Video studio
Event space
Rehearsal studio
Filming location
studio for hire Visit the studio website
Bristol Green House
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: riklander(at)
magic-tree(dot)com


Foundations
Tyre walls
Straw bale walls
I-beam roof
Living roof
Clay/Lime render
Hempcrete
Insulation
Earthbags

Book the space
bristol green house studio

The Story So Far...

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
The construction techniques used by Rik Lander 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. Photo Simon Cochrane.

applying hempcrete by hand
Volunteers apply hempcrete to rammed earth tyres by hand. Photo Simon Cochrane.
Over the summers of 2007-12 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.

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