Farming show plans to build event HQ in straw

The design was commissioned by Driffield Agricultural Society from the non-profit making Amazonails, of Todmorden – a feminist organisation committed to environmentally-friendly materials, cement-free foundations, with opportunities for women to learn building trades. It was founded and is led by carpenter and architect Barbara Jones who has become a celebrity of the alternative technology business.

Since 1994, she has been responsible for more than 100 buildings made out of straw bales, faced with render or timber, and several have won awards. But the commission from the organisers of a traditional Yorkshire agricultural show – the biggest next to the Great Yorkshire – is a surprise breakthrough, which will be announced at a national Press conference tomorrow at the EcoBuild exhibition at Earls Court, London.

Amazonails encourages clients to join in the construction process, in the interests of "community involvement", but in this case contractors will be hired.

The building, on the Driffield Showground, will include the biggest open space yet attempted in a straw-walled building – a main hall of 8,000 sq ft (743 sq metres), in a building about twice that size in total.

The walls will be plastered using local lime and, if possible, clay from the showground itself, according to Amazonails.

Its proposals include heating the building by extracting heat from the air and storing it in the "chalk raft" foundations. Photovoltaic panels on the roof and a heat and power unit running on locally produced biofuels are envisaged. The hope is to get planning permission in time for a display on the project at this July's Driffield Show. Sponsors for the building are still needed.

Amazonails won a design award for its extension to the library at

Shelf, near Halifax.

It runs regular courses in straw-building techniques. See www.amazonails.org.uk or call 01706 814696.