As we promised, the site went to explore the first house made of straw cubes in Belarus. Together with several people interested in building an eco-house, we drive 16 km from Minsk towards Borovlyany.

Along the way, we’ll find out from our fellow travelers why they liked straw technology. A strong guy (as it turned out, a builder) confidently declared that he was for a “green” country, an older woman was looking for an option for developing an empty plot.

We are interested in one of the creators of the technology and the director of the company producing ecocubes Andrey Khovratovich How did the idea of ​​building such houses come about?

“I come from a generation of people who were not able to fully implement what they were taught. I am a thermal physicist by training, but you know, perestroika, I had to work wherever I could... Troubled times passed, but the desire to apply your knowledge and do something necessary remains, - said Andrey Iosifovich. — We became interested in eco-building from straw, developed the technology ourselves and wanted to sell it, but, unfortunately, at the level of the idea, no one was interested in it. Then we created a business, set up production, logistics... But even then it turned out that the market needed not just a business, but a selling business. This is, in fact, the stage we are at now.”.

How is it outside?

We are entering a cottage community. Around the house from the most different materials: brick, gas silicate, timber. Our straw specimen is immediately visible, thanks to the characteristic “waffle” pattern - the pattern sets wooden beam along the perimeter of the cubes and a light fiberboard panel in the middle.

In fact, a house can be finished with any material: block house, clapboard, clinker, siding (although the latter is simply horrible dream green building). But for those who like “not like everyone else,” it’s more interesting to leave it that way.

The very idea of ​​straw insulation is at least two hundred years old; the countdown can be traced back to the invention of the baler in the USA.

“As you can see, it’s not needed for the home strip foundation, a pile with a wooden grillage is enough - already savings, - the creator of ecocubes began the story Vladimir Krupsky(by the way, I am an aircraft designer by training!) - Our goal was to create the simplest and most affordable housing construction system possible. Most compatriots cannot find a hundred thousand dollars for a house of 150 square meters, but ours of the same area will cost 30-35 thousand.

We also wanted to show that the construction process itself can be simple: our technology does not require skilled workers, except for the foundation, and the house itself can be built by two students. There are simply no options for assembling it incorrectly. In the aircraft industry there is such a concept - “foolproofing”, here, if you want, something similar".

Of course, for the stated amount it is also possible from other materials. For example, a log house or frame “Canadian” version will cost about the same. The question is what do you get for the money. In the case of the Ecocube system, the thermal resistance is 10 m 2 °C/W (for comparison, gas silicate has 3.5), which means you can seriously save on heating. For example, for the presented house, according to the developers, two 1 kW electric heaters are sufficient. The cost of heating a medium-sized eco-house in terms of gas will not exceed 2 million rubles per year (for houses made of traditional wall materials heating costs average 12 million). It is important that there are no chemicals in the cubes, except for wood impregnation. Plus high vapor permeability, which will last as long as the house itself stands.

“In the future, eco-houses will become even more accessible. Now we have a lot manual labor, with large volumes, individual operations are automated,” adds Andrey Khovratovich .

A technology somewhat similar to the Belarusian one is offered by the Lithuanians. But instead of cubes, they have large panels of compressed straw that cost a lot of money, making green building available only to the wealthy. The Belarusians deliberately refused this.

“Cube dimensions 625×500×350 mm, — continues Vladimir Pavlovich, - this is the result of serious research. The block should be convenient for manufacturers and have optimal technical characteristics and it’s easy to “adapt” to any project (we have several standard ones, but the customer can come with his own project).

In addition, small modules solve the problem of straw shrinkage without the cost of additional pressing (currently the straw density is 70 kg/m3).”

When talking about the structure of the cube, the technology developers urged not to consider the block separately, but to evaluate the system as a whole.

The blocks are fastened to each other using a tongue-and-groove system, with the grooves located along the perimeter of the cube, and a 10 mm thick plywood strip, which is inserted into the block during installation, acts as a tenon. Plus mechanical fastening with nails or screws.

Such a system can withstand any wind loads and eliminates the formation of cold bridges simply because the air flow must make eight turns and pass 400 mm of straw insulation to penetrate inside.

“Each individual module is little more interesting than a stool, but when assembled, the result is a structure with amazing properties.”

“Has the ideal been achieved? Don't think. All manufacturers are improving their products. We are no exception. And although our developments are protected by patents, competitors will not let us relax,” says Andrey Iosifovich .

How's it inside?

We enter the house. The same “waffle” cells as on the outside. As with the facade, any finishing options are possible. For example, the production of cubes with a fine inner surface has already been launched. And if the “checkered aesthetics” suits you, fiberboard board Simply paint with vapor-permeable paint.

The house cannot yet be called residential. They're coming Finishing work, and the owners only occasionally spend the night here. By the way, it doesn’t smell like straw - this is for skeptics who are afraid of living “like in a stable.” Quite warm, although it is a cool September evening outside. We notice that it’s somehow especially easy to breathe inside. We don’t encourage anyone to believe our feelings, but neither we nor the rest of the excursion participants wanted to leave home. Maybe because the owner built his home according to the laws of vastu (the Indian version of feng shui, very fashionable now), but we are inclined to think that the special energy of houses made of natural materials is to blame.

The most interesting thing awaited us on the second floor. The roof is also made of straw cubes, but of a slightly different design and much thicker (0.7 m), since heat loss through the roof is always greater than through the walls. But the main thing is that the roof does not have rafters, in order to eliminate cold bridges here too. She gathered from the inside. Sheets of plywood, located vertically between rows of straw blocks, acted as a rigid frame. This design can withstand any of the existing roofing materials.

The house doesn't need power forced ventilation, the laws of physics apply. The entire surface of the building is essentially one large recuperator. As a result, in the house fresh air without heat loss, which is typical for most ventilation systems.

We only noticed that the ground floor smelled a little damp. “This is because the house has never been heated and no one lives here permanently,- Vladimir Pavlovich notices our concern. — Two weeks after turning on the heating, everything will return to normal.”.

Fire, water and... mice

“Why don’t you ask about mice?— the designer is surprised. — This is the biggest “horror story” of straw housing construction. They also say that everything will either rot or burn.

Let's go in order. Mice live where there is food and where it is easy to move, what the house is made of, of great importance does not have. There is no food for them within our walls (they don’t eat straw), and they are unlikely to want to run around in a thorny block. But to be sure, we wrap each cube with anti-mole netting.

About the fact that the house will burn down from a match... We conducted an experiment with our ecocubes: we put a blowtorch in the middle of the block, took it out after an hour (!), waited until it cooled down, and looked inside. Except small area We didn’t see any charred straw there. Combustion requires oxygen; a straw bale does not have enough of it. Plastered straw block withstands 120 minutes (!) of exposure to flame, after which the insulation only chars 2-3 cm. By the way, a steel beam loses stability when exposed to open fire several times faster!

In addition, it is well known that most people in a fire die not from fire, but from poisoning by combustion products; when burning natural raw materials, the chances of being saved are much greater than when burning chemicals. And another important fact: in the event of a fire, you are guaranteed not to be covered with beams or overwhelmed by walls: our structure has many connections (like a honeycomb), a piece will burn - the rest will stand.

And about the fact that the house will rot... Mold appears when the humidity is more than 20%. In the cube of the house being used, the humidity is kept at 12%. With such indicators, even if some processes have begun (for example, water got in during storage or installation), the mold will simply dry out. As with mole nets, to eliminate any questions, we added a vapor-permeable waterproof barrier to the latest modifications of the cube. non-woven material."

A less frequent, but still common myth that only rye straw is needed, according to designers, also does not stand up to criticism. Reed, corn, flaxseed, which flax plants are littered with, or any dry stems will do.

Most of the disadvantages that can be found with straw construction relate to houses made from ordinary straw bales. To ready-made cubes, protected on both sides from influences environment, they have no relationship. The only thing that may deserve attention is the need to reliably protect building materials on the site from precipitation and try to complete construction as quickly as possible. This, however, should not be a problem: the standard construction period for a house using the Ecocube system is two months.

We left the thatched house with special feelings. I'm glad that there are people, professionals, who develop promising technologies and put them into practice. But in order to thatched houses have become in demand, we need to change our thinking, abandon stereotypes, and build not only according to the principle of “like your neighbor.” And healthy patriotism here, in our opinion, is quite appropriate: who else but us, Belarusians, should build using Belarusian technology?

But the main thing we learned from the excursion around the straw house is that there are speculations, myths and someone’s fears, but there are laws of physics and common sense. How more people will be on the side of reason, the better it will be for all of us to live.

The creators of the Ecocube house-building system, Vladimir Krupsky (left) and Andrey Khovratovich

Increasingly in in social networks There are news about eco-houses that owners build with their own hands. Almost all the building materials are under your feet, and you don’t need to take out a mortgage. So, a guy from Belarus shares his experience on how to build own house with your own hands and spend virtually no money.

Evgeny Raevsky lives in the village of Mirny (Gomel region, Belarus), but despite this, he is a fairly popular video blogger. He deliberately moved from the city to the wilderness of the countryside to be closer to nature and build a house with his own hands.

In his video reports, the guy demonstrated in detail how everything happened. When starting work, Evgeniy decided not to build a foundation. The walls were built directly on the ground. The main building material was adobe. The guy got sand and clay right there nearby, but he had to fork out for straw. She builds it herself inexpensively, but delivery to the village cost $60.

The partitions in the house are built using cordwood technology (in our language, clay), that is, dry logs (chocks) are laid on the mortar. Inside, all the walls are covered with plaster and look quite decent. Natural light enters the home through small windows in the walls and a hole in the roof. The total area of ​​the house is 45 square meters.

Evgeniy made an earthen roof. The frame is formed by rafters laid in a special way. The weight of the entire roof is about 10 tons. At the moment there is no land on the roof. The owner was planning to spend the winter in this house for the first time, so he decided to further insulate it. He will cover the surface with sawdust, and then sprinkle more soil on top.

The house is heated by a stove. Showers and toilets are located outside.

Currently, the topic of a healthy lifestyle - IVF - life is gaining enormous popularity. And, unfortunately, as often happens, many manufacturers are beginning to use the term “ECO” to refer to goods and services that do not meet the ECO criteria. And in construction as well.

WHAT IS ECO-BUILDING? Evgeny Shirokov, vice-president of the International Academy, answers this question Ecology, the only winner of the WORLD SUSTAINABLE ENERGY AWARD and UN HABITAT AWARD in the CIS, author and implementer of a new housing and urban planning concept for the CIS.

“The word “eco-home” has become fashionable these days. So fashionable that some even manage to call houses made from sip panels eco-houses. In this video I talk about what an eco-house should be like. I present the results of studies on the safety of building materials (reinforced concrete, gas silicate, brick, wood, adobe, straw), and also talk about the shape of the house and roof, and permaculture infrastructure solutions that affect human health.”

Spring is just around the corner, which means a new construction season. Time to make decisions, make choices, align and build. Ecocube offers you a photo trip to eco-houses in England, Holland, Canada, Russia, USA, Ukraine, France, Belarus, where building material straw is used. Modern, warm, healthy homes! If you decide to build a house from Ecocube, please contact us - design, construction, finishing. Waiting for you!

Autumn and winter are the best time to produce ECOCUBES in order to start building a house in the spring. You can calmly “settle” the latest design and architectural solutions, coordinate everything Required documents, lay out the blocks - ECOCUBES and start building a house.

For many people, the construction “kitchen” begins in its own way. This time we started with the construction of a canopy and the delivery of the Ecocube filler - straw. Gradually, the rolls will move into production, and Ecocubes will take their place in the canopy, awaiting their assembly into walls.

By the way, this canopy is designed and made taking into account its further use as summer gazebo- veranda and placed near a planted oak tree. So dinner in the gazebo “At the Oak” is just around the corner...

5 years of work. Women's conclusion based on the results of the five-year plan - construction from ECOCUBE - the work of brave and determined men and the inspiration of their halves! And the main answer to main question- “And what do you build from?” They themselves have already “made it out of what was…” The children chose the ECOCUBE!

We celebrated City Day among people who care about the environment in which they live - air, ecology, active lifestyle, nutrition, recreation and, of course, a healthy home. These are people who do not need to be convinced - they themselves learn, study and apply with interest. More than ever, there were many children on our site - they do not yet have our adult fears of everything new, unusual, not accepted by the majority (not like everyone else), they are spontaneous and inquisitive. On this day, many of them, under the curious gaze of their parents, assembled for the first time a piece of the wall of a real house from ECOCUBE. Difficult? It’s hard to decide - no to collect! For the first time, representatives of the fair sex assembled a piece of the wall - surprised and a little frightened - is it really possible!

The men peered at the price. Some were surprised - straw is cheap - why is it so expensive? Because ECOCUBE is not straw. This building block, which is primarily a power structure - which provides strong walls, floors, and ceilings. The structure is filled with environmentally friendly, warm, breathable insulation - which provides warmth in winter, coolness in summer, natural ventilation air, the health of living people and good savings for your Money for heating the house. The design does not allow the insulation to shrink - there are no ventilation zones in the house. External and inner surface ECOCUBA are surfaces under finishing– also from environmentally friendly materials. You don’t plaster or insulate a built house. Once you build a house, you finish it! At the same time, you can live in it.

Ecocube is not a miracle of our time. This is a long-forgotten old thing (there are houses in the world that are more than 100 years old). This is old passed the test time technology is simply modern style– to be reliable and convenient in construction and operation. All over the world, houses have been and are being built using natural fillers - straw, castor and other materials. And a lot of them were built in Belarus.

Over the 4 years of our ECOCUBE’s life, 15 houses have been built, including a hostel in the Shishki country complex. Some are already inhabited by people, some are being completed.

And the last thing - mice, ants, fire, piglets... There are two categories of people - some just want to know how it really is. And there are others - “no matter what you tell me, it’s all nonsense.” Look through our windows of publicity in the houses we have built and you will get an answer. Anyone who really wants to know will find out. And one more thing - everyone chooses their own path, their own home, their own lifestyle. The right to choose is always up to the individual!

We have another exhibition ahead and the opportunity to communicate with you - we are waiting for you in October at the exhibition “Belarusian House”!

And then workdays - the production of house kits for our customers for the spring construction season of 2019.

Today is the final day of the exhibition. Painstaking everyday life begins - we work on house designs, calculate the cost of construction, and produce house kits. We are preparing to open a new direction of our work - eco-interior design and production of eco-items. Unusual and stylish products and creative interior solutions await you.

But autumn will still give us the opportunity to meet and communicate at venues in Minsk. Tomorrow - September 8, we invite everyone to come to Komarovsky Square and celebrate our city’s holiday with us. You will not only be able to see the Ecocube, but also try to assemble part of the wall of the house with your own hands. And just calm down in the bustle of the city, leaning against a thatched arch.