Back     Latest news from Green Building Press    Subscribe to our newsletter

Green classroom complete

Posted: 04/12/2006

A green classroom made of straw and tyres has been completed in Cumbria. The Footprint education base, at St Catherine's, near Windermere, is the first building the National Trust has commissioned made of straw bale. The foundations have been made from recycled tyres, with lime rendered straw bale walls. The classroom is roofed with wooden shingle insulated with sheep's wool. Heating is from timber sourced locally.

The centre has been designed to use natural light and have a low impact on the environment. Eleven concrete pillars were incorporated to bear the load of the roof, but 38 more pillars were made of car tyres and clay, which would otherwise have gone to a landfill site.

The Footprint, due to open soon, will be a classroom for hire and available for groups to book as a venue. During building work the trust ran courses on the techniques used such as making foundations from tyres and lime rendering.

Gareth Thomas, who was in charge of the construction process, said: "The benefits of this type of building are that it is renewable, there is a surplus amount of straw in this country and it offers brilliant insulation. People have compared the inside to a church and the outside to a boat. It has a teardrop shape to follow the sun around to light the building."

National Trust grants and trusts manager Ross Mackintosh said: "The base, named after the benefactor Enid Rowell, will be a venue for learning and seeing sustainability in action, where we will lead by example. The building will be the finest demonstration of what can be done using renewable or recycled materials and community involvement. This is not just a stepping stone towards sustainability but a massive and visionary leap forward."

The building was part funded by a grant of £25 000 from the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA). The scheme was approved by the LDNPA's development control committee and the money is from its Sustainable Development Fund. LDNPA development control committee chairman John Hayton said: "As a modern and non-traditional development in fairly open countryside, this was a major decision for us to take. The sustainable qualities of this building, along with a good and sensitive design won through and I will watch the centre develop with interest."

Green Building Press  
 

Back     Latest news from Green Building Press    Subscribe to our newsletter

1719