Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Lance and Wendy Olson wanted to downsize from their 2,500 square foot home, lower their foot print and build a super energy-efficient dream home from scratch.
Lance spent a few years researching different strategies and features of their planned eco-friendly home and landed on straw bale construction and a feature he was totally enamoured with - rammed Earth walls.
They wanted some expert input so they talked to the SAIT green building folks at SAIT in Calgary, Alberta and they connected him with Habib Gonzalez, a straw bale guru who has built most of the straw bale homes in Western Canada.
We were there in 2016 when they built the home thanks to the help of many volunteers and researchers from SAIT and Habib Gonzalez himself.
Check out our other video "Anatomy of a Straw Bale Dream Home" for a guided tour of all the details.
Then we went back right year later to see how the straw bale home turned out!
It is one of the most innovative green homes we have ever seen. It's loaded with cool artistic features features.
This is our special full tour of the building.
Get ready to be inspired!
Green Energy Futures
Episode 396 - Part 1 - This video
Episode 396 - Part 2 - Anatomy of a Straw Bale Dream Home
youtu.be/38akJEh2j4A
00:00 - Introduction
00:57 - Overview of features
01:20 - Rammed Earth mass wall and Sunroom
01:45 - Straw Bale Wall breakdown
02:32 - Four ways the home gets heating
03:09 - Why is SAIT interested in straw bale?
03:37 - Straw bale guru Habib Gonzalez
03:58 - Wendy says It felt like we were buliding a three little pigs house
04:23 - Post and beam straw bale explained
04:57 - Straw bale and building community
05:19 - It felt like we were building a three little pigs house - Wendy
05:33 - Favourite parts of the straw bale home
06:07 - Wrap up for Part 1 on making the straw bale home
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#greenenergyfutures #energytransition #renewableenergy
Lance and Wendy Olson wanted to downsize from their 2,500 square foot home, lower their foot print and build a super energy-efficient dream home from scratch.
Lance spent a few years researching different strategies and features of their planned eco-friendly home and landed on straw bale construction and a feature he was totally enamoured with - rammed Earth walls.
They wanted some expert input so they talked to the SAIT green building folks at SAIT in Calgary, Alberta and they connected him with Habib Gonzalez, a straw bale guru who has built most of the straw bale homes in Western Canada.
We were there in 2016 when they built the home thanks to the help of many volunteers and researchers from SAIT and Habib Gonzalez himself.
Check out our other video "Anatomy of a Straw Bale Dream Home" for a guided tour of all the details.
Then we went back right year later to see how the straw bale home turned out!
It is one of the most innovative green homes we have ever seen. It's loaded with cool artistic features features.
This is our special full tour of the building.
Get ready to be inspired!
Green Energy Futures
Episode 396 - Part 1 - This video
Episode 396 - Part 2 - Anatomy of a Straw Bale Dream Home
youtu.be/38akJEh2j4A
00:00 - Introduction
00:57 - Overview of features
01:20 - Rammed Earth mass wall and Sunroom
01:45 - Straw Bale Wall breakdown
02:32 - Four ways the home gets heating
03:09 - Why is SAIT interested in straw bale?
03:37 - Straw bale guru Habib Gonzalez
03:58 - Wendy says It felt like we were buliding a three little pigs house
04:23 - Post and beam straw bale explained
04:57 - Straw bale and building community
05:19 - It felt like we were building a three little pigs house - Wendy
05:33 - Favourite parts of the straw bale home
06:07 - Wrap up for Part 1 on making the straw bale home
✅ BLOG - GreenEnergyFutures.ca
✅ PODCAST - open.spotify.com/show/1IFLWH0wmCBwpEF7BQv7FA?si=7b384d7e63c0493c
✅ SUPPORT OUR WORK - Buy Me a Coffee - buymeacoffee.com/greenfutures
Green Energy Futures is a passion project. I have produced more than 400 inspiring episodes, stories of people making a difference in the world.
✅ SUBSCRIBE and HIT Notifications Today!
💙BLUE SKY - https://bsky.app/profile/greenenergyfutures.bsky.social
▶️ X - https://x.com/GEF140
▶️ LINKEDIN - linkedin.com/in/david-dodge-01325128
▶️ FACEBOOK - facebook.com/greenenergyfutures
▶️ SOUNDCLOUD - soundcloud.com/daviddodgeyeg
#greenenergyfutures #energytransition #renewableenergy
