Scaffolding finally down at Hickling straw-bale house

Scaffolding finally came down 11th December revealing the duvet-like lime rendered straw bale walls, stainless steel cills span the depth of the bales and render, and straight lines of stainless steel cills contrast with wavy wall. Lots of pics below:

Strawbale building, hickling, norfolk, passiv house

A special thank you to all the people who have come to help over the last few weeks, great progress!

1 roof rafters in place

2 dormer cheeks craned in

3 foamglass upstand

4 straw arrives - summer wheat

5  so far

6  fire boarding, taped

 

7 dressing bales

8 'the pursuader' a very useful piece of equipment

9 Paul Jennings explains!

10 moisture monitors in place

11 monitor with fixed probes

12 compression with car jacks

13 Twisting the hazel stakes in to pin the straw bales together

14 thatcher's fixings and reed thatch

15 thatcher setting out verge

The Eco-Hub on the cover of Green Building Magazine

In-depth article - 5 pages! - with illustrations and explanations by Junko and Fran.
Thanks, AECB and Green Building!

inner city bale out

. . . And another great article on the Tottenham straw bale, this time in the Riba Journal's June issue

Eco-Hub article on low-tech / high-tech fusion

... by Amanda Birch, worth a read!

Trees before buildings in Norfolk

We thought we should share more of our other projects -  apart from the much blogged about Eco Hub! - that we have on at the moment. This is a site in Norfolk where we are designing a new Passivhaus, straw bale, thatched roof cottage. Trees before buildings - so some apple trees being planted, and willow hedges chosen. Exciting times ahead!

58 Thermal Images at Eco Hub

Many many thanks go to our AECB friend, Andrew Pratt at RETANE Thermal Images. He has come over to the Eco Hub with his thermal image camera. The thermal images can identify inconsistency on the thermal envelop. 

The contrast could be because of the construction geometry, which nothing is wrong to have, moisture content, emissivity, reflected temperature, atmospheric temperature, distance, heat loss at air/moisture leaks, or missing insulation. The building was not heated for a long enough period (just 8 hours almost for the first time. A heavier structure had not had time to heat up yet) so that it will be very useful to take images again soon at the same positions, well, at 58 locations! The room temperature was just 18.5 degrees. Outside was 9.9 degrees.
Thank you for your detailed advice too, Andrew!
- Junko

Open House London 2012 Update

On the 22nd September, we will be at Centre 404 (Islington) and Eco-hub (site plan, Lordship Recreation Ground, Haringey) between 1-5 pm for Open House 2012. We are looking forward to seeing you.

We had expected the completion of the Eco-hub by now but Vinci Construction UK Ltd have been there for final touch. Therefore, the cafe has not been ready yet, but there will be our guided tour , presentation sheets and a lot of fun and food in the park by the Lordship Rec Festival.

See beautiful new river in the park! Also, the nearest Open House, which you may visit, is the Bruce Castle Museum along with a fantastic lion scaffolding sculpture, 'Park Art in Haringey' in the garden.

Eco-hub shortlisted for sustainability award

The Eco-hub at Lordship Park has been been shortlisted in the category of 'Sustainable Project of the Year' by the Builder and Engineer Awards 2012! Good choice!

Lordship Rec Festival

To cerebrate the completion of the Environment Centre (now called Eco-Hub) and the park, the Lordship Rec Users Forum are launching a big festival on 22nd September 1-5 pm.

Besides the Open-House London at the Eco-Hub, there will be sports activities, cycling, games, dance, music, children's arts and play, and refreshment at the Eco-Hub cafe!

Festival Flyer and map are downloadable from their website.

Come and join!  And see you at the Eco-Hub.
Junko

site visit

Last week I have been busy taking part in the AECB Certified Passivhaus Designer Course - and inevitably kept thinking about our Passivhaus Environment Centre. During last week the site made remarkable progress as ever - amongst other things, the cellulose fibre insulation has been injected into the roof and floor voids. Straw Works and the volunteers, who have been looking after every layer and corner of the render and plaster, were giving a final touch before they leave the site for two weeks at the end of today. Next week, the floor will be cleared to receive the air-tightness membrane. 

As many migrant birds fly over, I wonder whether they will recognise a new land mark in the reborn Lordship Recreation Ground!
Junko

AECB visit to the environment centre this morning

thanks for coming!

AJ footprint visits the environment centre

Michelle Price from the AJ's sustainability blog Footprint spent a morning on site with the design team, contractors and volunteers and reported back on what she saw. Read the full article here.

straw bale

Thursday 22nd March was the third day of straw-bale building at the Environment Centre at Lordship Recreational Grounds - a lot of people working on site! It's fantastic to have the roof done first, now one is able to see the actual scale and outline of the building. There will be a lot of volunteers on the site from Monday 26th March onwards and a few of us at ATA will aim to be there to enjoy seeing this building emerge. Come and see us!

For more details call AT Architects on 020 7749 6931

progress on site despite snow and frost

Timber framed cassettes that will form the ground floor arrived on site today. These will be fully filled with insulation manufactured from recycled newspaper.

The pond in front of the Environment Centre in the Lordship Recreational Ground is currently frozen... The cafe in this building will be a fantastic place to stay warm and look out during the snowy season next year!

See more about the Environment Centre at Lordship Recreational Grounds by ATA here. 

junko reports on the environment centre

The construction work at the Environment Centre at Lordship Recreational Ground in Haringey finally got rolling after a few months break. The timber floor beams have landed on site: fifty-four piles are supporting the main structure. The floor joists will arrive this week. ATA and the design team have been busy working on the final check. The straw bale building is designed to Passivhaus standard.  

Passivhaus Environment Centre Starts on Site!

The timber piles are almost complete on site, ready to take the timber frame for the building. The low-impact timber pile foundations will support the 300 sqm building in the centre of the regenerated Lordship Recreation Ground. The timber foundations remove the need to use CO2 intensive concrete foundations in the middle of this valuable green space with the London Borough of Haringey.  

The Environment Centre has been designed by Anne Thorne Architects to exemplary sustainable standards, with the local community involved through all stages of the design process. The building is to act as a sustainable learning tool in both it's construction, it's operation, and the future activities that will take place under it's green roof once the building is complete.