Straw as construction material for sustainable buildings: Life Cycle Assessment of a post-earthquake reconstruction

Straw as construction raw material assures economical, environmental sound, fire-resistant and quake-proof buildings, moreover it lends to self-construction and social housing. For all these reasons straw bale technology has been used in the post-earthquake reconstruction in Pescomaggiore, in the Municipality of L'Aquila, (Italy) after the last earthquake the 6th April 2009 (5.8 degrees on Richter scale). The house has been self-constructed by a team of volunteers in collaboration with EVA (EcoVillaggioAutocostruito) Pescomaggiore Association and a large part of the construction materials has been selected in order to reduce the impact of transportations. The paper is aimed at investigating the "hot spots" of this solution and improving straw bale building technology. The results indicate that some materials can be substituted to assure smaller impact in pre-use phase. Furthermore an end of life scenario, considering the house compostable, has been analysed and a correct use of plaster in order to assure compostability has been investigated in the paper. © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group.