What did the three little pigs build their houses of

Mythbusting the three little pigs – Building Specifier

We are all familiar with the fairy tale of the three little pigs; a moral-laden fable about three pigs that construct three houses from different materials. The big bad wolf blows down the first two pigs’ houses, made of straw and sticks respectively, but is unable to destroy the third pig’s house, made of bricks. The story has been told and retold for hundreds of years. However, I think that things have changed…

There have been a multitude of innovations in modern construction techniques of late, so I have decided to take a second look at how affective the pigs’ methods actually were; would the straw and stick homes still fall to huffing and puffing today?

Straw house

With shortages of materials, lack of skills, an ever increasing population and subsequent carbon footprint, there is understandably an enormous demand for a housing solution that won’t cost the earth, both financially and environmentally.

Straw bale construction is one such material that could help achieve this goal. Indeed, a house built from straw goes one step further than helping to alleviate a housing crisis – it can even help the very occupants within that house keep the modern enemy of fuel poverty at bay. Straw bale buildings are so efficiently insulated that they require very little heating, even in the dead of winter.

Where timescales are an issue, straw bale building can also prove to be a worthwhile consideration. Last year saw the first ever straw bale houses hit the market in Bristol. The housing development consisted of seven homes that were erected on site in just nine days, thanks to their precision factory-made panels which slot together perfectly. This speedy turnaround adds to their affordability, of course.

Social Landlord Martin Connolly, responsible for the development, commented on the Bristol homes: “We got into straw bale housing to explore how we could make housing more affordable. What was behind it was concern about homelessness and the environment.”

“In the first instance, we wanted to achieve natural non-toxic house building which sequesters carbon. Hugely insulated and air-tight, the homes produce virtually all the energy they need to run. We are installing rain water harvesting to cut down water and sewage bills, and LED lights, solar panels and an air-source heat pump to reduce light and heating costs. Bath University research shows the running costs can be reduced by as much as 90%. And, as volume of sales increase, we can strive to make the house purchase price even more affordable.”

So, was the first little piggy really that foolish to choose straw over other available materials? Let’s consider the facts; just shy of 4m tonnes straw is produced as a by-product each year by British agriculture. It only takes around 7 tonnes of straw to build a three-bedroom house similar to the Bristol developments. This means that theoretically it would be possible to grow enough straw to build more than half a million new homes each year using straw grown exclusively in British fields. Perhaps not so foolish!?

Stick house

Was the second piggy wrong to build his house from wood? I think absolutely not. Perhaps, considering that the structure fell merely at the exhaling of a wolf, it is his construction skills (or lack thereof) that should be questioned rather than his choice of material. Timber frame buildings are inherently strong, durable and sustainable. Readily available and relatively low in cost, structural timber offers a competitive advantage over many other materials.

Studies suggest that by moving more towards offsite construction techniques, the reputation of the construction industry will improve in the eyes of the younger generation, who above all have a keen interest in innovation, technology and environmental issues. This means that a career within the sector would become a more viable and attractive option, which in turn will help to alleviate the chronic skills shortage currently blighting the industry. Even the second piggy could brush up on his abilities by enrolling in an apprenticeship scheme.

The government report, Construction 2025, highlighted that the poor public image of construction was having a detrimental effect on companies’ abilities to recruit and retain the best talent. The cleaner, safer and more professional setting of a modular construction factory could definitely help attract prospective apprentices and graduates into this relatively new and exciting area of our industry.

Timber is the perfect choice for specifiers who want a precision engineered material that is both cost effective AND sustainable. Structural timber is a low-carbon alternative that offers high structural strength, airtight construction and a traceable supply chain. Therefore it is the perfect choice of material for little piggies with a passion for sustainability and style.

Brick house

Although the hero of the fairy tale is the pig that chose brick above all other materials, the truth of the matter is that there are pro’s and con’s to every material and brick is no exception. Brick homes require very little maintenance and never require painting, caulking or staining. However, this does have a trade-off. Changing the appearance of a brick exterior can be somewhat difficult and expensive.

Homes made of brick are highly energy efficient and therefore remain cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Whilst this in itself is good for the environment, there are caveats and sadly the manufacturing process of bricks almost nullifies this benefit. The manufacturing processes used to create building materials such as cement and bricks are currently accountable for roughly 12% of all emissions of carbon dioxide in the world.

Brick manufacturing especially is very energy-intensive due to the kilns that are used requiring firing for up to three days in order for the bricks within to become hard and strong. Brick kilns operate at about 1100°C and are often kept hot even when not in use. This immense heat is generated using fossil fuels, which emit significant CO2 when combusted.

Houses constructed using brick are durable, energy efficient, highly fire-resistant and low maintenance. This means that they tend to have a higher resale value than their timber beam counterparts. Homeowner insurance is also a lot lower for these very reasons. So whilst savings can be made in the long term, the initial outlay will be much higher if using brick in your project.

Bricks are much more expensive as a building material than timber or straw. Also, whilst largely low maintenance for the most part, when repairs do need to be made they can be difficult, time consuming, highly invasive and expensive. This renders brick a non-cost-effective option for many home builders, regardless of savings that will be made at a later date.

Summary

It is clear to see that each method of construction has both benefits and draw backs. This means that no one method is a perfect solution to meet 21st century housebuilding demands. If the housing crisis, combined with materials shortages and the skills gap are the modern day “wolf at the door”, then it is only through a multifaceted approach that utilises all of the tools and knowledge in our arsenal that we can succeed and thrive as an industry. It’s impossible to tell which material will come up trumps in the end – but one thing we can all agree on is that modular technologies, offsite methods and alternative material usage will play increasingly larger roles in construction as we go forward as an industry. Expect to see a lot more on the topic!

So in summary, does a fairy tale that was first committed to print in the 1840’s still offer worthy advice to the wise and considerate specifier who wishes to keep the wolves at bay? I say “no, no, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!”

The Story of the Fourth Little Pig

If the idea of building a strawbale house makes you think of the Three Little Pigs, you might want to read the next chapter:

Everyone knows the story of the Three Little Pigs and their tragic struggle with the Big Bad Wolf but most people don’t know what happened next.

Edmund Little, the third pig little pig, was the one who built the brick house that the wolf couldn’t blow down and became a local hero.  Due to the success of his wolf-proof house, everyone in his town wanted a brick house, and so he opened a company called “Mr. Little’s Brick Home Building.”

To build so many brick houses, they needed lots of bricks so they opened a big brick factory that made hundreds of brick every day.  Finding clay to make the raw bricks was easy — it was almost everywhere– but they had to chop down a lot of trees to heat the kilns to cook the bricks.  So they also starting a logging company to chop down trees to burn in the factory. Everyone was busy and happy chopping, burning, and building with brick.

Eventually, there were lots of brick houses and everyone felt very safe.  Even though they felt happy and secure in their houses, they noticed that the world outside of their houses didn’t seem quite as nice as is used to be: the streams were dirty, the air seemed thicker and grayer than they remembered, and there weren’t as many trees as there used to be, but they told themselves that it was okay because everyone had a nice brick house.

Edmund had a daughter named Alice.  Alice’s family’s brick house was the finest in the town, extremely wolf-proof and handsome.  It was Alice’s job to bring in the firewood for the house and she noticed that it took a lot of wood to warm her house in the winter and that it was also uncomfortably hot in the summer.  If the air outside was damp then the house felt damp and if the air was dry then the house felt dry.

When she got old enough to think about building her own house she wondered how to make it better.  Maybe if it had more fireplaces to keep her warmer in the winter and a fan in every room to cool her down in the summer… Maybe she could install a network of tubes to move air around and make it drier or damper as needed… Or maybe there was a better way to build a house than to build it with brick?  She asked everyone she knew if there were any other ways to build but was told, “Brick is the best way, that is how it is done.”

But she was a stubborn and independent piggy and she began to try to invent a better way of building, one that the wolves still couldn’t blow down but that worked a little better than brick and didn’t involve quite so much chopping and burning.   She saw that the local farmer had lots of bales of straw left over from growing wheat, and imagined what fun it would be to just stack up all those bales like big, fuzzy blocks and put a roof on and have a house!  She told her father her idea.

“You know what happened to your uncle when he built with straw,” he said gravely, “The wolf blew his house right down.”

“This is different!” she insisted, “These are big, solid, heavy blocks, not just handfuls of straw. It will be much stronger and safer than what he built.”

“Ok, if you say so, but why would you want to do something silly like that when you could have a fine brick house someday?” he asked.

Alice was not convinced.  She asked the farmer if he needed all those bales and he said he would be more than happy to give her some because there wasn’t much he could do with them.  He said that sometimes he had to burn the extra straw to get rid of it to make room for the next crop, which he didn’t like to do because it made the air thick and black for days.

Alice did some research and found that she was not the first to think about building with bales.  When European settlers arrived on the plains of Nebraska, they found very few trees — or even rocks — to build with but they did have fancy new horse-powered baling machines and they did have a lot of grass, so they made shelters out of bales of grass.  These buildings were meant to be temporary, just to get them through the harsh winter, but some of them were so stout and cozy that they became permanent.  She was amazed to find that some of these buildings had survived for over a hundred years and were still standing!

While doing this research, she heard about a few modern pioneers who had been experimenting with building with bales. So she visited them.  She stayed in a tiny house built with straw bales that other past visitors had helped to build and fell in love with the not-quite-flat, not-quite-square quiet coziness of it.   She stayed on and helped them build more buildings and, in return, they were generous with their knowledge and she learned a great deal.  She learned that building a strawbale house was not quite as simple as just stacking up the bales:  that it needs a solid foundation in the ground, a nice wide roof, a thick layer of plaster to give it good pair of boots, a good hat, and a good coat.  She also realized that she needed to know enough about all of the other systems — like plumbing and electricity– that go into building any house.

She came back to her hometown full of inspiration and confidence.  She bought a little piece of land near her father’s house and told him she planned to build her own strawbale house.  He smiled and wished her luck and then quietly began to draw up plans for a nice brick house to build for her when she gave up on this silly straw idea.

At first,  Alice would go to her piece of land and just sit and look.  She watched how the sun and shade moved across the land and noticed where the wind came from.   When she knew her land, she planned a house that fit with the sun and the wind and the land and then she began to build.  When the word got out about her project, the neighbors began to drop by with questions.

“My horses love to eat hay. Won’t the horses and goats try to eat your straw house?” one neighbor asked.

“That’s the difference between hay and straw: hay still has seeds to eat but straw is just the stem of the plant with all the food removed. There will be nothing for them to eat in my walls,” Alice said as she began to dig for the foundation.

“What if the wolf tries to burn it down when he can’t blow it down?” another neighbor asked.

“Once I have the plaster on, I’ll be safe. The plaster doesn’t let the air or the fire get to the bales, which makes the house very fire safe,” she replied, as she built the sturdy wood frame for her house. “And even if the fire somehow got through the plaster, the bales are dense like a thick book and do not burn well. I’d have time to pack my bags while he tried to get the house to burn. ”

“It’s just straw, won’t it rot and fall apart like the straw bale I left in my garden last year?” asked a friend.

“Almost anything will rot if you don’t protect it. Wood will rot if you leave it out in the garden. I will give my house a good roof with wide overhangs and a thick coat of plaster and then it will not rot,” she answered while framing the roof. “In fact, the walls of my house will breathe moisture in and out naturally and won’t ever grow mold.”

“Won’t mice crawl into your walls to make nests like they do in the stacks of bales in my barn?” asked the farmer.

“They are such nice, dense bales you made and I am stacking them so tightly together that there won’t be any space for a mouse’s nest between them,” she said while she worked on her roof. “When they can’t get into my solid walls, they will give up and go back to living in your barn.”

When she had finished building the sturdy foundation and wood frame and had finished the roof so she would have a dry place to work, she went out to the farm and chose the farmer’s nicest, driest bales.

She cut the bales carefully to fit snugly around the wood frame of the house and stacked them in the same pattern as bricks.  She cut channels into the straw and hired an electrician to run the electrical wires in the channels.  She filled the channels and any small holes with cob, a mix made of the clay she found while digging the foundation and straw leftover from cutting bales.  Then she mixed up a big batch of clay plaster and plastered the bale walls inside and out. It was hard work but she loved the smell of the straw and the feel of the clay.

The house she made was not the biggest or the fanciest but it was nice. It was warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  In the winter, the low sun ducked down to kiss her windows and warm the floor and walls of the house. When she built a small fire in her fireplace, it quickly warmed the whole house and the thick, snug walls held in the precious heat.

In summer, she could open her windows and collect the cool evening breeze, then close the windows and keep that coolness inside through the next day.   The hot, high summer sun couldn’t reach under the wide roof overhangs, leaving her house in the cool shade.

The clay plaster on the walls seemed almost magical: it breathed in extra moisture, making the humid days less humid and exhaled the moisture back out on dry winter days.  She never saw droplets of moisture on the inside of her windows in the winter as she had in the brick house where she grew up. She loved her quiet, not-quite-flat, not-quite-square strawbale house and also loved how little chopping and burning had gone into making it.

One day a wolf came to town. The town hadn’t seen wolves in years because all of the houses were brick and the wolves knew they couldn’t blow them down, but this wolf had heard that there was a new house that wasn’t brick and he thought he might have a chance.

He approached Alice’s house and yelled, “Little pig, little pig, let me in!” Nothing happened. He yelled louder, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!”

An upstairs window opened and Alice leaned out. “Oh, I’m sorry, I couldn’t really hear you inside my quiet strawbale house. What did you say?”

Angry and a little self-conscious, the wolf shouted “You know the drill! Let me in or I’ll wreck your nice house!”

“No,” she said and shut the window.

So the wolf took a huge breath and blew as hard as he could, but nothing happened. Then he backed up, ran as fast as he could and slammed into the wall. He bounced off with a bone-shaking thud but the wall was fine. By this time, all of the neighbors were watching from their windows, concerned about Alice in her strawbale house. The wolf got mad and decided to burn the house down. He gathered some sticks and paper and lit a fire right next to the wall. The fire sent black smoke up while the sticks burned and then it just went out. Other than getting a little bit of black soot on it, the wall was fine. Discouraged and embarrassed, the wolf gave up. “That house is just as strong as a brick house,” he muttered as he walked away.

That evening, the town had a huge feast to celebrate another wolf defeat and Alice got her picture in the local paper along with an article about her strawbale house.

One by one, her neighbors began to see what Alice loved about her house and started to wonder if someday they might be able to have a strawbale house of their own instead of a too-hot, too-cold, dead-flat, dead-square brick house.  Eventually, Alice’s father started to get requests to build strawbale houses and asked her if she would help his company learn. She happily agreed but she did have one suggestion: “How about we rename the company Alice & Father Home Builders?” she said with a twinkle in her eye. Her father met her halfway and “Little Family Home Builders” began to build lovely strawbale homes for everyone who wanted one.

With less demand for brick, the brick factory started making solar panels as well as bricks and the logging company could slow down and plant as many trees as they cut down. Slowly, the streams and the air cleared up, the forests grew back, and the world became as nice as it used to be. And the wolves, who realized they’d never be able to catch the pigs again, learned to like tofu bacon instead.

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What the piglets built their houses with

Contents

• 1 Contents
• 2 Plot [edit | edit code]
  • 2.1 Russian version [edit | edit code]
• 3 The Three Little Pigs in cartoons [edit | edit code]
• 4 Translations [edit | edit code]

Three Little Pigs is one of the most popular children's fairy tales.

The plot of The Three Little Pigs comes from English folklore; literary versions of The Three Little Pigs have been known since the 19th century and are included, in particular, in the book Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tales, published in London in 1843 by James Holywell-Phillips, known to us in translation American journalist and writer Joel Harris as Uncle Remus' Tales (Atlanta, 1881).

Content

Plot [edit | edit code]

Russian version [edit | edit code ]

Unlike his careless younger brothers, the elder pig (in Mikhalkov's version, the names of the pigs are Nif-Nif, Nuf-Nuf and Naf-Naf) has enviable foresight. Sparing no effort, he builds himself a real stone house (while the brothers limited themselves to a straw and wooden hut). And when the evil cunning Wolf, hungry for fresh pork, easily destroys the dwellings of Nif-Nif and Nuf-Nuf, it is house Naf-Nafa becomes a safe haven for all three piglets.

The Three Little Pigs in cartoons [edit | edit source]

The Three Little Pigs are a well-known character and are used in many films and cartoons.

At Disney, the cartoon “The Three Little Pigs”, which glorified the fairy tale, is dedicated to this plot, its plot is intertwined with Little Red Riding Hood. The song from this cartoon is "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" ("Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?") became popular in the English-speaking world, it was quoted in public speeches by Franklin Roosevelt, and it was played out in literature (for example, the play "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" E. Albee, 1962).

The theme of the three pigs has been repeatedly addressed by another cartoonist, Tex Avery: for example, the World War II cartoon "Blitz Wolf" uses a wolf to caricature Adolf Hitler, two carefree pigs represent countries that have concluded a non-aggression pact with him, and only the third pig (Sergeant Pig), suspecting a dirty trick, is preparing for war.
Tex Avery created other parodies: "One Ham's Family" - a continuation of the story of the three little pigs, "The Three Little Pups" - Three puppies.

Translations [edit | edit code]

The author of the popular Russian version of The Three Little Pigs is Sergey Mikhalkov [2] .

The refrain about the wolf from this fairy tale became popular:

− We are not afraid of the gray wolf,
Gray wolf, gray wolf!
Where do you go, stupid wolf,
Old wolf, dire wolf?

Once upon a time there were three little pigs. Three brothers. Their names were Nif-Nif, Nuf-Nuf and Naf-Naf.

All summer they walked and frolicked. But summer ended and autumn came, and with it the first cold. When it became quite cold, the brothers decided to build houses for themselves. Nif-Nif built himself a house from straw, Nuf-Nuf from branches. They did it very quickly and went to show off their successes to Naf-Naf.

And Naf-Naf has been building his house of stones for several days, so that it would be strong and warm, so that the wolf could not get into it. The brothers laughed at that. that Naf-Naf was busy with the construction of the house for a long time and ran for a walk in the forest. At that time, a wolf came out to hunt in the forest. He saw pigs. snapped his teeth and the poor piglets froze in fear. But then they suddenly changed their minds and screeched to the whole forest and rushed to run.

Bells. Collection of Irina Koltakova

Bells. Collection of Natalia Krasnoperova

Bells. Veronika's collection

Nif-nif was the first to reach his thatched hut and barely managed to slam the door in front of the wolf's nose. The wolf blew three times and the house shattered. Nif-Nif barely managed to run to Nuf-Nuf's house, and now he and his brother were already shaking with fear. But the wolf said. that he changed his mind about eating piglets and they, believing him, immediately cheered up. However, the wolf put on a sheep's skin and again approached the door of the house. The pigs thought it was just a lamb and opened the door, but when they saw the mouth of the wolf, they managed to slam the door. The wolf got angry and blew three times. but the house stood. Then he blew a fourth time and the house. built of branches collapsed.

The piglets ran towards Naf-Naf's house. The brother let them into the house. He guessed that a wolf was chasing them and quickly closed the door with a bolt. The wolf became terribly angry and began to blow strongly. But no matter how much he blew, not even the smallest stone moved. The house stood like a fortress.

The wolf decided to get into the house through the pipe, but Naf-Naf removed the lid from the boiler with boiling water and the wolf got into the boiling water from the pipe. With a wild cry, he flew back into the pipe and rushed into the forest. And three brothers. three little pigs looked after him and rejoiced that they had taught the evil robber a lesson.

Since then, the brothers began to live together under the same roof.

Reader for the little ones. Compiled by L.N. Eliseeva. Moscow. "Enlightenment" 1987.
The first book to read. Moscow "Makhaon" 2006.

Once upon a time there were three little pigs in the world. Three brothers.

All of the same height, round, pink, with the same cheerful ponytails.

Even their names were similar. The piglets were called Nif-Nif, Nuf-Nuf and Naf-Naf. All summer they tumbled in the green grass, basked in the sun, basked in puddles.

But autumn has come.

The sun was not so hot anymore, gray clouds stretched over the yellowed forest.

“It's time for us to think about winter,” Naf-Naf once said to his brothers, waking up early in the morning. - I'm shivering from the cold. We may catch a cold. Let's build a house and winter together under one warm roof.

But his brothers didn't want to take the job. It is much more pleasant to walk and jump in the meadow on the last warm days than to dig the ground and carry heavy stones.

- Good luck! Winter is still far away. We'll take a walk, - said Nif-Nif and rolled over his head.

- When necessary, I will build a house for myself, - said Nuf-Nuf and lay down in a puddle.

“Me too,” added Nif-Nif.

- Well, as you wish. Then I will build my own house, - said Naf-Naf. - I won't wait for you. Every day it got colder and colder. But Nif-Nif and Nuf-Nuf were in no hurry. They didn't even want to think about work. They were idle from morning to evening. All they did was play their pig games, jump and roll.

“Today we will take a walk,” they said, “and tomorrow morning we will get down to business.

But the next day they said the same thing.

And only when a large puddle near the road began to be covered with a thin crust of ice in the morning, the lazy brothers finally got to work.

Nif-Nif decided that it would be easier and most likely to make a house out of straw. Without consulting anyone, he did just that. By evening, his hut was ready.

Nif-Nif put the last straw on the roof and, very pleased with his house, sang merrily:
You'll get around half the world,
You'll get around, you'll get around,
You won't find a better home,
You won't find it, you won't find it!

Singing this song, he went to Nuf-Nuf. Nuf-Nuf, not far away, also built a house for himself. He tried to finish this boring and uninteresting business as soon as possible. At first, like his brother, he wanted to build a house out of straw. But then I decided that it would be very cold in such a house in winter. The house will be stronger and warmer if it is built from branches and thin rods. And so he did.

He drove stakes into the ground, interlaced them with rods, heaped dry leaves on the roof, and by evening the house was ready.

Nuf-Nuf proudly walked around him several times and sang:
I have a good house,
A new house, a solid house.
I'm not afraid of rain and thunder,
Rain and thunder, rain and thunder!

Before he could finish the song, Nif-Nif ran out from behind a bush.

- Well, your house is ready! - said Nif-Nif to his brother. “I told you we could do this alone!” Now we are free and can do whatever we want!

– Let's go to Naf-Naf and see what kind of house he has built for himself! - said Nuf-Nuf. "We haven't seen him in a long time!"

– Let's go and see! – agreed Nif-Nif.

And the two brothers, contented that they had nothing else to worry about, hid behind the bushes.

Naf-Naf has been busy building for several days now. He dragged stones, kneaded clay, and now slowly built himself a reliable, durable house in which one could hide from wind, rain and frost.

He made a heavy oak door with a bolt in the house so that the wolf from the neighboring forest could not climb into it.

Nif-Nif and Nuf-Nuf found their brother at work.

– What are you building?! - the surprised Nif-Nif and Nuf-Nuf shouted in one voice. - What is it, a house for a piglet or a fortress?

– Piglet's house should be a fortress! Naf-Naf calmly answered them, continuing to work.

– Are you going to fight with someone? Nif-Nif grunted merrily and winked at Nuf-Nuf.

And both brothers were so merry that their squeals and grunts carried far across the lawn.

And Naf-Naf, as if nothing had happened, continued to lay the stone wall of his house, humming a song under his breath:
Of course, I'm smarter than everyone,
Smarter than everyone, smarter than everyone!
I build a house from stones,
From stones, from stones!
No animal in the world,
A cunning beast, a terrible beast,
Will not burst into this door,
Into this door, into this door!

– What animal is he talking about? - Nif-Nif asked Nuf-Nif.

– What animal are you talking about? - Nuf-Nuf asked Naf-Naf.

- I'm talking about the wolf! - answered Naf-Naf and laid another stone.

“Look how afraid he is of the wolf!” said Nif-Nif.

- He's afraid of being eaten! - added Nuf-Nuf. And the brothers cheered even more.

– What kind of wolves could be here? - said Nif-Nif.

- There are no wolves! He's just a coward! - added Nuf-Nuf.

And they both began to dance and sing:

We are not afraid of the gray wolf,
Gray wolf, gray wolf!
Where do you go, stupid wolf,
Old wolf, dire wolf?

They wanted to tease Naf-Naf, but he didn't even turn around.

- Let's go, Nuf-Nif, - said then Nif-Nif. “We have nothing to do here!

• Author: Maria Sukhorukih
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