Straw-Bale Demo Home

The 1,800-square-foot straw-bale demonstration house built for this year’s Anaheim Home and Garden Show was assembled in three or four days with the help of volunteer contractors, according to Lynne Bayless, director the Eos Institute, a Laguna Beach nonprofit organization dedicated to the spread of sustainable technology.

Sitting inside the Anaheim Convention Center, the demonstration house, on display through next Sunday, gives the 100,000 visitors expected to attend to the home show a chance to see firsthand what straw-bale housing is all about.

It was built with extra-wide doorways to accommodate more visitors, she said.

“One of the main reasons we like straw bale is that it’s an agricultural waste product, which is a big problem in California right now,” Bayless said.

“It’s wonderful insulation and it’s renewable--we’re very concerned about the depletion of the forests. We also like the concept of owner-built construction.”