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Bristol Green House 2010		Stop Global Warming Learn Green Building
This website documents the building of Rik Lander's studio/workshop in inner city Bristol using eco-practices. The over-riding principle has been to bring as little in and take as little away as possible.
• blog • plans • links • home email: build@bristol greenhouse.co.uk • Foundations • Tyre walls • Straw bale walls • I-beam roof • Living roof • Clay/Lime render • Insulation • Earthbags • Book the space	Latest News November 09 I have done a test patch of hand applied hempcrete on the tyre wall. If this dries well and doesn't fall off when I hit it, then we'll be doing a couple of volunteer weekends working with hempcrete. The Story So Far... July 2009 I tested different mixes with and without cement and with extra lime putty. It has a lovely rough texture and follows the curve of the tyres beautifully. Hempcrete is a very exciting material in terms of it's thermal insulation properties and lower embodied energy that many alternative materials. I'll cover this in more detail on the volunteer weekends. The purpose of this website is to share information about the fantastic alternative building techniques I've been using. As a novice builder I have spent many hours researching every choice to weigh up the relative ecological merits of each option. Then I have gone ahead and put my choices into action. Needless to say, as a naive self-builder, I didn't always make the right choice. The information on this site is not intended to offer the definitive answers to your questions about how to build green, instead I offer some interesting methods and my own experiences and observations. Most useful are my mistakes, because you can learn from them, as I did, but without the pain. I'm aware that there's a lot of contradictory and uninformed comment all over the web. You will have to decide for yourself just how useful my contribution is.   For the step by step story of the build, read the Blog
	VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for Hempcrete sessions Learn green building skills by doing. I'm going to test using hempcrete to cover the tyres on the interior. This will thermally insulate and leave the curvy aesthetics of the tyres. If the test is successful I'll do some volunteer sessions in Autumn 2009 Rik Lander is building a workshop in a back garden in Ashley Down, North Bristol, using straw bale, rammed earth tyres and rubble filled gabions. We will be re-rendering the 7 bale wall with lime render this spring. Email if you are interested. Details TBA.
	Our construction techniques demonstrate the principles of re-use, recycling and low embodied energy. They are not necessarily practical methods for the building industry, but we have shown they are possible for first-time self builders. This building has a VERY low embodied energy and proves that the human urge to build need not be environmentally destructive.
	Over the summers of 2007-9 we have run courses on many aspects of green building and worked with Amazon Nails and Brighton's Low Carbon Network, builders of the Brighton Earthship. The project is concluding now in the summer of 2009.
	The purpose of running the courses was to demystify the building process so that ordinary people can build in sustainable ways. Volunteering is essentially an exchange of labour for knowledge.
	Courses:
	Clay rendering. More...	Dates: Closed
	Living roof construction. More...	Dates: Closed
	Straw Bale problem solving and clay work course. With Barbara Jones.	Dates: Closed
	Straw loose-fill insulation. More...	Dates: Closed
	Gabion foundations. More...	Dates: Closed
	Car tyre retaining walls. More...	Dates: Closed
	I-beam roof construction. More...	Dates: Closed
	Straw bale wall construction. More...	Dates: Closed
	Get in contact to express an interest and we'll keep you informed of progress.

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