A house made of straw and mud: sounds like the Biblical Jews enslaved in Egypt building cities with bricks that wouldn’t hold together. Yet Sarah Kopp built a house from bales of straw held together by chicken-wire, plastered with a mixture of mud, sand and chopped straw, resembling the renovations done at the Khan of the White Donkey, right there in Safed. How long can she expect this primitive-sounding structure to stand?
'One hundred years,' says Sarah, calmly. 'If you’re talking about sustainable architecture, straw bale is the number one choice.'
In Nebraska, where in pioneer times straw-bale homes and dugouts were the only options, century-old straw bale houses are still standing. Her own has has withstood a recent earthquake without damage."
