Our fantastic morning at Hill Holt Woods

Wow- we have come back from our trip so inspired to start designing and making our sustainable homes! I heard many ideas been talked about as we walked around. We learnt about sustainable building materials which were good for structure and insulation. We also found it fascinating to find out about different forms of roof and how they can help collect water for the house. 

Later in the morning we had our first encounter with the composting toilets!! What an experience, but we found out that it can save up to 2 litres of water per visit.

I think we will all agree though that our favourite part of the day was when we got to build our very own straw bale house.

Learning about how Hill Holt is sustainable.

They used mud fom a nearby pond, to build the walls. It absorbs the heat and keeps the room nice and warm.

The roof is alive with plants that would have been where the building is.

These are special triple glazed windows, they keep lots of heat in!

Tasha's house was made from hay bales, which provide both the structure and the insulation for he building. We think this is very clever. It is covered with lime to keep the rain and insects out! 

We had to choose a building foreman to be the boss, Daniel was chosen.

The bales were easy to lift if we worked as a team.

We needed to build our house so it was 3 x 3.

The stakes helped make it sturdy.

We had to hit them hard! 

Some people learnt how to split a bale to make half bricks.

We did it!!!