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Sustainable construction
We like our creature comforts as much as the next person, but we are also committed to trying to cause as little damage and disruption to the environment as we can. That’s why we build or own housing on our site, using timber frame building techniques to produce houses that are comfortable, warm, efficient to run - and lovely to live in!
Reduce your power bills
We have constructed four timber frame homes on the site, using locally sourced materials and making sure that they are properly designed and well-insulated. One of the timber frame homes we have built, Honeycomb, has four bedrooms and two bathrooms - yet costs under 400 Euros a year in terms of the energy it uses to heat the home using a geothermal underfloor heating system.
Sustainable forests
Our ultimate aim is to be able to use the wood from the sustainable forests that we have planted on our land to provide the material for a total of ten homes in our community, resulting in houses that have a minimal impact on the environment. Not only does using wood to build do more good for the environment than the manufacturing process used to make concrete, there will also be no need to transport it over long distances, further decreasing the carbon footprint.
Energy efficient homes
By making the homes energy efficient, they are also helping the environment. Although we invest a lot of time and effort into researching and experimenting with ways of producing energy using renewable sources, we also think that there is a lot to be said for only using energy when you need to. Small touches such as using energy efficient lightbulbs, or turning electrical appliances off rather than leaving them on standby, are also ways that help keep the running costs of our timber frame housing at a sensible level.
Timber frame houses
We’re really proud of the timber frame houses that we have built on our site - they are energy efficient, family homes that are built to last. They give us a wonderful base for our ongoing research and investigation of ways to live sustainably, and we would recommend them wholeheartedly to anyone considering building a new home. If you’d like to find out more about timber frame houses, you can look at our case study here or our education pages here.