STRAW BALE BUILDING: Values, Ethics, and Building Codes

在当今世界，建筑成本不断上涨，人们对砍伐森林和污染的担忧日益加剧，稻草捆建筑技术从19世纪80年代内布拉斯加州的历史根源开始复兴。这项研究将探讨建筑规范的作用，作为稻草包建筑运动所信奉的以生态为导向的价值观与一般建筑规范所依据的健康和安全价值观之间斗争的焦点。研究的重点将是构建安全和健康的建筑环境的定义。将关注专业人员在寻求批准秸秆包建筑的具体办公室所表达的规范性声明，哪些关于秸秆包建筑的数据被认为是重要的，以及这些数据以什么方式令人信服地表达出来。这项研究将涉及亚利桑那州和新墨西哥州的比较，那里是最早的秸秆捆建筑创新的发源地，最早的法规也是在那里通过的，加州和德克萨斯州的法规也发生了早期的秸秆包激进主义。进一步的研究目标是了解：1)“绿色建筑”伦理(旨在通过在建筑过程中和建筑产品中消耗更少的产品和能源来保护环境)在当代稻草包建筑运动背后的人和资源的不同网络中的构建和作用；2)稻草包社区如何通过实际的建筑实践来表达这些伦理。研究将使用社区建设项目的参与者观察、开放式访谈和文件分析。参与者观察提供了必要的背景数据，以跟踪个人之间未阐明的知识的转移。照片将记录建筑施工和检查过程中的工作实践。对业主建造者、建筑师、承包商和建筑官员的深入采访将有助于得出价值观、伦理判断和潜在意义。将对文件材料进行分析，以追踪传播模式和网络。对基层创新者和建筑法规干事的日常做法嵌入价值观的方式进行定性审查，将利用围绕建筑法规和稻草捆建筑技术标准化的斗争，揭示健康和安全建筑环境定义的构建和谈判，并确定促进可持续做法的成功和不成功的公民战略。它还将促进对替代技术知识模式的理解，并将其转移到常规和公司设计和开发背景之外，扩展和检验科学和技术研究的理论。调查结果将在一卷关于稻草捆运动的社会技术方面的书的两个章节中传播，并在期刊文章中传播。除了学术出版物外，还将通过设计、建筑和工程期刊以及史密森和绿色建筑出版物面向更广泛的受众。

In today's world of rising building costs and concerns over deforestation and pollution the technique of building with straw bales is enjoying a renaissance from its historic roots in 1880s Nebraska. This study will explore the role of building codes as a focus of the struggle between the ecology-oriented values espoused by the Straw Bale Building Movement and the health and safety values which underlie building codes in general. The research focus will be on the construction of definitions of safe and healthy built environments. Attention will be given to the normative statements professionals articulate at the specific offices where approval of straw bale building has been sought, what kinds of data about straw bale building have been regarded as significant, and in what manner these data have convincingly been represented. The research will involve comparisons of Arizona and New Mexico, where much of the earliest straw bale building innovations took place and the earliest codes were passed, with codes in California and Texas where early straw bale activism also occurred. Further research objectives are to understand: 1) the construction and role of "green building" ethics (those oriented to preserving the environment by consuming fewer products and less energy in the building process as well as in the built product) in the heterogeneous network of people and resources underlying the contemporary Straw Bale Building Movement and 2) how the straw bale community expresses these ethics through actual building practices. Research will use participant observation at community building projects, and open-ended interviews, and document analysis. Participant observation provides the necessary contextual data to track the transfer of unarticulated knowledge between individuals. Photographs will document work practices during building construction and inspection. In-depth interviews with owner-builders, architects, contractors, and building officials will help elicit the values, ethical judgments and underlying meanings. Documentary materials will be analyzed to trace communication patterns and networks. Qualitative examination of the manner in which the everyday practices of grass-roots innovators and building code officers embed values will use the struggle over building codes and standardization of straw bale building techniques to reveal the construction and negotiation of definitions of a healthy and safe built environment and to identify successful and unsuccessful citizen strategies to foster sustainable practices. It will also advance understanding of models of alternative technical knowledge and its transfer outside conventional and corporate design and development contexts, expanding and testing theory from science and technology studies. Findings will be disseminated in two book chapters of a volume on the socio-technical aspects of the Straw Bale Movement and in journal articles. Beyond scholarly publications, wider audiences will be addressed through design, architecture and engineering journals and Smithsonian and green building publications.