Lammas Project Wales

We recently made a little research trip for our down under dream around Wales. Wales is really leading the way in terms of sustainable living in Britain. During our tour one of the places we visited was the Lammas Project in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Lammas is a cooperative that is pioneering the way for eco communities in Wales and beyond. It is the first eco-village to have applied and been granted planning permission prior to establishing the community and so have set a legal precedent and created a model for other sustainable communities in Wales. Their website is an incredible resource for anyone interested in this way of life. They are so generous in their openness about the arduous process they went through and it's truly fascinating reading through the mountains of documents on the site.

The Tir y Gafel site is the first and model Lammas ecovillage development.  We visited last Saturday and took the morning site tour which was truly inspirational. This site is about 18months old and already they have done wonders with the land. Tir y Gafel had been grazing land for sheep and cattle for generations before the farm was forced to sell off part of their land. The plot was subdivided into nine plots about 5-6 acres each. There is also a government funded community centre that will be a place to bring together the local community and the eco-village and for the Lammas families to share their knowledge and experiences of sustainable living.

this shows one of the many ponds they have built which is fed from a stream that runs across the land. The site also has a natural spring water supply and a 100 year old hydro turbine which they are restoring and which will provide the majority of electricity for the nine small holdings. 

This is the community hub building. A strawbale construction with a turf roof. All the timber is from the land mostly from the conifer forest that they are replanting with native trees for coppicing for future timber supply.

The stone floor has a pretty standard underfloor heating wires underneath which will be powered by the hydro turbine. There is also a ceramic wood burner and solar heating.

The ceiling has a cavity between the straw bale layer and plaster render which will be able to be closed off. This cavity is needed for the heat exchange to avoid condensation. 

Sun trap with roof solar cells

This is the ceramic wood burner. Coppiced willow will be the fuel source. The ceramic burner is made from ceramic bricks like those used to make kilns. Instead of the smoke and heat running straight up the chimney, the smoke draws up to the point where you can see a hole about 8 feet from the ground, then it is brought back down again and then only then up through the chimney, by that stage the air has left most of its heat in the ceramic bricks which will slowly release itself into the building. It's supposed to be incredibly fuel efficient.

This shows one of the shower cubicles. 

Compost loo raised up for easy access to the compost. The base is lined with strawbales. The straws apparently does something to the urine so that it's not necessary to separate wee and poo. 

Hay Bale Construction: One of the families started out with the construction of a barn to gain experience of self building. They wanted to only use materials within a 5 mile radius and because there is no straw in Wales they went with hay instead. This is controversial since hay is a food source and very attractive to rodents and other pests. The other problem with it is that it is so dense it was very difficult to stake and shape and they said they would not consider using it for their dwelling. 

This is the vegetable garden on the same plot. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo in their polytunnel which was where the most abundant crops were. Nearly all the families have polytunnels. In these harsh conditions in windy, wet and cold Pembrokeshire polytunnels seem to be the way to go. 

They almost managed to build the barn using all wood nails and joints, until the weather started changing and they had to throw the roof up in a hurry.  

Cob House Construction: the next plot we were shown was this one where the family had build a cob (earth) house from the clay soil dug from the very same site. It has a straw bale and turf roof. 

Their productive gardens and polytunnel which was made by them using hazel as a frame with a sheet of plastic wrapped over it. A more natural looking poly tunnel if such a thing can be said. 

Again, the timber was harvested from the conifer forest at the top of the land. By clearing some of the conifers the native trees have started to thrive.

Their bath was just beautiful. You can just make out the stove where you build your fire that heats up the water. The bath is just filled up by hose pipe then heated with the fire under the bath. 

Timber frame stud building with straw bale interior walls built up on stone mushrooms to stop the rodents as this will become a storage/workshop space.

This house was probably my favourite in terms of liveability. It was lovely and light, had a lot of height and was open plan with a mezzanine bedroom. This was also their first hand built home so they started with what will become the workshop/storage for their woodwork/pottery/crafts and produce. 

Quite experimentally they have chosen to insulate the floor and ceiling with raw sheeps fleece. Normally it is treated for this use. Using it raw could have some ramifications with pest infestations. They have left manholes in the ceiling and flooring to allow them to check on the material and eventually replace it if necessary. I'm wondering if the retention of all that natural lanolin might actually protect the fleece. Considering the glut of wool in Britain and the pittance that a producer receives for a fleece it would be good news if we could use such a material unprocessed for insulation. 

Unfortunately we didn't get to see all the building on the site. There is also an earth sheltered house that I would have loved to have seen but the owners were away. There are some pictures on the Lammas website that is the most amazing resource for anyone interested in building an eco house or starting up an eco project. I can't wait to see more Lammas projects. Thank you Lammas for sharing with the world your wonderful ideas and creativity!