Light Clay Straw construction / Leichleim 

 

Background: 

• Used for many 100’s of years in Germany & medieval northern Europe 

• The 300-year-old double storey town museum in Genadendal near Greyton in the Western Cape is made of clay straw roles. 

• It can be used for both internal and external walls as well as for ceilings, and is commonly compressed between a frame. 

    

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Benefits: 

• Materials can be sourced from the site itself and is easy to work with.  

• Simple tools are required. 

• Offers very high levels of insulation for relatively thin walls. 

  

    

Technical Information: 

• The timber framing structure, Shutter work is constructed and fixed in position. 

• A mixture of clay, straw and sand is mixed together and placed between a shutter framework and compressed. 

• 2 layers of shuttering are compressed and then the shutters are successively leapfrogged over each other panel by panel. 

 

    

Track record/examples of work 

• House Mendel – Hout Bay, Cape Town, Cape Town, 2021 

• Production of light clay straw panels & clay straw panel repair work for restoration Guga S’thebe Theatre (after fire damage), in Langa, Cape Town 2021 

• Technical feasibility study for CNNIA architects for the TWK Resource Centre for VPUU Villiersdorp, Western Cape, 2016 

• Staff housing for Organic Farm Shehaan, outside Lusaka, 2008 

• Stanford Valley Conference Centre workshop 2006 made partial use of light clay straw panels. 

• Eco Design held a light-clay construction workshop at the Cob Colloquium in December 2006 for the McGreggor’s Centre for Alternative Technology.