Location: Cuerden Valley Park, Bamber Bridge, Preston
Timeframe: Completed June 2018
Cost: £400,000
Our Involvement: Concept design, planning, building regulation and construction drawings
Floor area: Internal area 238m2, external area including decking 385m2
Construction Method: Hybrid of Loadbearing Strawbale walls and timber frame.
Overseen by Project Manager John Stainton. Built by volunteers of the Cuerden Valley Park Trust with courses run by the School of Natural Building for carpentry, car tyre foundations, straw bale walls, lime rendering and cedar shingling.
The roof is covered in cedar shingles – with the rear section mono pitch and the front section forming a curved roof. Where the two join, clerestory windows provide natural daylighting into the corridor below. A curved glazed screen forms the front elevation, with a raised decking area overlooking the fantastic views of the parkland.
It is the first Living Building Challenge registered building in the UK. The Living Building Challenge is the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard. It calls for the creation of building projects at all scales that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture.https://living-future.org/lbc
CVP is desperately in need of classroom space and a café. It is a thriving charity that engages very well with the local community, and has worked with Straw Works on design, build and training, and with Martin Brown of Fairsnape on the LBC
