The Story of Wara

Wara means natural straw, be it from rice stalk, grain stalk, which is used to make hats, mats, bags, and even as building material in natural building. Not only is it easily available, has high insulation value, it is also cost efficient.

Although grasses and straw have been in many ways as building material around the world since pre-historic period, their incorporation in machine-modular bales seems to date back to the early 20th century in the Midwest like Nebraska where grass was in abundace.

Bale/ straw walls are often tied together with pins of bamboo, rebar, wood or wire meshes, then stuccoed or plastered with lime mixture or clay/sand renders. Today, it is used mostly as infills, especially in Japanese Wall to add a touch of Zen.

Japanese like in many cultures throughout the world, has a long tradition of consuming rice as the staple food; others consume wheat, etc. When rice/ wheat is harvested, the stalks remain, and to recycle the products, we have used these natural ingredients to be added to our Japanese Wall which is gentle to touch and peaceful to see.