A £9 MILLION building which recycles its own rainwater is now starting to take shape in York.

Pre-fabricated straw panels are now starting to be put in place at City of York Council's ecoDepot at Hazel Court.

Work started on the site, which will become the new home of the authority's neighbourhood services department, late last year.

The straw wall panels were produced last month at a farm, at Easingwold, using a construction method called Modcell.

This works by using a wooden box, three metres by three metres in size, in which straw bales, windows and doors can be arranged, compressed and rendered with lime to create a prefabricated wall unit.

These have now been transported to the ecoDepot site, and are being slotted into place using a crane.

Mowlem, the contractor working on the project on behalf of the council, has already completed a large section of the first floor.

All of the panels will be in place in about two weeks time and work will then begin on the next phase of the project, which involves the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof to generate electricity from the sun.

The ecoDepot, which is part-funded by a £600,000 Yorkshire Forward grant, will be an example of sustainable construction, with an in-built rain water harvesting system and its own renewable energy supply.

The office, which will the be largest of its type in Europe, has a timber frame that supports the wall panels.

The nature of the walls will provide a finished building so highly insulated it will be three times more energy efficient than current building regulations require.

The innovative construction process also minimises the amount of energy used to build the walls because the materials are chosen for their low "embedded energy".

This is because a lot more energy goes into making bricks than into making straw, which actually absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows.

Kristina Peat, the council's sustainability officer, said: "Work on site is now progressing quickly, and the building is really starting to take shape."