AGRIBOARD: A SUSTAINABLE STRUCTURALLY INSULATED PANEL USING AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS

Here is a wonderful blog by architect Michael Cobb who journals about his experience using this sustainable green SIP building product of the future. Agriboard.

Agriboard is a structurally insulated panel (SIP) and goes up 8 times faster than conventional methods and saves 80% construction lumber, while being insect and mold resistant, fire rated 2.5 hours and F5 Hurricane- Tornado-Earthquake-Blast proof! :

Studio Ecesis Project Journal by Architect Michael Cobb.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Panel Installation is Underway

Panel installation is underway. The builders are moving ahead fast. There is only a little more sunshine in the forecast so everybody appreciates the clip. At midday today about 75% of the first floor panels were up after starting work on the panels yesterday. Most panels are being place by crane. Posted by Michael Cobb at 1:54 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Ready to Go.

The mudsills and LSL keys have been applied to the foundation. The Agriboard install should start tomorrow. Total Concepts is the General Contractor and Shook and Waller is the contractor responsible for the Agriboard installation. A big thank you to Steve Pestell, the structural engineer of record, for catching some last minute lumber rating issues and to John Sharp, of Total Concepts, for catching all the electrical issues before the panels went in. Posted by Michael Cobb at 7:45 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 29, 2010

The Diaz Farm Massing Model

The Agriboard panels on the Diaz Farm Residence will look something like this massing model when they are assembled.

The building regulates sunlight intake with a deep eave over the main living space and west facing exterior retractable shades. Coupled with the excellent insulation properties of the Agriboard, it is our hope this building will have superior thermal performance.

In working on this project and others like it, we've found the language of crisp edges to be the most natural expression of a panelized building system. Posted by Michael Cobb at 4:48 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 22, 2010

Waiting for the Rain to Stop

No sooner did the panels make it to the site, than a series of storms hit Sonoma County. In a holding pattern until the weather gives us several days to build. Posted by Michael Cobb at 10:54 PM 0 comments

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Agriboard!

Well after about five years of attempts, Studio Ecesis, has the pleasure of seeing the first Agriboard delivery for the Diaz Residence up in Cloverdale. Agriboard is a product that represents an improvement in SIP panel construction. SIP panels, popular in the Green Building movement, are a highly insulated prefabricated wall, floor or roof panel that is essentially a sandwich of OSB (oriented strand board) and polystyrene. While the product has been successful at improving a home's energy performance, the problems with polystyrene are wide ranging. The manufacturing, the burning and the disposal of this product are all problematic environmentally.

Enter Agriboard. As a byproduct of the wheat and rice harvest, Agriboard manufactures a pressed wheat and rice panel they call a CAF (compressed agricultural fiber) panel. The long and short of the CAF panel is that instead of burning the wheat and rice fields after their harvest, a second crop is afforded by harvesting the stalks for CAF panels. The CAF panel essentially replaces the styrofoam in the SIP panel recipe. The panel for the Diaz Residence is 8" thick and has a R value of 24! This is about twice the R value of a 2x4 wall with batt insulation. The panel's fire rating is 2 1/2 hours and this has allowed us to build closer to the property line than a traditional 2x4 wall assembly would have permitted.

This panel also provides a viable alternative to the present straw-bale quandry in California. Straw-bale, like rammed earth, is an affordable and readily available building material that has been essentially legislated out of existence in the affordable housing market. Isn't affordable housing the place to use these relatively unprocessed low cost materials? To build with straw-bale in California today requires a steel structure to handle seismic issues. The code considers straw-bale too risky a material in and of itself. This steel work is usually too expensive for affordable housing. The place we are far more likely to see rammed earth and straw-bale these days is in higher end homes. By coupling the use of straw with conventional wood construction elements (i.e. OSB) there is a real opportunity with Agriboard to provide a structurally sound building solution here in California that is energy efficient, healthy and renewable.
We are pretty excited about this project. With the approval of an "Application for Alternate Method or Material," the Diaz Residence will be the first Agriboard structure constructed in California. Its 8" thick walls will allow the use of exterior shades in the window pocket. More photos to come. Posted by Michael Cobb at 12:26 PM 0 comments