Montag, 15. April 2013

Mein Sommerprojekt :) / My summer project

So this summer I want to do something special! All posts about it will be in English as most people who in the forums where I hope to find some advices are English speaking.
We have an old stone ruin on our Landlords property - this will be the perfect test and experiment building for what I learned on the cob-workshop.
It is going to be my playgound for the summer and it will end with my felting studio.

As I am not an experienced builder and have not the money to hire people to do it or advise me I will be mostly on my own with desicions how to do it right (or not right).
So for the first step I made some pictures for the actual status of the building. Also as I am going to ask for advise in different sustainable/green building forums - and hope people there are enthusiastic to help :)

Here is what I have in mind to end up with:
Here are some pictures of what I have in mind:
http://www.cityfarmer.org/RaftersSculpt.jpg
http://clayandwoodworks.ca/images/natural%20building%20gallery/images/cob%20garden%20shed%20living%20roof.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UwsajGdK7bU/TnETcHHS0UI/AAAAAAAAAEk/f6Gkhy85N0Y/s1600/zinnes-shed.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wBMm0XSN9uk/SFrZvhPxGEI/AAAAAAAAEeg/6sthwakhy-I/s400/cob3.jpg




So here are the pictures with description:

West Wall:

 This is the west facing wall - actually you cant see it :) It is behind the earth and weeds.
It is covered up until the last meter of the wall.
I took the second picture from the side so that you can see it.
The third picture was taken from the inside.

What I would love to have in this wall is a big window to look into the garden.










 Est Wall:
As you can see the east wall does not really exist :) It is mostly fallen down. You can see the entrance of the building on the first picture as well - it is very big and on the South side - which is unfortunately very small. So I was wondering if it might be better to close the big entrance wall and make the door in the East Wall with some glass.















North Wall:


The north wall gives me some headach. It is also the south wall ob the building before and it looks kind of instable to me... so I am not sure if it is better to build another wall before (maybe straw bale) or try to fix it anyway. Knocking down is no option on this wall as it will bring the roof down as well.





South Wall:
Not sure what to do with the south side either. from the outside the wall looks quite good and straight but from the inside it looks different. The Wall is very thick on that side. I would say about 70 - 80 cm.








So here is my idea (not necessarily in right order - just how they cross my mind now.)
1. Clean the inside of the building
2. Clean around the building (cutting away the hedges and weeds and maybe dig out the west wall)
3. Draw a plan how it should look like
4. Gathering all together the materials like subsoil, clay. lime, straw....
5. I would take down the walls to a height of 80-100 cm and leave it for building on to it. Except maybe for the south walls as I think they are fine.
6. Cut and prepare the roundwood for the roof - It is going to be a living roof.
7. Decide what walls will be cob and which will be straw bale.
8. Find some help over webpages like workaway and similar.
9. Think about drainage as I am sure there is nothing ...
.....sure there wil be more points.....but for today enough :)

Ideas are more than welcome and helpers of course as well...so if you live close and what to experiment a little bit....just let me know.