Straw Bale Construction A Revolutionary Building Material In Low Cost Housing For Rural Areas

Author: 
Monika Shekhar Gupta

The paper deals with the study of a low cost agro waste construction material i.e. Strawbale .The cost of construction materials is increasing incrementally. It is essential to find functional substitutes for conventional building materials in the construction industry. In view of the importance of saving of energy and conservation of resources, efficient recycling of all these agro wastes is now a global concern requiring extensive R&D work towards exploring newer applications and maximizing use of existing technologies for a sustainable and environmentally sound management. More details on the availability of agro wastes of all kinds from different sources, their present utilization and recycling potentials for safe, sound and substantial development are summarized and discussed in this paper. In this emerging world where the rising need of housing is increasing day by day due to tremendous growing of rural and urban population has been a pressuring issue. Without compromising affordability, quality and maintaining the component of earth system has been a challenging task where Straw Bale can be one of the promising building material that meet the overall housing need and energy efficient goal of most of the developing countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan etc where agriculture act as the backbone of development. India being one of the largest countries for production of straw but most of those is considered as waste and limited are only used for productive type but if we can utilize them for construction in the form of straw bale then staying in good house won’t be limited to dream for people. It also includes the study of aids to maintain the quality of living standard of people because straw house fulfills serviceability and helps to maintain the environmental quality. Straw is getting lots of preference in many countries because it is cost effective with high health value, Aesthetics value, thermal performance, Fire resistance, light weight and eco friendly in nature. It also has good response against earthquake so it can be constructed in earthquake prone areas as well. So, profound research and awareness regarding straw bale construction should be enhanced in developing countries land agriculture countries like India for effective implementation of straw bale house.

Paper No: 
298