>Stan Mazor                                                                                        
>
>An Expandable Styrofoam House or
>"How to Grow a Chateau"
>
>
 >"Green construction methods" use fewer trees, and substitute instead waste
>products such as discarded packaging materials.  As an amateur architect,
>Stan Mazor embarked on a project to design and build a "replica" of a
>Norman chateau, in multiple building stages using novel styrofoam building
>blocks. Stan will show slides to illustrate the project's progress and some of
>the novel building materials used.
>
>Stan Mazor worked on the design of Symbol, a high level language computer
>at Fairchild in 1967, and then helped develop the early Intel microcomputers.
>He has published extensively on the subject of chip design and Moore's law,
>and recently published a book on architecture, Design an Expandable House.
>Stan is in the Inventor's Hall of Fame, and has received the Kyoto Prize, the
>PC Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Noyce Award from SIA,
>and the Ron Brown American Innovator Award.
>

Stan began his talk by passing around pieces that illustrated the materials the
chateau was built of. Moldings were normal Styrofoam, coated with fiberglass
and concrete colored stucco. The walls were actually a composite of concrete
and Styrofoam from a company in Arizona that felt more like a cinder block, but
much lighter.

Then he explained that his quest to build a Chateau began when he saw an
article about a Chateau owned by a Marquis in France in Architectural Digest.
He had visited the place on his next vacation in France, taken about 60 pictures,
and started thinking about how to implement one using modern technology on
his land in Oregon.

The design goal was to end up with a building that could serve as a large home,
a bed and breakfast, or an apartment building with minimal changes after
construction. Another design goal was to build it in sections, so that each
construction project would be manageable. Design work was done on a home
computer using retail software from Brodurbund. After the plans were roughed
out, Stan had an Engineer finalize them before taking them to Ashland's
government for approval.

The first section was built in 2000, with walls built of Styrofoam/concrete blocks.
The 10" thick blocks have 6 inch diameter holes, running vertical and
horizontal, into which was placed rebar before the channels were filled with
poured concrete. Interior walls and roof were done using standard modern
techniques. The ends of the building didn't have windows so those walls could
be used as interior walls after further sections were added.

The left wing was built a couple of years later, using the same techniques.
Since then a right wing has been added, completing the original plan. Still
to be completed are minor details like hooking up the sprinkler system that
works to suppress fires, but one by one those details are getting done.

During Q & A a number of points came up:

The floors are plywood over joist, much like most wooden houses in the USA.

The Chateau is a few hundred yards from I-5, not far outside the city limit of
Ashland, Oregon. Road noise is inaudible inside the building.

Downtown Ashland is about a mile and a half from the front door.

The way the zoning works in that area, each home is only allowed one
kitchen. Accordingly, the place has one kitchen and a number of wet bars.

Tian Harter