BaleHaus@Bath (Straw bale house project)

The environmentally-friendly house was built with straw bale panels and could pave the way for the first housing estate of straw buildings.

After putting the dwelling through its paces, tests confirmed it was 'more than strong enough' to withstand hurricane force winds.

The team, from the University of Bath in Somerset, said the success of the house completely rewrote the famous fairytale involving the three little pigs and the big bad wolf.

The BaleHaus@Bath building was built by industrial partners ModCell to assess the performance of straw as a sustainable building material.

The two-storey building was officially opened by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud last year.

The research team, led by Professor Pete Walker, Director of the University's Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, has been monitoring the house since October last year for thermal performance and humidity level.

The team has now tested the structure of the house for resisting winds of up to 120mph.

It used hydraulic jacks which pushed horizontally against the walls with a total force exceeding four tonnes, equivalent to the dynamic force of a hurricane.

During the tests, the walls moved no more than four millimetres under peak loads, well within design requirements and as predicted.

The researchers will use this data to develop a theoretical computer model of the house to simulate how a three-storey, or even higher, BaleHaus building would withstand such winds.

Professor Pete Walker said: 'Straw is a very environmentally-friendly building material because it is renewable and uses a co-product of farming.

'The crop used to make the straw locks in carbon dioxide as it grows and can be sourced from local farms, saving on transport and minimising the carbon footprint of the building.

'The recent test result is excellent as it has both confirmed the robustness of BaleHaus and validated the computer model, so avoiding the need for further tests and providing basis for safe and efficient structural design.

'We hope the data we're collecting on the BaleHaus will help strengthen the case for the mainstream building industry switching to using more sustainable building materials such as straw.'

Craig White, director of ModCell, said: 'This is a fantastic result. All too often, we are asked whether building with straw is durable.

'Our research at BaleHaus@Bath shows conclusively that building with straw using the ModCell System is not only safe, secure and durable, it is also fit for the 21st century challenge of reducing our CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

'These tests will offer proof that renewable building materials are a realistic option for building on a large scale.