新型稻草屋――不用再怕大灰狼

还记得我们今年8月号“新闻广角镜”里介绍的纸屋吗?这次我们在美国又发现了稻草屋。稻草还能造房子?一起来看看这种新型的环保建筑材料。

In the story of the three little pigs, the one who built his house of straw did not fare[进展,遭遇] well; the big, bad wolf huffed[吹气] and puffed[喘气] and blew his house down.

But builder Michael Furbish, who made his own home from bales[大捆] of straw and an elementary school of the same material, says in reality, straw houses are not only sturdy[坚固的] but also good for the environment.

Straw the stalks of plants like wheat, oats[燕麦], and barley[大麦] is considered a waste material and is commonly used for farm animal bedding. But more and more people are discovering that straw baled[打包] into rectangular blocks is an excellent, inexpensive building material.

“Our mental picture is that a straw bale is light,” says Furbish. “But each bale weighs about 40 pounds. We stack[堆叠] them like bricks and then spray plaster[灰泥]

mud, essentially on the inside walls to coat[涂上] them one and a half to two inches thick. Then we put

stucco[装饰用的灰泥] on the outside. So a straw building

is really like a fortress, and it is not going to rot as long as water is kept out of the bales.”

There are two ways to make a straw-bale structure. You can build load-bearing[承重] walls with them, which means the walls support the roof. Or you can build a post-and-beam[梁柱(结构)] wooden frame that supports the roof and fill in the walls with straw bales.

Either way, the walls are there to stay. And they provide great insulation[隔离], helping keep straw homes in cold climates cozy[舒适的] in winter and those built in hot places like the desert cool in summer.

Straw is considered a green building material

because it is a renewable resource: A whole new crop can be grown and harvested every year,

easily “renewing” the supply.

Also, planting and harvesting straw uses

relatively little energy. “Most other building materials

require a lot of energy use in production and manufacturing at a factory,” explains Furbish. “With straw-bale construction, you are getting a building product without using much energy at all.”

Furbish used about 900 straw bales for his family’s two-story, three-bedroom house. His

company provided straw-bale walls for the Friends Community School of College Park in Maryland. That project used about 4,000 bales.

When asked if there are any drawbacks[缺点]

to living in a straw house, like mice nibbling[一点一点地咬] on the walls, Furbish points out that the straw is completely covered with plaster and stucco. Besides, he has a couple of cats on mouse patrol[巡逻], just in case.

“It would be hard to find a wall system that will outperform[胜过] straw,” he says. Looks like the big, bad wolf is just out of luck.

在三只小猪的故事里,那只用稻草盖房子的小猪运气真背,大灰狼使劲地吹啊吹,把他的房子吹倒了。

但是建筑师迈克尔・富尔比什用

一捆捆稻草搭建了自己的家,并用同样的材料建造了一所小学。他说,在现实生活中,稻草屋不仅坚固,而且对环境有益。

稻草――小麦、燕麦和大麦等植物的茎――被认为是废料,常被用作农场动物的垫草。但是越来越多人发现将稻草打包成长方形的块状物之后,它们就成了一种便宜的绝佳建材。

“在我们的印象中,稻草包质量很轻,”富尔比什说。“但实际上,每个稻草包重约40磅(约18公斤)。我们把它们像砖块一样堆砌起来,接着在内墙涂抹灰泥――基本上是泥,在它们表面覆盖一层一英寸半至两英寸(3.81至5.08厘米)厚的泥。然后我们在外墙上涂抹粉饰灰泥。所以一座稻草建筑实际上就像一座堡垒,而且只要不让稻草沾到水,它就不会腐烂。”

建造稻草包建筑有两种方法。你可以用这些材料建承重墙,也就是说用这些墙支撑屋顶。你也可以搭建一个木制梁柱结构来支撑屋顶,然后用稻草包填充墙壁。

无论用哪种方法,墙壁都会坚毅不倒。它们还有良好的隔离效果,让稻草屋在严冬的寒冷天气中保持温暖舒适,而那些建造在炎热地带(如沙漠)的屋子里也能在盛夏时节保持凉爽。

稻草是绿色环保的建筑材料,因为它是一种可再生资源:每一年都可以种植并收割新一季的植物,“更新”供应相当容易。

此外,种植和收割稻草耗费的能源相对较少。“大多数其他建筑材料在生产以及工厂加工过程中需要耗费大量能源,”富尔比什解释说。“使用稻草包建筑,你不用消耗很多能源就能获得建筑成品。”

富尔比什用了大约900个稻草包为自己家建造了一栋两层楼高、有三间卧室的房子。他的公司还为(美国)马里兰州科利奇帕克市的朋友社区学校提供稻草包墙壁。该项工程使用了大约4000个稻草包。

当被问及住在稻草屋里有没有不便时,例如老鼠会不会咬墙壁,富尔比什指出,稻草是被灰泥完全覆盖的。此外,他还养了两只猫巡逻抓鼠,以防万一。

“很难找到比稻草更好的墙体了,”他说。看起来这次该大灰狼倒霉了。