A natural movement toward straw houses

Thank you so much for the wonderful story about Lou Harrison’s Joshua Tree straw-bale house (“An Original Composition,” Feb. 12) and your important column on straw-bale construction (“It’s What’s Inside That Counts”).

Straw-bale construction saves trees. It takes a generation to grow a tree, but there’s a new crop of straw every year.

David Colker’s statement that “most straw-bale houses end up looking either quite conventional or like something out of a hobbit village” is belied by the stunning coffee table book “The New Strawbale Home,” written and photographed by Catherine Wanek. Wanek’s book features 40 upscale straw-bale homes throughout the United States and Canada. It’s a delightful testament to the adaptable nature of straw bales and the creative people (like Lou Harrison) who choose to build with them.

Marsha Scarbrough

Los Angeles

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I enjoyed the interesting feature story regarding the straw-bale house. I would like to urge caution, however, on the part of homebuilders who might be inspired to go build a similar structure based on some of its attributes, such as low cost and insulation.

Potential homebuilders, think twice when you’re thinking about how warm and fuzzy it seems to build a straw-bale home, and about whether you want your home to be biodegradable.

We should be building homes that last centuries.

Russell K. Johnson

Los Angeles

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WHILE reading David Colker’s article, I was reminded that, in l965, I was a young bride, transplanted from New York to Palo Alto, where my husband was a graduate student at Stanford. I worked as a bill collector by day and studied modern dance at night. My teacher not only played the Beatles for some of her classes, but Lou Harrison would commute from his home in Aptos to provide live music for accompaniment as well.

I went to China to celebrate my 60th birthday. I saw some of those houses mentioned in the article where straw bale was the main ingredient and I made my driver stop so that I could inspect these unusual structures. How wonderful to realize that four decades of my life are connected by the prescient vision and spirit of Lou Harrison.

Ruth Kramer Ziony

Los Feliz

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I was thrilled to see the information and publicity given to straw-bale construction. I have built with it in southern Mexico and have seen firsthand how environmentally appropriate and user-friendly it is, as well as aesthetically appealing. As more residents in Southern California express interest in its use, I hope that code officials will more readily approve construction with straw bale.

Rosalie Niemann

La Canada Flintridge