Paja Construction was founded in 1991 to specialize in straw bale construction and other green or natural building methods. Cadmon Whitty, founder and owner of Paja Construction began working in the construction industry in 1980. After a decade of conventional construction, Cadmon saw a huge need to incorporate natural and sustainable building methods. Since its inception, Paja Construction began building straw bale homes, pioneered and developed straw bale privacy walls / garden walls, and was a founding member of the New Mexico Straw Bale Construction Association.
Paja Construction has held dozens of straw bale workshops in Albuquerque and across New Mexico. Currently there are no straw bale workshops scheduled as we are busy building new straw bale homes for clients. Feel free to check out our current projects and watch a homeowner's dream come to life.
Many of my clients will, as we start the process of designing their straw bale homes, happily say to me, "I want to incorporate solar power into my blueprints." Alternative sources of power is a very attractive option and I recommend it highly. Unfortunately, it does have its own complications and challenges. First, there is ‘active' solar gain, which uses panels to generate electricity and then transfers that electricity into the house in lieu of the house getting electricity from a conventional power grid.
It was almost exactly a quarter of a century ago that I came up with this crazy idea: if I can build straw bale houses (I'd done one or two at that point), why can't I build straw bale walls, too?