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  • Posted February 20th, 2018
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    How you can gain natural building skills for your own build for free, and help put up affordable, natural, community buildings

    How you can gain natural building skills for your own build for free, and help put up affordable, natural, community buildings

    Some great ideas from Adrian at Wholewoods. Below are several ways that you can get your hands dirty and gain natural building skills for free, whilst helping to erect beautiful, affordable, natural buildings for schools, charities or educational organisations. He’d like to see natural building apprenticeships and even a revival of ‘journeymen’ builders, and we’d like to help him. Over to Adrian.


    We can help you if you’re interested in building your own natural home (see ‘guided self-build’, below). In the meantime, we can also help you gain essential natural building skills for free, for example:

    Build Camp
    A Roundhouse Frame Build
    Level – Good level of fitness and strength
    Cost – Free
    Date – June 12th – 22nd 2018
    Duration – 2 weeks
    Venue – The Woodyard, Duchy Home Farm, Gloucestershire

    Build Camp is a volunteers’ working holiday and training camp. It’s open to anyone regardless of ability or income. Help us build a reciprocal roundhouse timber frame to be used as an outdoor classroom, at a charitable organisation or school. We’ll be working as a team and spend some time developing your tools technique and greenwood building knowledge. Together we’ll continue refining the ultimate roundhouse design, our team-work, and outdoor living skills.

    Many educational organisations are short of funds to develop outdoor classrooms for forest school or nature based learning and don’t have the space to host our Free-Build camp. Your volunteering means we can help these schools too by cutting an entire frame and doing a first assembly at the Woodyard. We’ll deliver and install it later in the year.

    Catered evening meals will cost £90 / 2wks and this is also the deposit. Camping is included.

    If you would like to be involved please email me including RELEVANT EXPERIENCE, AGE and a BIT ABOUT YOURSELF as we like to have a mixture of ability, gender and age.

    On site at a natural building camp involving cordwood construction


    Free Build
    A Community Building Camp
    Level – Skilled
    Date – TBC
    Duration – 2-4 wks TBC
    Project – A full build – TBC
    Price – Free
    Client – Charity or school, TBC

    An opportunity to make the most mind bogglingly beautiful natural buildings affordable for schools, charities, community groups, trusts and pubic organisations who put other people and the environment first. This is a REAL, FULL BUILD on-site, so we need everyone to be physically fit, strong and competent with tools.

    Free build is not a course but we have all come to learn as well as give. Your participation assists the charity, community group or school accomplish the building of their dreams. The main currency is your physical work and every participant pays only for food which is £40 per week to cover the costs of Katherine cooking our evening meals. This is also your deposit to book a place.

    We ask a minimum commitment of two weeks and we’ll all be camping together on-site for the duration. We are now taking expressions of interest for the next camp for 2018. BUT do not have a project booked yet!

    If you would like to be involved please email me including RELEVANT EXPERIENCE, AGE and a BIT ABOUT YOURSELF as we like to have a mixture of ability, gender and age. If you are keen to get going and there’s no Free Build in the pipeline book on the Build Camp anyway.


    Build Leaders
    Service – Mentoring
    Subject – Personal  Development
    Duration – Ongoing
    Level – Experienced
    Cost – Free

    Shape the future of Community Building, host builds in your own community or develop your own social project.

    We may well end up charging for the Build Leader Program but at the moment this is simply an on-going, informal mentoring relationship. The purpose is to continue developing your practical, project-management and people skills for community benefit. There’s no formal curriculum, no time scale and no need to apply. You will have already been on our Roundwood Timber Framing Course and taken on responsibility during Free Build.


    Guided Self-Build
    Service – Professional Guidance
    Project – Your Self-Build Project
    Cost – Quote on request
    Location – At your site

    If you’re ready to start self-building we can help with design, source timber, or just be there to raise the frame. As much or as little help as you need. We have 2 fixed-rate programs, but can also help you on a day rate.

    Contact us now if you want to start planning your build ⇒ Click Here.

     


    The views expressed in our blog are those of the author and not necessarily lowimpact.org's


    4 Comments

    • 1coppicelearner February 20th, 2018

      Because I live in SW Wales I have heard of several volunteering opportunities to help build low impact structures and learn from the experience but this is the first time I have heard of a group doing the work for charities and schools and developing it into mentoring and equipping new build leaders to take the work forward. Really exciting project. good luck.


    • 2adrian February 20th, 2018

      Thanks mate, good to get some feedback. Adrian


    • 3Julie Henderson February 20th, 2018

      Ohooo! Unfortunately I’m unlikely to be available for this in June this year, but would really like to be on a mailing list for any future such camps/builds. wishing you a great camp and build!


    • 4adrian February 20th, 2018

      Hi Julie, Great you can sign up to get the next dates here….http://wholewoods.co.uk/woodland-courses-reciprocal-frame-roundhouses/


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