Strobox: building healthy, green and together

This article was written in collaboration with Strobox.

The construction sector must become more sustainable. But what does the term sustainability mean these days? It is often talked about but far too little is being done. The Deventer-based construction company Strobox builds green from a deep conviction that things must and can be done better. Sustainability and social value are the basis, they are not hip ‘catch phrases’ in a marketing plan. At Strobox you build your house yourself, together with the professional team and their students. You build your house with straw, a local, unprocessed and regrowable product. Thirty-four Strobox houses have already been realized, including eight Tiny Houses.

Strobox

Roelof Vossebeld is the founder of Strobox. With a background in woodworking and years of experience in construction, he saw with increasing frustration that regular construction produces unhealthy homes. That can and must be done very differently, but alternatives are often made unnecessarily complicated and expensive. An alternative building system formed in his head that was simple, affordable and really sustainable and would provide a healthy home: Strobox.

Start small

Roelof had been toying with the idea for his building system for some time, but it only took off when he presented it to former BAM director Gerard van Groenewoud. Gerard was enthusiastic about the idea and challenged Roelof not to stop at a good idea, but to really show it to him. That was enough for Roelof to set to work with his partner Daan. However, an investor did not yet have the duo, so a logical first step was to start small and build a Tiny House. It didn’t take long before there was a first Strobox house.

Optimally sustainable

The development of the Strobox system is a process in which environmentally friendly and healthy construction are always the starting point. Building with straw has many advantages:

• Straw is grown locally and comes from the field directly to the warehouse, without intermediate production. So minimal traffic movements and machine processes are required, and the yield goes directly to the farmer.
• Strawbox panels are fully biobased and can be dismantled, making them recyclable and circular.
• A Strobox house is built vapour-permeable and has a high insulation value, which results in a healthy home with a pleasant indoor climate.
• Minimal waste is produced during the construction of a Strobox house.

Building with Strobox is ‘back to basics’, which fits in seamlessly with the Tiny House philosophy.

Welcome to the Strobox family

The Strobox system works perfectly for people who would like to build their own Tiny House, but who are hesitant to do it 100% alone. “It takes a lot of technical knowledge and skills to build your own dream home, but this doesn’t have to stop you! We really enjoy offering that extra support and giving people the confidence to dare and be able to take that step.” – says Roelof. Building with Strobox is possible with your own design, but the team is currently also developing a number of standard models.

When you build with Strobox you can be sure that the foundation of your house is solid and safe. Even afterwards you can rely on the support, advice and assistance of the Strobox team, especially if you opt for one of their very attractive guidance packages. The confidence that things will always work out, the personal approach, these are aspects that Strobox’s customers regard as very valuable. Building your own house in this way is feasible and enjoyable for a large group of people. Strobox customers also often get to know each other and help and inspire each other. This is how a real Strobox family is emerging.

The prefab construction of a Strobox house takes on average a period of about three weeks, depending on the size. This is followed by the construction at the location, which the customer also does together with the Strobox team. This takes one to two weeks, with the result that the house is wind and watertight. The customer does the finishing himself or he or she outsources it, this takes about six months to a year.

A warm heart for people

Both Roelof and Daan are both teachers in heart and soul. They not only saw opportunities to build much more environmentally friendly than the standard, but also to fulfill a social function with Strobox. The manufacture of the straw panels in the controlled environment of the workshop can be learned very well by people with a distance to the labor market. This is also one of the reasons why the company focuses on hull construction, where the customer finishes the house himself or outsources this to a contractor. Because the customers take care of the finishing of their homes themselves, the company can focus on manufacturing the panels in the workshop and thus training young people.

Major impact through organic growth and social support

Maintaining Strobox’s function as a sheltered workshop is very important to the founders. They consciously choose not to scale up too quickly, so that the company can organically gain experience to create the most sustainable product possible, but also to focus on the development of young people in the safe environment of the workplace. As a franchise organization, however, many more young people in other cities would have the same opportunities and the quality would be maintained. Many franchises across the country, and not one big company, that’s how the men see the future. With the aim of making the Strobox building system the standard.

Where can you meet?

Six Strobox homes are currently being built in the Olstergaard district in Olst, Overijssel. An open day will be organized on September 17 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM where you can view these homes from the inside and outside and speak to the owners. Can’t come on the 17th of September? For serious self-builders it is also possible to come by appointment, but you cannot view all houses.

In addition, the company will soon be organizing a DIY Workshop Day for existing and future customers. This is on August 26, see the TinyFindy evenement calendar for more information.

Of course you can also find Strobox on TinyFindy:

Strobox listing on TinyFindy