Casa di Paglia

Whoever designs spaces, designs behaviours

Michela Murgia

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Casa di Paglia

A public building of approximately 170 sqm, divided into two relatively mirrored blocks, creating a large portico thanks to the continuity of the flat roof. The elevation and roof structure are entirely made of glulam timber, the infill was created with straw bales, the interior plaster is raw earth, and the exterior plaster is lime. The photovoltaic array on the roof supplies approximately 80% of the building's thermal energy needs. Energy class: A+.

Casa di Paglia Sharing architecture

year 2013

location Fontaneto D'Agogna (NO)

materials

type of intervention New construction

technologies Glulam timber structure and straw bales

The story

The story of the Straw House is also the story of our studio’s origins: Archingreen was born together with the Straw House and the Straw House is the project that best embodies the studio's values: shared design, attention to the social context and user needs, interdisciplinarity, ecological and economic sustainability, design coherence, dialogue, and shared relationality.

It arose from a concrete and real need, highlighted by the work of local sociologists and educators: the young people in the area lacked a social meeting space, a place to express their sociality, a place to grow with a sense of constructive cohabitation.

The municipality of Fontaneto bravely decided to meet this need, offering them a new opportunity, one that also included architectural beauty.

A small, however visionary, municipality does not have large budgets for a new building. We found the ideal solution in self-building (autocostruzione). Moreover: we designed with long-term sustainability in mind: a high-energy-performance building that would reduce future management costs.

Completed in 2013, it is one of the first public works in straw built in Italy through self-building.

The external wall infills made of straw bales provide excellent thermal insulation (nearly three times that normally required for conventionally built structures), breathability, and acoustic insulation. Furthermore, straw is fire-resistant, durable, can be used as a load-bearing material, and has excellent seismic performance.

Added to all this is the simplicity of construction, a crucial quality for making self-building possible.

The plasters were also applied through self-building, with raw earth for the interior and lime for the exterior: these materials also ensure excellent breathability throughout the spaces. Consistent with the architectural choices, the plant system choices also respect the focus on energy saving: the heating system is powered by a heat pump, connected to a photovoltaic system located on the structure's flat roof.

Our house, built by us

Self-building was not just a choice of sustainability and economic need

It was an ethical and educational choice.

Allowing its future inhabitants to build the Straw House was an opportunity to promote sociality, conviviality, and mutual aid. It was a chance to foster the development of hard and soft skills, both technical and relational. All in perfect coherence with the goals of a youth aggregation centre.

Self-building is a transformative social practice: it redefines the relationships between people, materials, spaces, and dwelling. It is a testimony of radical inclusivity that becomes visible to the entire community - through the work on the construction site, the final structure, and the life within that dwelling - as a model to be replicated.

When you participate in a self-building project with other people, you invest heart and effort, generating love for the project, for co-builders, for the community, and for the natural materials that generously make a dream come true. You learn to accept and appreciate the imperfection of the result, to know your own limits, and to respect those of others. A sense of belonging is generated with others and with the territory.

Furthermore, self-building is an investment in neighbourly relations and contributes to the construction of the local community: we saw this concretely with spontaneous acts of conviviality: a cold winter day warmed by drinks offered by curious elderly residents following the construction work, and a snack of bread and salami, like in the past, eaten while sitting on straw bales.

The self-building process was organised through four school-workshops on straw and two on plasters, involving businesses, professionals, and local young people. But even before that, the entire design process was conducted according to a model of a community school and participatory design, through brainstorming sessions on space usage and citizen engagement activities.

None of this would have been possible without the collaboration of the Vedogiovane cooperative, the General Contractor for both the building and social aspects of the entire project. They recruited the over 80 young volunteers, kept the construction site active, fostered social engagement, and ensured the continuity of the work, allowing it to be finished within the planned timeframe.

The Importance of Intermediate Spaces

The organization of the spaces is oriented towards a beauty of use. Thanks to the constant dialogue with educators and young people, we started from the centre's functions and the people who inhabit it.

Young people and adolescents live in an intermediate biographical space, between childhood and adulthood, between not-yet-defined identities, and among multiple possibilities for choice. The space of a youth aggregation centre is also intrinsically an intermediate space, positioned between the private space of home and the public space of school or work. It is a space that offers the opportunity to feel comfortable, safe, and protected, fostering a sense of community and facilitating relationships.

The combination of existential situation and social function resulted in the inclusion of the intermediate space par excellence in the design: a portico.

Two main buildings under a single roof, a void between two solids, an intermediate space that is restless, unpredictable, and in transition, it is a space that can transform, connecting while separating, and separating while connecting.

Two buildings with clearly defined wall boundaries, but which can, when necessary, open up to the indefinite, break down the boundaries, and converge into a single space, protected yet large enough to accommodate all the identities, diversities, and relationships of its young inhabitants.

The Straw House in Fontaneto fully represents the concept of design coherence: the architectural design and the organisation of the spaces reflects the biographical situation of its inhabitants while simultaneously promoting the achievement of their goals for relationality and shared activity.

The centre's functions and the way of inhabiting it were outlined through brainstorming meetings: building community through volunteering, work, and youth entrepreneurship; through art, culture, intergenerational exchange, and meeting with the local network of organizations; and learning and acquiring new skills useful for the working world.

The two main buildings are dedicated, one to an events hall, organized social space for sharing the results of the centre's activities, and the other to free socialization and conviviality, a bar, study room, a roof under which to share words, thoughts, and food, or simply to be alone, but together.

Photography by Paolo Sacchi

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