As part of our Growing Up Green Project, this week, Hill Holt Wood hosted students from the Humanitarian Architecture Society of the University of Sheffield. The group had visited previously last June to assist with the hempcrete casting in the Bunkhouse porch. The three-day workshop required the students to brave camping in less-than-ideal weather conditions in the Roman Villa opening. WEDNESDAY 4TH APRIL 2018 The workshop began with a quick introduction to the course and th

This week the team have been teaching our signature strawbale and reciprocal roof workshops to over 200 students of local Lincolnshire schools. We've had lots of fun meeting such enthusiastic students from all over the county who have been keen to learn a little bit about natural building. We were all very impressed how capable the students were able to pick up all the information in such a short session. TUESDAY The first day of Construction Week welcomed eight groups of Yea

In a village in North West Leicestershire, an exposed apex timber frame sits awkwardly on the bend of the street, surrounded by scaffolding and bits of timber. Unlike the usual building site that may be waiting on a delivery of Kingspan and brick, our host Lloyd informs us that we are waiting on five pallets of hemp shiv to join our current inventory of hydraulic lime shipped in from France. We go across the street the Lloyd’s current abode for a hot drink where we meet his w

The design team started June full speed ahead, hosting a volunteer construction weekend, finally breaking ground on the bunkhouse’s much-needed porch renovation. Volunteers of every background joined us on site at Hill Holt Wood for an educational experiment with natural materials. The weekend included hempcrete construction, lime rendering, a strawbale tutorial and a Worm Farm Fat Trap. The first of our guests joined us on Friday night, setting up their tents in the Roman Vi