Oram was asked to consult on the design and construction of a new home for an environmentally-sensitive client in Minneapolis. The owner, Barb Lutz, was her own general contractor and chose many green, healthy and sustainable products.

Among the green and healthy materials chosen was the Faswall wall form supplied by ShelterWorks of Philomath, Oregon (541-929-8010). Barb chose Faswall over the Durisol wall form.

Faswall was used for both the foundation and above-grade walls.

The block layer, RockSolid Concrete, had difficulty with not having the right size and configuration of the blocks from the kit provided by ShelterWorks for corners and windows. I had a long conversation with Tom VanDenand about this, and as a result of the experience of this and other builders around the country, Tom has completely redesigned the manufacture of his block at the factory to be scored down the middle, enabling the block layer to break any block in half to accomodate corners, window and door frames. This provides significant versatility on the job that was not possible before.

Here you will notice the application of clay over the inner surface of the Faswall.

Barb maintains an excellent blog chronicalling the entire design and construction process at www.barbsgreenhouse.blogspot.com from the beginning to the finished house, which you can see below.

Read Barb's blog to see more photos and to read the story of how she constructed her sustainable, healthy new home from start to finish.

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