Green Buildings

Corfe Castle Community Pre-school

The Pre-school has been thriving for many years but when the temporary classroom they used started deteriorating, they began to think about a new building that would meet the childcare and pre-school needs of this rural community.  Set in a sensitive location, an eco-friendly new build was the way forward.

The building is constructed of straw insulated panels clad with local timber and topped with cedar shingles and a small area of sedum roof. The Group are very proud of their new building and are able to offer additional after-school services for the local school with their new, beautiful and inspiring space.

Food Processing Barn at Five Penny Farm

Over 200 people helped raise a new barn at Five Penny Farm, Whitchurch Canonicorum, to provide food processing and storage facilities for a co-operative of farmers in the Marshwood Vale. Jyoti Fernandez, driving force behind the project explains ‘We have a co-operative of 46 members, all local small scale food producers. We all want to produce food in a way we that doesn't have a negative impact on the environment and so the construction of the barn using locally sourced materials - a timber frame, thatch roof and cobb cellar - was really important to us'.

The barn raising was great -an amazing feeling to see such a tangible, big, lasting building coming into being! - Jyoti Fernandez

The co-op members wanted to add value to the food they grow to make their work viable. They will use the barn to transform what they grow or rear into bacon, ham, salami, juice, jams, dairy products, chutneys and herbal products. All will be sold at local outlets and they hope to run courses at the barn to share their skills around. Jyoti is pleased with what they have achieved ‘The barn raising was great - an amazing feeling to see such a tangible, big, lasting building coming into being. It has really brought the co-operative together and inspired them to produce more!'

Brownsea Island outdoor activity centre

The Scouting principle of ‘leaving the ground as you found it' has as much resonance now as it did one hundred years ago when the Scouts first started to visit Brownsea Island.

This simple principle is central to the new outdoor activity centre being constructed on the island. The design is completely reversible so that at the end of it's life it will be possible to remove all elements, including foundations, leaving no trace of it having been there. Use of natural materials such as cedar shingles which will wrap the builds walls and roof as well as careful landscaping will ensure the building fits well into this sensitive and internationally important landscape.

The buildings innovative design also incorporates rainwater recycling, water minimisation, wind turbine power generation and biomass boilers for heat so that the building will be run with little impact on the environment.

The new centre will allow the National Trust to widen its welcome to more young people and increase the scope of Scout & Guide visits. The National Trust will target young people form disadvantaged backgrounds, young people in danger of exclusion from school and the long term unemployed and run activities that help them engage with magical natural environment.

Magdalen Project

A reedbed filter system has been created at the Magdalen Project education centre near Chard. The system will filter phosphates and detergents from the waste water so that is clean enough, with Environment Agency consent, to go straight into local stream or be reused for showering.