ModCell is the first product to make large scale carbon negative building a commercial reality. It is a cladding panel designed for widespread use in the construction industry from one-off builds to major developments. Made from 100% renewable materials – recycled wood, straw bales, hemp and render. Building with straw bales offers high levels of thermal insulation. ModCell’s insulation values are up to three times better than current building regulation demand, and meets that at present has few other value added applications. It also offers an important new market for the agricultural industry.
BaleHaus is a project by ModCell – a proposed straw bale home that the company describes as a ‘domestic carbon bank’. The reason being – During the growth cereal crops, as do all plants, sequestrate atmospheric carbon dioxide, and so by using the straw and preserving it for the life of the building, offers a novel means of reducing greenhouse gases at a time when carbon dioxide levels are too high. I wonder why these bales have not been seen as a credible building material by the industries; even though straw has always been used in building for centuries and straw bales have been used for abut 100 years. Straw bale is an agricultural by -product that can be re-grown making it totally renewable, and can be collected from local farm so saving on transport. Standard bales are 450mm thick, and provide very high levels of insulation.
ModCell has all the reasons to undergo mass production, forming individual dwellings to eco- communities. This is a future sustainable dwelling and projects like the BaleHaus, when adopted over a larger site, biomass powered combined heat and power plant would become more economical, omitting the need for individual boilers in each house and at the same time providing the electrical energy. Another option is for a large off-site wind turbine to provide the energy requirement for a similar scale of development.
