect Owner Builder Engineer Technical Architect (same as arch) Local Ofcer Regional Ofcer (some cases) Neighborhood x x 6 x When in process you have to say something about material Planning Approval Building Approval Building Control Living Approval Loan Insurance for builder Insurance for architect/engineer Insurance for owner x x x x x x x x x 5 What is the minimum necessary to justify on materials to build legally? Aesthetics Fire Resistance Fire Inammability Thermal Properties (components) Kg CO2- Mj Waste management Structural Safety Vapor resistance Density Certication of producer Reference to specic code for use x 8 x x 4 People involved in permission External Technical Control Insurance 7 Minimum proof on material you need to build legally EN Test National Test National Product Certication European Product Certication Other Buildings Architect experience/ responsibility Builder experience/responsibility Building Ofcer review On site control Specic laboratory How you manage straw use in legal building now Under Builder Responsibility Under Architect Responsibility Under Owner Responsibility Following other codes Following code National Tests EN Test Under Public ofcer responsibility

2.5.3 National Regulation Overview: a sample of survey questions

USUAL LEGAL BUILDING PROCESS LEGAL BUILDING PROCESS FOR STRAW BALES REALITY IN STRAW BALE BUILDING - PRECEDENCES WHAT WOULD BE NEEDED 1. phase - Planning Permission: Regulation of the area: (do you have regulations? where do you find info about regulation of area?) Urban: The building office for town or village have a plan of the area. The info has to be asked there. Rural: Usually not possible to build Project for planning permission: What does project include: Family house Situation with raugh floor plan, outer dimensions of the building, distance from the neighbouring plots, (sometimes they require to scatch the plan in the copy of the map of land registry), The street view of building with dimensions of hight. Situation has to include connection to infrastructure. Fire protection - access (only when asked) Public building the same What is needed: Family house Permission from offices/companies (electrical, gass, water and sewage, transport - roads....) to connect and under which circumstances. Permission from village or town area. The ownership paper The map of land registry Neighbours agreement Public building the same What codes have to be followed: Building law Who is involved: Owner, architect, ingeneers for infrastructure Planning permission: Who gives planning permission: Building office of the village/town. Who is involved: Owner, architect, infrastructure companies, major of the village, building office, neighbours. Costs to get permission: ... euro Differences for public buildings: for public building the approval from Hygiene department is needed (daylight, casting shadows to other buildings), approval of fire protection project by fire brigade. Specialties, exceptions: (building up till 25 m2 can be allowed to build after announcing, submitting the application and simple plans to the local office mayor.) For family houses it is possible to ask for Planning and Building permission in one act. If the project includes house device cleaning sewage water - it requires separate building permission not at the building office but at the office of environment. 1,5. phase - Study Straw: Achitect needs data about straw bales as building material and needs prices to pre-estimate the building costs Architects do not have any information about straw bales in Slovak language. Price for straw bales are very different, there is no knowledge how much it costs to build with straw bales and apply clay plaster. Architects would need basic info about straw bale building in Slovak language Some general price lists should be prepared for material Straw and Clay and also price list for work connected with it. 2. phase - Building Permission Project for building permission: Regulations to be followed: Building law Straw: According to law only materials with certificate or technical approval can be used. We do not have any tests done, and Material Control and Test office 4 years ago did not want to accept tests done in other european countries Some more investigation should be done to find out current attitude of Material Control and Test office Apparently it is possible that Investor and builder agree on using other non-Sovak regulations, but they have to sign contract and follow them. Project for building permission: Project of Architecture, Project of Electrical Installation, Project of Heating, Water and Sewage Installations (Project of Gass Installation - if gass installed, Project of Fire Protection - if required by office, Project of Air Exchange), Energy Use Calculations, Overall Technical Report, Report of building vaste and dealing with it, Project of Structural Ingineer (sometimes report is enough), If there is stove on wood - project is needed, Price estimation by Estimating clerk. Straw: Architect has to have all necessary data to be able to design and coordinate projects of ingeneers. Ingeneer preparing energy use calculations has to have data about straw. Ingeneer for fire protection has to have data to be able to do his project. Estimating clerk needs info to have the price (they use software CENEKON with official price list) Architect write in the project straw bales, or instead straw bales cellulose based insulation, and nobody asks anything Architects do not have any information about straw bales in Slovak language. Price for straw bales are very different, there is no knowledge how much it costs to build with straw bales and apply clay plaster. Architects would practicaly need some guidelines about straw bale building in Slovak language Architect should be legally covered, probably just official norms or certificate or technical approval would be needed. Some more investigation should be done for possibilities (could architect guarantee just by proving that construction works by calculations and by being authorised architect?) Some general price lists should be prepared for material Straw and Clay and also price list for work connected with (maybe try to get it in CENEKON, but surly the material has to be legally accepted). Who is involved: Owner, Architect, Ingineers for infrastructure, Estimating clerk, Stove builder (project) What is required from professionals: Architect and Ingeneers have to be authorised (round red stamp), sometimes for family houses Architect can stamp also project for infrastructure. Building permission: Who gives building permission: Building office of the village/town. Straw:

Building office should study the project, if they obviously see that the material in the project is unusual and do not have certificate, or technical approval, they can refuse the project: Some offices do not bother, because they do not do their job properly, Some offices ask architect to sign that he is responsible, Some offices ask to have fire protection on the inside - but as clay is not in our regulations, architects use brick wall on the inside. Mayor of one village in east Slovakia officially supported the SB project - family house for Gypsies, with teaching them and their help. Office should know how to legaly deal what to ask, when it commes to straw bales Who is involved: Owner, architect, infrastructure companies, major of the village, building office, neighbours. What is needed: Project for building permission (2 copies) Permission from village or town area The ownership paper The map of land registry Neighbours agreement (they can protest to certain extent, only within building law) Copy of Architects and Ingineers paper of autorisation Name of building surveyor, if building is selfbuild or name of the building company, which will build the house. If there is wood stove - permission for small source of poluting, from mayor and from officials at the building office. Costs to get permission: ...euro Differences for public building: It is required that architect is insured. Straw: if something happen at the moment architect would not be covered when it commes to straw bales. ????? There has not been any precedens yet, of architect having problems. An alternative theatre was build from SB, with silent agreement of mayor of the city. The theatre was advertised in press media. Specialties, exceptions: If the project includes house device cleaning sewage water it is needed to get extra building permission just for house device cleaning sewage water from the office of environment. 3. phase - Executive Project Executive project: Regulations to be followed: Building law Executive project includes: Project of Architecture - details, Project of Electrical Installation, Project of Heating, Water and Sewage Installations (Project of Gass Installation - if gass installed, Project of Fire Protection - if required by office, Project of Air Exchange), Project of Structural Ingineer Straw: Architect has to have all necessary data to be able to design details and coordinate executive projects of ingeneers. Architects would need some guidelines with detailing in Slovak language. Who is involved: Owner, Architect, Ingeneers What is required from proffessionals: Nobody is checking, only if executive project is needed for some public building. 4. phase - Building Process Who is involved: The book with everyday notices is compulsory.

The visits and checking of building surveyor, chosen by investor is compulsory. Straw: For self builder a manual how to keep and handle the strawbales would be necessary: Self builders and companies would need some manual in Slovak language on how to build with SB. Asking for lawn: The building has to be insured, even in the building process. 4,5. phase - Permission - Changes before finishing What is required: All the same process like to get building permission. 5. phase - Living Permission Regulations: Building law, all inbuild materials have to have certificate. Straw: building permission See building permission Who gives living permission: Building office, they come and check. What is needed: Pressure test from water pipes, Revision report from el. installation, certificate of the ellectrical board, Pressure test from gas. If own well - tests of water and contract for regular check, If own cleaning the sewage water - than instructions how to use and contract with servicing, If chimney, than revision report from chimney man. Project of actual state is needed if the allowed changes were done during building process. Energy certificate of the house Straw: certificate or technical approval is needed No tests have been done on straw bales in Slovakia, but it has been adverticed in media that straw bale houses do exist even in Slovakia Some official values for SB in Slovak language would be needed Who is involved: Owner, building office Costs to get permission to use the building: ...euro Differences for public building: Specialties, exceptions