Building a garden office out of straw

It's a while since we've featured a straw-based garden office on Shedworking so we were delighted to come across this new project outlined on The Conversation and undertaken by Stuart Walker, Research Fellow in Sustainabilty Assessment at the University of Sheffield. It also uses cob construction so is particularly interesting for those looking for environmentally friendly building solutions.

Here's a snippet:

As sustainability assessment lead at Sheffield University’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, I wanted to make sure my garden office had the lowest possible embodied carbon (a term used to describe the amount of carbon contained, or “embodied” in the materials used to make a product), and low energy use once it was up and running.

That meant the office would need to be very well insulated to avoid using lots of energy to heat it, and made of materials with low carbon content. Due to its structure, straw is a fantastic insulating material.

Well worth a read and also the comments after the main piece which include more details.

Image courtesy of Stuart of him working on his straw bale office by Lorna Jackson.

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Earthbag solar shed office

 

Here is a remarkable build by Jonathan and Ashley Longnecker and their family which they have documented at their excellent site Tiny Shiny Home. It's a garden office (though frankly the term 'garden' is maybe not quite so applicable here) with additional guest accommodation in south east Arizona. Built using a kind of cob technique with hyperadobe earthbags, it's completely off-grid thanks to its use of solar. There's a full rundown with imagery at the site here but here's a peek at the office set-up...

And here's the view from the office...

They've also documented the whole thing in a video. It's not short, but it's well worth a watch.

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Reclaimed chapel doors used in cob garden studio

Built by Kate Edwards of Edwards and Eve Cob Building who design and build lovely cob garden offices (and other buildings). Here's what they say about it:

"Cob-bale roundhouse we built for a client in Norfolk - the stem wall uses reclaimed pavement sets from Norwich, the bales are from the field next door and the cob walls are made entirely of earth from the foundation trench. The doors are reclaimed from a local chapel."

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Cobwood garden rooms

 

Suffolk-based earthmoves design is run by landscape designers Neil and Emi-Lou Lankford who also specialise in building 'cobwood' roundhouses and garden rooms, circular buildings with green roofs that are ideal for shedworking.

You can read about the building of one at Jimmy’s Farm (home of The Essex Pig Company) on Neil's blog, a 5m diameter model made with oak and sweet chestnut coppiced by Neil at the woods on the farm. Here's an explanatory snippet: 

"The roof frame supports itself without the need for a central post to hold it up as each inward facing beam rests on the previous one with the last one tucked under the first one but on top of the previous one – keeping the whole structure up in the air. A mixture of wild meadow perennials and cornfield annuals will be planted on the roof. The gaps between the henge frame are filled in with ‘Cobwood’ – short lengths of logs bedded together with ‘Cob’ – soil mixed with water, hay and a bit of lime. Also there will be a mixture of leaded glass windows and large Perspex viewing panes."

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Clayworks (was Cob in Cornwall)

Cob in Cornwall, which put together this fine garden office, is on the up and under a new name, Clayworks. Adam Weismann, Director of Products says:

"Our new brand represents the former Cob in Cornwall brand and is both our building services division and our new products division. The products division will manufacture and supply natural building materials for the next generation of low carbon homes. We start with the fundamentals and a system unique in the UK: unfired clay masonry blocks and clay plasters; bringing the ultimate inner walling system to every home, new or existing."

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Retreat space + craft and design studios by Simon Woodhall

Here are some lovely shedworking spaces with a heavy emphasis on green and recycled materials designed and built by Ashburton-based Simon Woodhall and his team. Above and below is a secluded meditation and retreat looking across the Dart valley. It's built with cob, stone and oak taken from the landscape it's in, with reclaimed timber from Devonport docks. Here's what Simon says about it:

The plan was conceived as a series of spiralling terrace levels, protected from the north by a massive, curved earth wall, which stores heat from the glazed south-west elevation. Two roofs meet over the room, with the glazed connection giving views to Dartmoor from an upper level.

Above is a craft studio in Dartmoor with a wonderful roof structure. The larch used for cladding was felled on site and floor beams were reclaimed from a local tile-works.Finally, a writer's room and design studio in Ashburton with a cantilevered roof held in place by ties to the ground. Among many marvellous features, when seen from the house above, the green sedum roof looks like a lawn. Materials for the project were taken from pre-existing garden sheds, and windows came from council refurbishment works.

Lots more details and photos about these and other projects here. Many thanks to Annie Leymarie for the alert

The Woodshed

The Woodshed is a sculpture studio and community art space founded by Doug King-Smith in the grounds of Bowden House near Totnes, Devon. There are many workshops available, including building with cob. Click below to hear Doug being interviewed about the Woodshed.

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Wednesday's posts are sponsored by The Garden Room Company®, the UK's premier supplier of garden offices and garden rooms. Click here.

That Roundhouse: how to build a green 'shed'

That Roundhouse is actually rather more than a shed, it's a wood frame, cordwood and cob ecohome with recycled window walls, a straw-insulated turf roof and powered by solar power and wind turbine. It also has a compost lavatory and reed beds for grey water. And it has also had a, pardon my language, hell of a battle to get planning permission (details on their site). Happily, they've recently been granted this which as they say is Good News. There's a huge amount of information on the site too including lots of marvellous photos and the chance to buy the book of the house: it's so good it's been translated into Norwegian. And here's how they made their small visitors' den which is shedsize and was built very swiftly:Many thanks to Annie Leymarie for the alert

Almost Green: book reading

Friend of Shedworking Fiona Gilsenan went to a reading by friend of Shedworking James Glave and sent us this review:

I'm sorry to say I drove my car the ridiculous distance of .8km to the Fernwood Community Association where eco-writer and Shedworker James Glave was addressing the Annual General Meeting of the Victoria Car Share Co-op on Monday night. But I think he would understand. James is the first to acknowledge the challenges faced by well-intentioned but frazzled parents (and freelance writers) as they take baby steps to greener lifestyles. He was at the meeting to read from his very funny book, Almost Green, in which he chronicles building an environmentally sensitive writing studio on Bowen Island near Vancouver.

As part of his own "half-hearted fumbling toward sustainability" the Eco-Shed represented a pretty steep learning curve, but James can now speak confidently about the relative soft costs of cob or straw-bale versus rammed-earth construction and advise on a method for storing harvested rainwater from the roof of a 280-square-foot building. (That method involves hitching a 250lb plastic cistern to a Lexus SUV, but it represents an impressive if potentially lethal commitment to sustainable shedworking.)

The Eco-Shed , featured in the September issue of Oprah's Winfrey's O at Home magazine, is now complete, although it serves only part-time as a shedworking venue. James reckons it is built to a Gold LEED standard, with its passive-solar design, salvaged and reclaimed lumber, Danish wood stove, and super-efficient ventilation and insulation systems. Meanwhile, it has to earn back its advance (approximately $100,000 Canadian dollars), so at weekends it doubles as a guest suite for visiting city dwellers seeking a green getaway.

You can read excerpts from the book at James' site and also at Salon where some of the comments have become a little heated.

The Shedworker's Bookshelf - using natural finishes by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce

One of the best ways of personalising your shed is to build it yourself and there's also a current trend towards constructing your own garden office building out of environmentally-friendly materials. This week's choice - using natural finishes by the friendly and knowledgeable Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce (whose company Cob in Cornwall we've featured here before) - is published by the highly regarded Green Books. It includes step-by-step instructions for applying lime-based and clay-based plasters, renders and paints, as well as exploring the benefits of natural finishes for the buildings, their owners and local suppliers.

There are plenty of case studies and of course lots of shedworking structures plus it's marvellously illustrated throughout - including photos of Katy and Adam actually doing the things they're writing about - and a sumptuous section on finishes from around the world in such spots as Japan, Morocco and Italy. In short, if you're contemplating any kind of eco-friendly build, this is an absolutely essential book to have on your bookcase (and even if you're not, it's a fascinating piece of art to meander through in your shed).

There is also an online resources and suppliers database accompanying the book at www.naturalbuildingresources.com and you can download sample pages here. Go here to buy a copy and click on the button below to go to the Green Books site where you can snap up other green building delights.

Around the shedworld

Kits and Mortar look at a fabulous restoration opportunity... materialicious likes the shack at Hinkle Farm (above)... Enterprise Nation says get rid of all that junk with a paperless office... Home Office Highway has been checking out the great and the good... Shedblog looks at audio-visual sheddies... Dwell blog points out that green roofs aren't child's play... Tiny House Blog is enjoying Brian's cob cottage project (below)...Treehugger sums up some super pallet designs... Home Office Warrior looks at tools of the virtual assistant trade... Here's the place to go for a quiet sit down... The Garden Monkey is throwing a solstice party... help to support Shedworking by clicking on the button below and making a small pledge

Around the shedworld

Web Worker Daily looks at the new working from home trend - going out... Home Office Warrior looks at homeworking budgeting and other top tips... Trendhunter likes these mobile tentworking solutions from Hannibal USA (above)... Tiny House Blog focuses on the little cob cabin (below) from Cobworks......The Daily Telegraph looks at Virginia Woolf's room of her own... Treehugger likes the look of flexible green office space for all... Chief Home Officer has some views and blues... Crusader's mosaic garden shed build (below) is in the running for this year's National Shed Week Photograph of the Year which you can enter here...... This container art looks marvellously shedlike from Treehugger...

Cob in Cornwall's new book

Friends of Shedworking Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce from Cob in Cornwall have a smashing new book out, 'Using Natural Finishes: Lime and Earth based plasters, renders and paints. A Step by Step Guide'. The book covers all aspects of the preparation and application of wall finishes made from lime and earth and the couple say they wanted it to be both informative and practical. "Our desire," they say, "is that this book can further encourage and make accessible the use of these traditional and ecological materials in both new and historic buildings." It's already got the thumbs up from various luminaries (“This highly informative and sumptuous book shows how the threat of climate change is also an opportunity to make buildings more beautiful.” Sunand Prasad, President of RIBA; “Adam and Katy are rethinking how we build and coming up with something beautiful.” John Vidal, Environement editor of The Guardain) and it definitely gets the Shedworking seal of approval. More information, sample chapters, and a link to ordering it attheir site here. I'm delighted to say that Cob in Cornwall will feature in the Shedworking book due out later this year.

Around the shedworld

Shedblog had this piece in the always excellent Just Sheds Tuesday slot about a New Zealand shed turned into a charming outside bar... Anne Robert at My Urban Garden Deco Guide looked at outdoor carpets, especially the Atlantique carpet which has been developed for “outdoor cocooning” with a Mediterranean touch... The third Home Office Warrior blog carnival has some interesting links on everything from banners ads to whether homeworking is for you and how to be a more effecive homeworker (Grant also points out that Web Worker Daily has had a nice makeover)...MetroNaps aims to maximise employee productivity by harnessing the latest sleep innovations to increase profitability and claims to be the world’s premier provider of professional napping products and services... The Daily Telegraph had a nice story about building with cob featuring friends of Shedworking Adam and Katy from Cob in Cornwall...

Build your garden office out of Cob

If you fancy building your own garden office, consider using cob, a very old building technique which combines earth, straw, sand and water in a sturdy way to form lumps ('cobs') which you then press together to form walls. As long as it's not too rainy, you'll be fine and many people live in cob homes in the UK, especially in Cornwall and Devon. And of course it's superduper eco-friendly. Devon-based Cob experts Earthed - artists and builders who create sustainable structures specialising in cob, roundpole timber frame, lime and stonework - run educational workshops teaching you the basics of cobbuilding so you can create something like the above Wythenshawe cob building. For more smashing pictures click here.

Another option is Cob in Cornwall run from Helston by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce who design and construct new cob and strawbale walls and buildings - an example of a studio build is pictured below.
As with the Earthed site, there's plenty of information on their web site to convince you that cob is the way to go. Here they are on heating:

"Earth buidings have outstanding thermal capabilities. The walls are generally built up to two feet thick, making it an ideal material for both cool and warm climates. These properties make cob an ideal material for creating garden courtyard spaces. The ability of the earth to absorb and then re-radiate the heat of the sun can create a micro-climate suitable for growing tropical fruit trees and for personal comfort."

Katy and Adam have also written a book on building with cob which you can read about here and see a sample chapter. And below is a picture of them at work.