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notes from the field

Taking the High Road II

2/7/2016

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site visits & himalayan vistas

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The fertile mountain valleys of Nagarkot host extensive, and primarily permaculturally principled, agriculture.
From the middle to the end of June, I was fortunate enough to travel to Kathmandu as part of the project with Taking the High Road to extend the facilities of ChoraChori's refuge in Godawari.

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Green Architecture Day 2016

23/3/2016

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waste redefined

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Visiting Brighton Waste House, Saturday 19th March 2016.
This weekend past, I travelled to Brighton in the company of Huff & Puff Construction to attend Green Architecture Day 2016. Hosted by Brighton University, collectively organised by Brighton Permaculture Trust and the Low Carbon Trust, it was the fifteenth in the series of annual talks on the theme of sustainable construction. The speakers this year addressed the subjects of architecture, construction, philosophy, planning and sustainability; besides this, there was the opportunity to have a guided tour of Brighton Waste House by Cat Fletcher.

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Taking the High Road

5/2/2016

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a children's centre for chorachori

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Since our straw bale training in September, I've been working with another inspirational Phil on an incredibly  worthwhile project. One of our course attendees, Philip Hunter, left this Wednesday 3rd February with companions Rory Buckworth and Sam Day to raise funds for the UK charity ChoraChori. This organisation is dedicated to rescuing vulnerable Nepali children who have found themselves compromised in India, returning them to their homeland - and their families, if at all possible - an education and a future. All proceeds will be used to build a centre in Hetauda for such children: the trio are raising them by Taking the High Road.

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Building with Straw BalesĀ 

22/9/2015

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strawen

adjective, archaic
made of straw

From 16-20th September, it was my pleasure to work alongside Phil Christopher and Glyn Clark of Huff and Puff Construction in the culmination of months of careful coordination, planning and preparation to run our first training course on the live lambing shed project. An interesting mix of participants attended, from the seasoned professionals of Natural Build to students of architecture and engineering, and they all kept us on our toes with queries from both academic and pragmatic perspectives.

Phil and Glyn had been generous with their time in quite literally preparing the ground for the course: when the attendees arrived the bottom ring beam and leca ladder were constructed, the top ring beam winched into position on the corner posts and floor joists securely fixed. The first task of day one was thus to get everyone working together to lay sheets of osb3 as a floor before moving on to the more serious business of selecting, preparing and dressing bales.

We were fortunate with the weather and only had to rely on our tarpaulin for that particularly sodden first afternoon: excepting the occasional shower, we enjoyed a mild start to the autumn and fine conditions through the week.

With bales thoroughly surveyed and prepared, day two started cleaning the timber ladder to receive the lightweight expanded clay aggregate (leca) and drilling holes to fit the 300mm hazel stubs that hold the first row of bales in place. As bales were starting to be positioned, care was taken to explain the use of the alligator saw to rapidly notch around uprights.

Day three, Friday, continued wall construction to lunchtime before a consensual 'class trip' to the Arts Cabin in Sherborne where I met Phil and Glyn one year ago. The aim of the visit was to show everyone the finish and feel of a completed straw bale structure, as well as provide a prompt for questions that may not have arisen within the earlier stages of a build.

Refreshed from the less physically taxing day before, we quickly raised the walls to the fourth course. At this point, we were 'pre-spiking' bales with 1300mm hazel pins, sitting them in place and working the pins down by hand or hammer into the wall below for lateral stability. This took time, as did employing the persuader to ensure the walls were in alignment, and for all the productivity it felt like relatively slow progress.

The final day rushed by, buoyed by excitement and experience through repetition, and in a few hours the team managed to complete just under half the building's walls to a full seven courses. Following lunch, Phil demonstrated the detailing around openings and compression of the bales with ratchet straps to mimic the load imposed by the roof and force the bales to settle into their final positions. A brief discussion about trimming the walls and an open Q&A later and it was, all too soon, time to say farewell.

It remains to be said that I would like to extend a huge thank you from myself, Phil and Glyn to all our participants for their patience on our first foray into training, their enquiring minds that pushed us to constantly evaluate and strive toward best practice and the invaluable feedback they provided along the way. In turn, we hope everyone enjoyed their experience and took away some important lessons in straw bale construction: I very much look forward to the potential for future collaborations and, naturally, our next course!
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Attendees of our first Building with Straw Bales course stand proudly in front of the result of their hard work.
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Huff and Puff Construction's director, Phil Christopher.
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Will of Natural Build: champion of lime and urbanite!
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Dressing bales to prepare for wall construction.
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An external view of Sherborne Arts Cabin.
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Phil pre-spikes a bale for the fourth course.
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Lintel under an opening to compress the straw below.
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    jonathan

    designer & occasional construction assistant

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