[Strawbale] straw bale in Spain

Wed Dec 17 12:16:34 CET 2008

At the moment, there has been no dificulty getting permission to build  
legally in Spain. You have to go through the same process as any other  
home. Here in Spain, this requires having the signature of an  
Architect and a Technical architect. Since they take "responsability"  
for the design it usually gets approved. The problem, is that there  
are very few architects with any SB experience, and "newbies" tend to  
be a bit afraid and make very conservative designs not necessarily  
thinking in a "straw" way...It is not a cheap process.

The other possibility is to ask in your local area what the  
requirements/limitations are for building a "caseta de campo" (a  
shed), which can sometimes be done without an architect, but the  
requirements can vary from town to town, being possible something  
anywhere from  9m2 to 35 m2 depending on where you live.

There are now quite a few legal SB homes in spain, including a Bed and  
Breakfast in the province of Teruel. There are both loadbearing and  
Infill buildings legal.

What is more difficult is insuring the building, but if you are  
planning on building it yourself you are not required to insure it,  
although you cannot sell it until after 10 years (the minimum  
insurance for new homes)...A very few homes have been able to be  
insured, but only Infill buildings, not loadbearing.

It is VERY helpful to learn Spanish if you wish to be able to work  
with anything legal in Spain.

Rikki Jennifer Nitzkin
Coordinator of the Spanish Strawbale Network (www.casasdepaja.org)
casasdepaja at yahoo...

rikkinitzkin at earthlink...
0034 657 33 51 62
Aulás, Lleida

"Tenemos el Derecho y la Responsabilidad de Crear el Mundo en que  
Queremos Vivir"

El 17/12/2008, a las 12:00, strawbale-request at amper....muni.cz  
escribió:

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1.  Straw bales in Spain (Sarah Phillips)
>   2. Re:  Straw bales in Spain (peter weijnen)
>   3. Re:  Straw bales in Spain (paul david)
>   4. Re:  Straw bales in Spain (Simon Blackbourn)
>   5. Re:  Straw bales in Spain (Patrick O'neill)
>
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:33:23 +0100
> From: "Sarah Phillips" <sarah at eticas...>
> Subject: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
> To: strawbale at amper....muni.cz
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> I am thinking of building a straw bale house in Spain.
> Does anyone know how easy it is to get good quality bales here?
>
> Any other advice much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
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> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:34:10 +0000
> From: peter weijnen <peter_weijnen at hotmail...>
> Subject: Re: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
> To: <strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
> Message-ID: <BAY116-W26F06D5AC55FF5F4B7CFE092F50 at phx...>
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>
>    Hello,
>
>   As far as I know the best place to look for straw bales is the  
> Guadalajara region.They have them of good quality and quantity, but  
> you'll have to look and shop around for good consistency.
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:33:23 +0100
> From: sarah at eticas...
> To: strawbale at amper....muni.cz
> Subject: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
>
> I am thinking of building a straw bale house in Spain.
> Does anyone know how easy it is to get good quality bales here?
> Any other advice much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> _________________________________________________________________
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> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:14:00 +0100
> From: paul david <werdnast at hotmail...>
> Subject: Re: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
> To: <strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
> Message-ID: <BAY101-W280F4819645E318AC0A8CEC3F50 at phx...>
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>
> Where are you planning on building as bales are available in most  
> areas of Spain. What you might want to do is to talk to local  
> farmers and ask them to set their baler to make them more dense than  
> they normally would. I know somebody who did that in Aragon (Prov  
> Teruel) and was very happy with the results. I am planning to build  
> also in Prov Teruel but near the border with Cataluna and have been  
> doing a bit of bale research if that would be useful to you.
> Some areas where there are large areas put down to wheat make those  
> giant round bales mostly, but you can usually find a farmer or two  
> using the traditional baler. Basically if you have the time, talking  
> to people before the harvest, and explaining what are looking for is  
> a big bonus.
> Good luck, and be in touch if I can be any help.
>
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:33:23 +0100
> From: sarah at eticas...
> To: strawbale at amper....muni.cz
> Subject: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
>
> I am thinking of building a straw bale house in Spain.
> Does anyone know how easy it is to get good quality bales here?
> Any other advice much appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> _________________________________________________________________
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> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:41:28 +0000
> From: "Simon Blackbourn" <piemanek at gmail...>
> Subject: Re: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
> To: "European strawbale building discussions"
> 	<strawbale at amper....muni.cz>
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> hi peter
>
> there is an active email list especially for strawbale builders in  
> spain:
> you can find more info at http://amper.ped.muni.cz/mailman/listinfo/paja
>
> simon (list admin)
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> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:56:22 +0000
> From: "Patrick O'neill" <patrick at frdata....uk>
> Subject: Re: [Strawbale] Straw bales in Spain
> To: strawbale at amper....muni.cz
> Message-ID: <20081217095622.8nbqlisime8goock at 82...195.128.132>
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>
> Hi
>
> If you speak Spanish http://www.casasdepaja.org/ is a good site.
>
> Building straw bale legally in Spain is difficult because the material
> is not  been approved by the national architects association.  (or had
> not been in 2006 when I last checked)
>
> I think that a couple of legal straw bale buildings have been approved
> individually but it is an expensive process.
>
> Building illegally in hidden away places is possible and much more
> common for straw bale in Spain.
>
> Spanish building and planning law is different than UK (not better or
> worse just different) and it helps to understand it.
>
> If any one has more up to date info on approval of SB is Spain I would
> very much like to know as I want to do a legal SB build in Spain.
>
> Patrick
>
>
>
>
> Quoting Sarah Phillips <sarah at eticas...>:
>
>> I am thinking of building a straw bale house in Spain.
>> Does anyone know how easy it is to get good quality bales here?
>>
>> Any other advice much appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>
>
>
>
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