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Farmers Build Eco-Offices From Straw Bales

Posted: 20/06/2005

Farming brothers Chris and Simon Redding have turned disused cowsheds and barns into high-tech eco-offices at their farm at Hewish, near Weston super Mare in North Somerset. The cowsheds are believed to be the first offices in the country constructed with large (1m x 1m x 3m) straw bales. The super-insulation provided by the bales is teamed with environmentally-friendly computer-controlled windows and a geothermal heating and cooling system which draws heat from the surrounding fields during the winter and puts it back in the summer.

The result is Grange Office Park - six sustainable office units in four buildings in the middle of the Somerset countryside, 9456sq ft (878 sq m) in total, designed to be carbon neutral in operation and with fuel bills a fraction of traditional offices of similar size. Chris said: “Eighteen months ago there were 150 cows in these buildings. In the next few months we expect to see around 150 office workers.” The offices are in the final stages of completion and are available to lease building by building or as a whole.

The brothers have invested £900,000 in converting the buildings, using the latest thinking in sustainable construction. Even the concrete removed from the old cowshed bases was recycled – crushed on site to be reused as substrate for the new buildings, saving the environmental cost of transporting it away. Rainwater is used to supply the toilets on site, which drain to a bio-digestor sewerage plant on the site. The treated water is clean enough to be drained into the river.

Simon said: “With a choice of office space available from 675 sq ft to 3,320 sq ft we believe the offices will be attractive to owners of businesses who want to operate in an ethical way, while enjoying good standards of accommodation, a countryside location, 20 minutes from Bristol and a couple of miles from the motorway. “Someone described the buildings as ideal for companies ‘with style and a conscience’.”

The 150 acre Grange Farm has been in the Redding family since 1913, with Chris and Simon farming there for 40 and 25 years respectively. While the remainder is today used for beef cattle, the five-acre site close to the farmhouse containing the former barns and cowsheds has now been converted into Grange Office Park. The two brothers employed Bristol architects White Design to design the conversions but managed the construction works themselves. Manders Structural Design provided structural design Michael Clark Management provided carbon trust consultancy.

Chris said: “We are farmers so we don’t like to see waste. The idea of a sustainable development that did not take from the local environment appealed greatly, and we have become even more enthusiastic about sustainability as the conversion process has gone on.” The office space is available to let. Further information is available from Jayne Rixon of Burston Cook on 0117 934 9977 or at www.thegrange-hewish.co.uk

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