The Seed Program

An incubator for place-based straw panel manufacturing

A three-year training in designing, manufacturing, and installing straw panels, hosted by New Frameworks at their shop in Essex Junction, Vermont. A cohort joins each year, and every manufacturer in the Collaborative came through it.

Why it exists

Straw grows nearly everywhere. The knowledge should too

Cereal grain is grown across most of North America, so the raw material for a straw panel is already sitting in fields within reach of almost any town. What has been scarce is not straw. It is people who know how to turn it into a wall that meets code, performs, and lasts.

The Seed Program exists to close that gap, region by region. Not by opening branches, but by helping independent shops start their own manufacturing where they already live and work — and then keeping them connected to everyone who has done it before.

Because panels are heavy and regions are far apart, a manufacturer in Colorado was never going to take work from a manufacturer in Vermont. What the two of them can do is put everything they learn into the same pool, and both build better for it.

Three people at a shop workbench assembling timber panel frames

A stack of finished timber panel frames waiting to be filled

What a cohort gets

Three years, not a weekend course

Hands on the work in Vermont.

A four-day immersion at the New Frameworks shop, working through real manufacturing, installation, and technical consulting rather than watching a slide deck.

The whole system, documented.

Drawings, assembly details, the moisture strategy, fabrication know-how, and everything the manufacturers before you learned the expensive way.

People to ask.

Direct access to the New Frameworks team and guest mentors for the questions that only come up once you are actually building — straw supply, climate-adaptive detailing, production problems.

One-on-one guidance.

Tailored to your region, your shop, and what you are trying to build, including the business side rather than only the technical one.

The network, permanently.

Monthly calls, shared research, and design worked through together with other participants and past cohorts. That part does not end when the training does.

Confirm before you applyProgram structure and content are set by New Frameworks, who host the training. Application process, selection criteria, and terms are worth confirming directly.

Three ways in

Pick the track that matches what you already do

Different businesses arrive with different strengths. The program runs as three pathways rather than one.

Full program

Design, manufacture, install, and the business planning around all three. For shops building a full straw panel operation, or embedding it deep in what they already run.

Manufacture & install

Panel production, delivery logistics, sequencing, moisture management, and QC. For builders, fabricators, and contractors who want to make panels for their region or become the installer others call.

Design

Panel strategy and modularity, detailing for water, air, and vapor control, coordination with engineers, and navigating code. For architects, engineers, and energy consultants.

None of this makes a franchise. Each member operates independently and connects through shared research, open communication, and collective problem-solving — monthly calls, design worked through together, shared testing and tooling, peer mentorship, and advocacy. Decentralized on purpose, because that is what builds strength where it is needed: in local communities.

Starting a shop

What it takes, honestly

A covered space and a flat table.

Panel fabrication needs room to lay up, press, and stack. It does not need exotic machinery.

A straw supply within a reasonable haul.

Grain grows nearly everywhere, so this is usually a matter of phone calls to nearby farms.

Carpenters, not specialists.

The system was designed so an everyday crew can build it well. We’ll walk you through the details.

The commitments.

Membership means holding to the five commitments the whole network works to — in the shop and on the site. They aren’t negotiable.

To be confirmedApplication process, selection criteria, any fees or dues, and the review cadence. Written above as intent, deliberately without terms.

Talk to us about a shop

Opening soon

For designers and contractors

The architects’ and builders’ circles

Homeowners regularly ask us for an architect or a contractor near them who has done this before. We would like a real answer to give them.

Architects & designers

A listed group of practices who have worked with the panel system and will take on projects using it. Being listed means referrals come to you, and that you hear about detailing changes as they happen rather than a year later.

Worth knowing before you specify: the panel system and the structural frame are designed together, so the manufacturer wants to be in the conversation early rather than reconciling a wall with a frame after the fact.

Builders & contractors

General contractors and framing crews who have raised our panels, listed by region, with a direct line to the manufacturers when a detail needs resolving on site.

No specialist trade to hire and no new tools to buy. If your crew can frame, they can raise these — and we walk you through the sequence before you start.

Not open yetEntry requirements, whether the two circles are one list or two, any dues, and how listings are maintained are all still being worked out. Join the mailing list below and we’ll tell you when they open.

Tell me when the circles open

Join the movement