The 2nd St. LIFE Project is designed for an infill lot in downtown Carbondale, CO. The narrow lot came with a solar height restriction to maintain solar access for the house to the north. However, the lot offers great solar access and siting was maximized using a Solar Pathfinder. The design incorporates good passive solar design through orientation, solar gain, shading and interior mass. The super insulation of R38 in the straw bale wall system is accompanied by R21 insulation using seven inches of perlite under the earthen floor, R10 of XPS insulation at the perimeter of the shallow frost protected foundation, and R30 at the rim joist, and R50 in the unvented roof using closed cell spray foam and batt insulation. Concrete use was extremely minimized by using a shallow frost protected foundation extending only 12" below grade, four post pads and three small sonotubes. Seven inch tall stem walls just under first floor interior framed walls are the only other concrete used in the project. A light post and beam frame using six paralam posts, dimensional lumber posts at windows and doors and microlam beams is used with the straw bale infill and plaster skins compressive and shear loads. 

More information on the design will be posted in the coming weeks. Subscribe to the blog for updates.