Straw bale house at Woodcrest Bruderhof
Bruderhof Web Team
completed in 2002, showcases the potential of recycled materials,
alternative energy, and minimal environmental impact.
The unconventional, yet environmentally friendly, the building was a big
winner at the Sea World/Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Awards in
Orlando, Fla. The Bruderhof straw bale house entry was one of eight
nationwide winners out of 99 entries. The Bruderhof 7th and 8th grade
students named their house the Muir House after the legendary naturalist
John Muir.
The straw bale house is a project of the Bruderhof Foundation, a non-
profit faith-based organization that supports educational and charitable
activities around the world. The Bruderhof Foundation was formed in New
York in 1956, primarily to raise funds for a South American hospital. In
the intervening decades, the Bruderhof Foundation (originally the
Woodcrest Service Committee) expanded steadily, taking on a wide variety
of activities in the fields of community service, education, outreach and
bridge-building, and publishing. Now approaching its 50th year, the
Bruderhof Foundation continues, in a world of increasing instability and
fragmentation, to promote stability sustainability, and community.
A long-time promoter of progressive educational initiatives, the
Bruderhof Foundation supports seven schools (K-9) in New York and
Pennsylvania. Rooted in the child-friendly philosophy of Friedrich
Froebel and Heinrich Pestalozzi (the founders of the modern kindergarten)
and influenced by European models that place equal value on academic
rigor and social and physical development, these highly-regarded schools
combine classroom instruction with other indoor and outdoor activities
(arts and crafts projects, block play, group singing, hiking, cycling,
canoeing, gardening, pet care, nature study, and unstructured periods of
"free play") to nurture the "whole child."
Read more about the activities of the Bruderhof Foundation at
http://www.bruderhoffoundation.org
© 2003 Bruderhof Foundation