Read Arkin Tilt’s feature in Berkeleyside! Highlighting our straw bale raising process—our fire resistant, carbon-storing option for insulation—they showcase how we turn sustainability into a reality.
Read the article here:
/2026/04/30/from-solar-rooftops-to-straw-bale-walls-and-beyond-berkeley-firms-turn-sustainability-into-reality
ATA is thrilled to have received an Honor Award from the AIA East Bay ‘Beyond' Awards program for our Sierra Valley Preserve Nature Center and Public Access project!
“Our judges felt this project was one of those rare projects that reminds us why we love architecture — beautifully conceived, deeply connected to its place, and so full of possibility that you want to meet the minds behind it."
Sierra Valley Preserve connects the public to nature at the headwaters of the Feather River, providing a resource for the surrounding rural community. Conserved by the Feather River Land Trust, Northern Sierra Partnership, and The Nature Conservancy, the project transformed an existing cattle ranch with reused and new buildings incorporating passive solar design and a carbon-storing straw-bale wall system. Access was created at two other rustic public entrances, all keeping the focus on the unique landscape.
Website in bio.
AIA California Residential Award of Merit for our Low Carbon Farmworker Housing Prototype at Blue Dot Farm - Featuring strawbale insulation, rice straw MDF on interior walls, and plan sets available to other farms for free.
Six Months of Programming, Design Process and Visioning culminated at Saturday's Centennial Celebration at Hidden Villa, one of our first and now again one of our favorite projects!
ATA and Bruce King hosted an Earth Building gathering to bring together some of the up-and-coming innovators in the natural building world. The evening’s talks covered everything from how stabilized earthen floors can limit disease transmission in African homes to climate conscious building techniques such as cob construction and panelized straw bale walls. #naturalbuilding #cobbuilding #earthenfloor
New project! 20 years after we designed Hidden Villa’s reinvented Hostel we are thrilled to help with Master Plan improvements in celebration of their 100th anniversary. Check out their many wildland, agricultural and educational programs here: .
Our wonderful clients, Heidi and Manny Lopez hosted a great clay plaster workshop under the guidance of expert plasterer Sasha Rabin with family and friends in Boonville, CA. With the alchemy of site soil, chopped straw and sand. This first coat protects the straw bales – the first of three coats.
#ecologicalarchitecture #strawbalehouse #earthplaster
Over two days family and friends placed bales between studs – some interior and some exterior – at this fire rebuild family retreat in Sonoma County. Plaster parties are next!!!
#strawbalearchitecture #firerebuild #sustainabledesign
Earthen floors as thermal mass are naturally cool in the summer and warm in the winter and a great way to reduce carbon footprint. Check out our work party completing the base coat over a solar sand bed at a fire rebuild project in Sonoma County.
#earthenfloor #communitybuild #sustainableliving #getyourhandsdirty
