Background The S-House project has been developed in conjunction with the 'Building for tomorrow' sub-programme of the Austrian programme for sustainable development technologies, which is administered by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. The objectives of the project are to improve energy efficiency, promote use of renewable energy, and find efficient uses for renewable raw materials for an office building. The building market is a business segment with particularly large volume flows and very high power consumption resulting from manufacturing processes, transportation and deconstruction of building components and structures. Moreover, large quantities of building waste pose a problem with substantial environmental impacts and high disposal costs. Sustainable building concepts use the idea of re-circulation, which takes into account in planning the entire lifecycle of materials and the streams of energy necessary throughout all life cycle phases. Besides efficient utilisation of solar energy, decisive use of renewable raw materials in building systems can lead to future oriented solutions and thereby spare resources. Today, there is a wide range of products made of renewable raw materials and available to the building market. Consequently, largely native resources can be used that will contribute to the enhancement of regional economic worth. Building materials obtained from renewable raw materials ensure simple rebuilding and optimum reusability after initial construction. The S-HOUSE project set out to combine these approaches in an integrated construction concept. Objectives The project set out to build the S-HOUSE, a building meeting high energy efficiency standards and demonstrating use of building materials derived from renewable raw materials, in particular straw. The objective was to meet a target for energy demand of less than 15kWh/m²a annually. The project would put into practice, demonstrate and disseminate these good practice solutions for sustainable building, especially building technologies based on renewable resources such as straw bale building technology. Results The project successfully researched, planned and built a demonstration office building (the S-HOUSE) at Böheimkirchen, 50 kilometres from Vienna. It brought together findings from various earlier projects to create a model that exhibits maximum use of renewable and recyclable raw materials. Extensive use was made of straw in the building process, for example in wall insulation, with wooden outer panelling. It was found that standard concrete walls consume ten times more natural resources in their construction than wood and straw equivalents. The project developed a special 'straw screw' – a fixing specially designed for the building's straw walls. The screws are made from a bio-synthetic material, Treeplast®, which combines the advantages of renewable raw materials with those of the modern synthetic material processing such as the injection mould. The specially designed screw gives maximum mechanical strength when used, for example, to mount wooden planks on the straw bales used for wall insulation. The screw was optimised during its development according to bionic criteria, bionics being a scientific discipline concerned with the application of biological principles in technology. Many principles of design, methodology and development seen in nature can be applied in the building sector following these principles. Because of the high quality of insulation in the S-HOUSE, energy consumption is less than half what it would be in a standard passive house (6kWh/m2a compared to 15kWh/m2a). Heat is captured by means of the large glazed south-facing facade of the house and distributed throughout the building via wooden channels. Stone is used for flooring on the ground level and this captures and retains heat. Built into the house is a biomass storage stove, which is integrated into the heating and air distribution systems. This is capable of storing and delivering heat according to set timings. By means of a control device, the stove regulates this depending on external temperatures, solar radiation and internal demand at any particular time. The stove is a prototype developed during the course of the project and is also usable in passive houses. The S-HOUSE building has been established as a permanent exhibition and information centre. The objective of the permanent site is to promote the use of renewable raw materials and sustainable technologies in construction. As well as the permanent exhibition, technical symposia and advanced learning sessions are planned. The project has attracted widespread attention and praise. It was judged one of the best worldwide for resources efficiency and safeguarding the environment, receiving the 'Global 100 Eco-Tech Award' from the EXPO 2005 in Japan. The project has also been recognised in its home country, with an Energy Globe Award Vienna. This project has been selected as one of the 22 "Best" LIFE Environment projects in 2006-2007