116
KONGRESI
AR 2013/1
Larisa Brojan 
House design in the 21th century: ecological design: case 
study of a straw bale house in Slovenia
ArchTheo 12 – Theory of architecture conference
House & Home from a theoretical perspective
Istanbul 31. 10. 2012 - 3. 11. 2012
Prispevek je bil predstavljen na 12i mednarodni konferenci 
ARCHTHEO 12, ki je potekala v Istanbulu od 31.10.-3. 11. 
2012. Koordinator konference Efe Duyan, glavni svetovalec pa 
Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan Gökçe Erkmen. Prispevek je bil recenziran 
ter pregledan s strani znanstvenega odbora konference s člani:
Vsi prispevki so objavljeni v zborniku z naslovom  House and 
Home – from a theoretical perspective, in sicer v dveh delih, 
kamor je vključena tudi spodaj predstavljena študija.
Znanstveni odbor konference je bil sestavljen iz 7 profesorjev iz 
različnih fakultet: 
• Prof. dr. Edward Casey
• Prof. dr. Aylâ Fatma Antel
• Prof. Bart Lootsma
• Assoc. prof. dr. Aydan Balamir
• Assoc. prof. dr. Bülent Tanju
• Assoc. prof. dr. Murat Cemal Yalçintan
• Asst. prof. dr. Elvan Gökçe Erkmen
• Aykut Köksal
• Erdal Özyurt
Use of conventional building materials and techniques still 
dominates despite of global effort for more environmental 
friendly design. A number of projects aim at overcoming the 
aesthetic or structural boundaries, in each case aspect of energy 
consumption is neglected.
To achieve a result of ecological design the primary task of a 
design is a selection of a main building material with low impact 
on the environment and people. The use of renewable resources 
like organic material such as straw is significant contribution 
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. From ecological point 
of view there are many important values calculated within 
environmental impact and defined such as primary energy 
content, global warming potential and acidification potential.
Building use and its maintenance is the longest part of the 
whole building life cycle. The life cycle can be divided into 
three phases, pre-construction, use and after use. Contemporary 
practice dictates guidelines for low energy consumption 
especially in the phase of use, although basic building material 
has the major influence on total energy balance. In the case 
of straw bale building there are many positive characteristics 
compared to conventional construction, such as availability of 
resources, sufficient isolation properties, negative embodied 
energy, local availability, etc.
The use of local materials was typical choice in the past, whereas 
nowadays residential buildings are built up with conventional 
materials such as brick and concrete. Designers nowadays do 
not give much of attention when it comes to choosing basic 
building material. Usually the material is chosen according 
to the investor’s financial capacity. Investors rarely demand 
unconventional materials, such as straw. This type of material 
often raises concerns about the performance, and there are also 
few investors who categorically reject it. The advantage of 
this material is held in the accumulation of CO2 in the straw, 
therefore the final energy balance is characteristically lower.
Straw has a long history in architecture. For the longest period of 
time it was used as a layer of thatch or a binder in a clay building 
techniques. At the beginning of the 20th century, simultaneously 
with invention of steam machine for making straw bales, straw 
bale building technique was developed and mostly used in 
combination with timber and clay. Basic properties of straw are 
the isolation properties which are quite suitable, but the greatest 
advantage of straw is its organic structure which is completely 
recyclable and it is locally available practically worldwide.
Straw bale building is suitable not only for rural area. Many 
already built buildings prove that the straw and specific building 
techniques can be applied in urban area as well. The design of 
the presented single-family house is orientated environmental 
friendly. Currently built project in Radomlje (Slovenia) is based 
on the idea of low carbon footprint. Consequently the choice of 
natural materials was obvious. Structure of the house is timber 
frame filled with straw bales and rendered on both sides of 
the wall with clay. Exterior wall is additionally protected with 
a layer of lime wash. Another step in environmental design is 
orientation of the house with minimum glassed area on the north 
side and largest glassed area towards the south which present 
low heat loses.
BROJAN, Larisa. House design in the 21th century: ecological 
design: case study of a straw bale house in Slovenia. V: DUY AN, 
Efe (ur.), ÖZTÜRKCAN, Ceren (ur.). ARCHTHEO ‘12 : 
conference proceedings, 31 Oct-3 Nov 2012, Mimar Sinan Fine 
Arts University, [Istanbul]. 1, House & home from a theoretical 
perspective. Istanbul: DAKAM Publishing, cop. 2012, str. 38-
46, ilustr. [COBISS.SI-ID 2870916]
Borut Juvanec
Architectural theory : order in reality
Symmetry: Art and Science
International Society for the Indisciplinary Study of 
Symmmetry ISIS 
Folk Architecture – Vernacular Architecture
8. – 10. junij 2012, Budapest - Veszprém - Szentendre, 
Madžarska
Mednarodna znanstvena konferenca Symmetry of Forms 
and Structures se je odvijala na temo prostorskih struktur in 
harmonije. Symmetry konferenca združuje znanstvenike z 
različnih področij, kjer se pojavlja simetrija ali asimetrija. Na 
teh srečanjih se srečujemo matemetiki, industrijski oblikovalci, 
arhitekti, fiziki, gradbeniki, urbanisti, arheologi, ki se praktično 
ukvarjamo na realnih primerih in razvijamo teoretične modele in 
metode dela. Namen konference je v povezovanju idej, vedenja 
in utrjevanju misli o ravnovesju.