Meadow Orchard – Community Centre
WHO
Meadow Orchard Project- Community Build, Crouch End
THE BRIEF
Community Centre 25m2 hybrid cob and straw bale build single story structure with reciprocal roof located in a meadow in north London.
Cob in the Community were engaged to manage the cob building and rammed earth tyre stem wall aspects of this build.
THE OUTCOME
The community participants, and the site benefitted from deep participation in the design, creation of materials build of the community centre. The choice of natural materials – in the case of cob sourced directly from the foundations dug for the building itself, were supportive of protecting this space – a rare, beautiful meadow.
The meadow is conveniently sited alongside a local medical centre on NHS land and will offer a long lasting contribution to all as healing space.
• Engaged wider community to engage with the space and with low impact natural recycled materials.
• Targeted specific community users including those with special needs (referrals).
• Over 270 people learned how to make cob, how to build with cob and take part in making their community centre.
• We ran a series of workshops on cob building including: mud and mindfulness
mud and music
family build days
youth volunteering days
• Ran a weekend on how to make rammed earth tires enlisting rammed earth tire expert from Brighton Permaculture.
• Promoted and gave talks about the build at London ‘eco / green’ fairs.
Meadow Orchard Project- Community Build, Crouch End
THE BRIEF
Community Centre 25m2 hybrid cob and straw bale build single story structure with reciprocal roof located in a meadow in north London.
Cob in the Community were engaged to manage the cob building and rammed earth tyre stem wall aspects of this build.
THE OUTCOME
The community participants, and the site benefitted from deep participation in the design, creation of materials build of the community centre. The choice of natural materials – in the case of cob sourced directly from the foundations dug for the building itself, were supportive of protecting this space – a rare, beautiful meadow.
The meadow is conveniently sited alongside a local medical centre on NHS land and will offer a long lasting contribution to all as healing space.
• Engaged wider community to engage with the space and with low impact natural recycled materials.
• Targeted specific community users including those with special needs (referrals).
• Over 270 people learned how to make cob, how to build with cob and take part in making their community centre.
• We ran a series of workshops on cob building including: mud and mindfulness
mud and music
family build days
youth volunteering days
• Ran a weekend on how to make rammed earth tires enlisting rammed earth tire expert from Brighton Permaculture.
• Promoted and gave talks about the build at London ‘eco / green’ fairs.
St. Josephs African Cob Hut & Oven
WHO
St Josephs School
THE BRIEF
A sculpted cob story telling space and oven, built with local recycled material and by parents and children from infant to (key stage 1-4) primary school.
THE OUTCOME
The structure opened up dialogue with pupils about recycled car tires, earthen architecture, similarities between ancient UK dwellings and building techniques and African huts, the use of clay in sculpture, building and renders.
Children gained new skills from making and working with cob. They created sculptures, participated in the work to complete the walls and children really enjoyed the experience of working with parents at school to complete the cob oven.
Parents involved in the cob build found the process very rewarding. One parent said “My contribution in building the oven at the school made my kids really proud. It gave me a sense of connection. I am now coming back on a regular basis to cook bread, pizzas and foraged food in our oven.”
We helped clear a disused area of the school by using unwanted bricks and wood in the build.
Recycled cob bricks left over from “Grand Designs Exhibition” exhibitor Mike Wye Associates were also used to build the wall minimizing the costs to the school.
CIC were invited back to do a one-day talk on cob.
TECHNICAL
A third party company supplied the African Hut - a thatched roof and roof supports.
St Josephs School
THE BRIEF
A sculpted cob story telling space and oven, built with local recycled material and by parents and children from infant to (key stage 1-4) primary school.
THE OUTCOME
The structure opened up dialogue with pupils about recycled car tires, earthen architecture, similarities between ancient UK dwellings and building techniques and African huts, the use of clay in sculpture, building and renders.
Children gained new skills from making and working with cob. They created sculptures, participated in the work to complete the walls and children really enjoyed the experience of working with parents at school to complete the cob oven.
Parents involved in the cob build found the process very rewarding. One parent said “My contribution in building the oven at the school made my kids really proud. It gave me a sense of connection. I am now coming back on a regular basis to cook bread, pizzas and foraged food in our oven.”
We helped clear a disused area of the school by using unwanted bricks and wood in the build.
Recycled cob bricks left over from “Grand Designs Exhibition” exhibitor Mike Wye Associates were also used to build the wall minimizing the costs to the school.
CIC were invited back to do a one-day talk on cob.
TECHNICAL
A third party company supplied the African Hut - a thatched roof and roof supports.
The Gaia Gallery – Permaculture & Arts Narrowboat
WHO
The Gaia Gallery
THE BRIEF
To assist build the first off-grid, touring permaculture workshop and event space in the world, including a heated cob bench, fired by a rocket stove aboard a London barge, earthern walls and treatment to cob in high water areas.
THE OUTPUTS
To oversee and project manage cob making and cob renovation of the interior of the space.
To conduct the build in a way that involved community groups through a series of public courses.
To organize training on rocket stove heaters and together with the cob work, and help the project develop its network of people with skills in cob making and rocket stove builds to assist in the completion of the project.
To offer courses in natural material building and permaculture and bring their marriage to the attention of many Londoners for the first time.
THE OUTCOME
Cob in the Community organised multiple cob building weekends that attracted and engaged a number of diverse groups including SOAS Radical Architects, Bow River Farm, The London Permaculture Network, Meadow Forge, Public Works, Community ReLeaf and many more over multiple weekends.
The courses helped raise awareness of rocket stoves as an alternative high efficient heating systems that burns very little wood at high temperature and produces little - no smoke. Participants came away with skills to build their one systems; one in a green house, a second in a training workshop, and others were considering this for their home.
We enlisted the help of an off grid blacksmith with expertise in brick and iron rocket stove construction to teach best standard practice and assist pioneer it's application aboard a canal boat.
The rocket stove build has been focused in two locations - a canal-side woodland, off Old Oak Common Lane in West London and a the Bow River Farm canal-side permaculture garden in Hackney Wick, East London where we used the opportunity to work with community and the Permablitz London team to clear and rejuvenate these spaces.
The project gave CIC the opportunity to engage and raise awareness to our work with large engineering projects – such as Cross Rail and Thames Tideway Tunnel to encourage their donation of excess clay extracted from their excavations. As a result of our meetings,Thames Water agreed to be CIC sponsor.
CIC now have a partnership agreement that allows us to use The Gaia Gallery to transport clay between sites that were located nearby to the London canal system in exchange for our running cob building events on board the boat and support its completion.
TECHNICAL
The 'Gaia Gallery' project is a to refit of a 43 foot steel barge in such a way that it exists totally 'off-grid.' 'Off-grid' means that the boat will require no mains electrical, water or fuel input and no sewage output and will run solely off firewood and solar power generation.
Traditional building methods such as cob construction, carpentry and joinery will be married with cutting-edge technologies such as the latest in permaculture design processes such as rocket stove mass heating and rainwater harvesting. Through combining these different methods we are able to use predominately natural or recycled materials in the build making this a pioneering structure.
The Gaia Gallery
THE BRIEF
To assist build the first off-grid, touring permaculture workshop and event space in the world, including a heated cob bench, fired by a rocket stove aboard a London barge, earthern walls and treatment to cob in high water areas.
THE OUTPUTS
To oversee and project manage cob making and cob renovation of the interior of the space.
To conduct the build in a way that involved community groups through a series of public courses.
To organize training on rocket stove heaters and together with the cob work, and help the project develop its network of people with skills in cob making and rocket stove builds to assist in the completion of the project.
To offer courses in natural material building and permaculture and bring their marriage to the attention of many Londoners for the first time.
THE OUTCOME
Cob in the Community organised multiple cob building weekends that attracted and engaged a number of diverse groups including SOAS Radical Architects, Bow River Farm, The London Permaculture Network, Meadow Forge, Public Works, Community ReLeaf and many more over multiple weekends.
The courses helped raise awareness of rocket stoves as an alternative high efficient heating systems that burns very little wood at high temperature and produces little - no smoke. Participants came away with skills to build their one systems; one in a green house, a second in a training workshop, and others were considering this for their home.
We enlisted the help of an off grid blacksmith with expertise in brick and iron rocket stove construction to teach best standard practice and assist pioneer it's application aboard a canal boat.
The rocket stove build has been focused in two locations - a canal-side woodland, off Old Oak Common Lane in West London and a the Bow River Farm canal-side permaculture garden in Hackney Wick, East London where we used the opportunity to work with community and the Permablitz London team to clear and rejuvenate these spaces.
The project gave CIC the opportunity to engage and raise awareness to our work with large engineering projects – such as Cross Rail and Thames Tideway Tunnel to encourage their donation of excess clay extracted from their excavations. As a result of our meetings,Thames Water agreed to be CIC sponsor.
CIC now have a partnership agreement that allows us to use The Gaia Gallery to transport clay between sites that were located nearby to the London canal system in exchange for our running cob building events on board the boat and support its completion.
TECHNICAL
The 'Gaia Gallery' project is a to refit of a 43 foot steel barge in such a way that it exists totally 'off-grid.' 'Off-grid' means that the boat will require no mains electrical, water or fuel input and no sewage output and will run solely off firewood and solar power generation.
Traditional building methods such as cob construction, carpentry and joinery will be married with cutting-edge technologies such as the latest in permaculture design processes such as rocket stove mass heating and rainwater harvesting. Through combining these different methods we are able to use predominately natural or recycled materials in the build making this a pioneering structure.
