The Future’s Made Of Straw

Since I'm one of those people who has considered how easy it might be to find or build an eco-house (thinking principally of retirement, since I'm in tied housing for the foreseeable future), this came as an enormously cheering bit of news as well as giving a useful sense of what kind of costs may be involved. Worldchanging: Bright Green: The Future’s Made Of Straw: "swapping bricks for straw will increase insulation by up to three times more than building regulations require, so these houses won’t need heating systems. They’re anticipated to cost less too: the council has budgeted �110,000 per house – �20,000 less than the equivalent brick-build. And in the future, thanks to the experience gained through this project, future costs could be lower still.
The houses are designed by Amazonails, who are also behind the country’s first two-storey straw bale home, recently built in Somerset [see Landmark for straw]. Manager Emma Appleton believes straw bale homes could be part of the answer to housing shortages. They are simple to construct, easy to modify and can last upwards of 200 years."
What's not clear is some of the practicalities: what kind of differences it makes to the building process to have an estate rather than just custom-built. I'll have to keep an eye open for that.