A historic strawbale building, the first 2 storey loadbearing and frame building in the UK (and the second in Europe) built on 3 floors to a unique curvaceous design. The inspiration of Rachel Whitehead/Shiamh, she conceived the shape originally as a timber framed eco house and worked with a local architect to get planning permission on a plot in St. Dogmaels, Wales with no road access.
Then, hearing of strawbale building in 2003, she asked Barbara Jones to re-design and do the technical/construction drawings to make it work, and Barbara, with Bee Rowan through Amazon Nails ran many courses to help build it. More than 100 volunteers worked on this building, the majority of them women and it took 4 years (not full time) to complete.
It was the first building to use Barbara’s revised method of using fixing posts instead of box frames for doors and windows, saving on timber. The very curvaceous design presented challenges for the carpentry of the ring beams, which also had to meet with the framework of the glazed section. It won the 2008 Grand Designs Eco-home of the year award and is available to rent. FB: Rachel Shiahm a Quiet Earth http://www.quietearth.org.uk/