The clear plastic glazing was left over from a London architectural exhibition, much of the timber is scrap - though the roof is supported on slender ply beams much used in American house-building ("our only high-tech component", remarks Shariff). The bales take the weight of the roof, acting like giant bricks. Tightly-packed like this, straw bales are resistant to fire, and the oversailing roof is designed to throw rainwater clear of the sides, so they shouldn't rot either. The building needed planning permission, but is deliberately made just small enough not to need inspection by building regulations officers - just as well, since they probably wouldn't know what to make of it. There is no lighting or heating to go wrong. The only later modification Shariff made to the finished studio was to pin practically invisible anti-bird mesh over the outside - otherwise Strawdance would vanish into a million nests. And that's it. With luck, it could last 60 years, which is longer than many a "real" building.
A little place such as this makes a delightful change from the usual architectural fare, which is mostly to do with precise detailing. Here nothing is precise beyond the basic measurements. There are no details to speak of - bits just meet other bits in robust fashion, some parts fit better than others, awkward gaps are filled with straw. One of Shariff's drawings shows that she maybe hankered after something a bit sleeker, more "finished" in a conventional sense. But the rough-and-ready built object is better. It is real architecture because a strong concept comes through, made on a budget so low as to be virtually non-existent.
Dare one claim that Strawdance is more of a contribution to architecture than the Royal Opera House at £214 million, or the Tate Gallery of Modern Art on Bankside at £130 million? Truthfully, no: this is, after all, just one room. But - apart from its sustainable credentials - it achieves something that neither of those two cultural colossi manage: it is an entirely new building, not a conversion job. It is the best value £5,500 the Arts Council has ever spent on architecture.
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