BIØN is a network of organisations active in low-impact building techniques. We aim to share knowledge, practices and experiences to contribute to the built environment and our communities. Listen in to our diverse European network when we share our perspectives on building with natural materials, creating circular designs and working closely with the local communities.

How can we build with straw? In a workshop in Villasbuenas de Gata, Spain, Actyva-MIGA built a strawbale building for the local community. Prefabricated straw panels were made and assembled on-site. Walls were plastered with clay and lime renders.

The exhibition on the Bi0n network is coming to an end!

Thank you all for contributing your work and building new practices. We will now move out of Open studio at Färgfabriken, very satisfied with having shared our work in the Stockholm area. Thank you all!

All partners gathered in Stockholm for an intense work session on future plans for the network. We summarised the learnings from the partners and reflected on improvements to strengthen circular building practices all across Europe.

On Friday 17th June 2022, AES Studio’s Anna Sundman and Emily Aquilina hosted the international Conference ‘Down to Earth’ at Färgfabriken in Stockholm, Sweden. The event focused on the current practice and future possibilities for sustainability in the architectural and construction industries. Gaining insights into the practical knowledge, built work and natural/circular material innovations of BIØN, the Building Impact Zero Network, produced over a six-year European funded project.

BASEhabitat invited Tânia Teixeira to speak at a theory lecture for the University of Linz under the title Working in Networks - BIØN Building Impact Zero Network.

Building Impact Zero Network finishes 6 years of experimental building with circular materials, and now we want to share it with you! In a full day conference we will share our practical explorations in biological- and low-impact building techniques and all the surrounding knowledge of people-led movements, cooperative strength and the latest on earth building research

We are happy to announce to all friends of Bi0n that we now have set the date for the conference in Sweden. We will gather all partners and the knowledge from our 6 years of experimental building! So save the date and join us in Stockholm.

There is an emergency in finding an alternative to cement concrete and one of the solutions may be just under our feet: earth material! Even if it's compressive strength isn't equivalent to concrete's, in a lot of cases it can be enough and thus represent a real alternative.

This fourth and last week of Workshop BIØN² #1 Design&Build with Straw Bales was full of intense work, in order to be able to open the “Casita de Paja” to the local community on saturday.

This third week of workshop started with a key step: placing the cork insulated core slabs to build the roof of the “Casita de Paja”. With the help of a crane truck, we first put a 6m long ridge beam on which we installed and screwed one by one the prefabricated elements.

With the great help of the local community to move the prefab elements to the building site (one of the advantages of a rural areas is that “almost everybody” has a tractor!), we could start this week to place the straw panels onsite in order to build the walls of “La Casita de Paja”.

After several weeks of intense preparation work and uncertainty due to the Covid-19 crisis, we are finally pleased to announce that Workshop BIØN² #1 Design&Build with Straw Bales has started! Our 18 participants coming from 5 different countries (Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium) just arrived in the small and nice village of Villasbuenas de Gata (Cáceres, Spain), that will host the workshop from 3 to 30 august 2020.

Organized by miga – ACTYVA, from August 3rd until August 30th 2020, the workshop Design and Build with Straw Bales (prefabricated panels) will take place in the north of Extremadura (Spain) in Villasbuenas de Gata, a small village located in a privileged environment of mediterranean forest and rivers.