--- --- # You Can Now Buy a House Made of Straw in the U.K. by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Feb 11, 2015 8:14 AM UTC by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Feb 11, 2015 8:14 AM UTC Straw homes went [on sale](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31156579) to the general public this week in the southwest English city of Bristol. The environmentally friendly homes use prefabricated timber-framed walls that are packed with straw bales, according to the BBC. The sustainable design — by researchers at England’s University of Bath, together with architecture firm ModCell — has been refined through structural, weight-bearing and thermal-insulation tests. “I think there’s a lot of misconception about using straw — stories about the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, concerns about fire resistance,” Professor Pete Walker told the BBC. Researchers say it is a robust and safe construction material, boasting several environmental advantages such as insulation efficiency. Straw homes lose far less heat than a traditional home and can reduce energy bills by up to 90%. “The more we can build out of renewable materials like straw and timber, the less carbon will be in the atmosphere, so we can reduce climate-change effects,” said ModCell director Craig White. \[[_BBC_](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31156579)\] Architecture: First Straw Homes On Sale in the U.K. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3704538/straw-homes-houses-uk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3704538/straw-homes-houses-uk/"},"headline":"You Can Now Buy a House Made of Straw in the U.K.","datePublished":"2015-02-11T08:14:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:11:18.233Z","description":"Don't be surprised if the Big Bad Wolf comes calling","url":"https://time.com/3704538/straw-homes-houses-uk/","keywords":["england","Construction"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3704538/straw-homes-houses-uk/","name":"You Can Now Buy a House Made of Straw in the U.K."}}]}] ```