Customer Reviews

inspiring Review by Martin Holme

Review

This DVD is truly inspiring.

When others are thinking and dreaming Ben is actually doing.

Ben has in so many ways inspired the 'eco-house' concept with his own 'famous' house (the subject of a Grand designs episode) but this DVD takes it to a new level, because he makes it seem within the grasp of mere mortals to construct a beautiful, functional roundwood timber house.

He stresses his belief in locally sourced resources and also shows his creativity in attempting ,successfully, to steam-bend large trees.

What I also loved about the film is what seemed so clear to Kevin McCloud on Grand Designs with the build of his own first roundwood house, that a great sense of common purpose and community exists around projects like this because it is about building houses in as eco-friendly a way as is possible.
Good energy attracts good energy.
In time it may well be the catalyst needed for a paradigm shift in the way building companies view building houses.
(Posted on 21/10/2010)

Stunning, enthralling and visually delectable throughout Review by Graham Strouts, teacher of permaculture & Natural Building at Kinsale College of Further Education

Review

This stunning video, which accompanies the book by Ben Law of the same name, takes the viewer stage by stage through the construction process of the outdoor classroom at the Sustainability Centre in Hampshire.

Ben Law is probably best known for his first roundwood building, his own house which featured in the Grand Designs series a few years ago. Since then he has built several other roundwood timber framed buildings, refining his techniques and developing a new vernacular in sustainable low-impact construction..

Using timber in the round has several advantages: a roundwood pole cut straight from the forest is considerably stronger in its natural form than an equivalent sized beam of sawn timber, but without the embodied energy from milling; small-diameter poles often not valued in commercial forestry are often ideal, as is the use of coppice timber; and roundwood poles retain the form and character of the original tree, creating an aesthetic both elegant and rustic.

The DVD shows Ben to be not only a skilled builder and woodsman- the link between the managment of the woods and the construction of the building is emphaized throughout- but also a very clear and methodical communicator.

The whole process is enthralling, as Ben takes us through the build from foundations, frame-raising, shingling the roof and mixing cob and clay plasters for the fireplace, and I had a sense of being involved in the whole project myself as I watched.

Along the way Ben introduces us to some of his team, and local characters he has worked with such as Peter Hindle of Ashencrafts who helped develop rounding planes for making the oak pegs used to fix the poles togther. I had at first thought they were made on a pole lathe, but Peter had a still more ingeneous solution for the challenge of making the 3-400 pegs required for such a building: a lathe for turning the wood in the rounding planes fitted to a Robin Reliant gear-box.

In the DVD we also pay several visits to woods from where the materials originate. Ben explains his philosophy of architecture emerging out of the woods themselves, proposing that an architect might work more with the woodsman to design around what is available, the natural forms of the trees defining the form of the buildings.

Although natural curves can be utilised, for example the use of curved trees to make cruck-framed buildings, in the outdoor classroom featured in the DVD, whole Lawson Cypress trees are steam-bent in order to make the sweeping curves around the roof.

The use of Lawson Cypress is in itself a fascinating detail, a durable and strong timber more commonly infamous as a hedging plant prone to becoming hopelessly over-grown in suburban gardens. Maybe when some of these hedges are removed some of them can find new uses as beams in roundwood buildings.

Ben also shows us around hazel and chestnut coppice, and discusses another, lesser-known tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, the Black Locust, which may become more widely found in British forests in the future.

Many details of construction are shown, including the mortice boxes for making supports, use of ratchet straps for holding the beams in place while fixing, laths and clay plasters for the wall, and much more. The shingles are hand made by a local craftsman from Western Red Cedar.

Extra features are included on tools, the off-grid Woodland House, Frame-raising and Ben's slideshow.

Roundwood timber framing is clearly a skilled job, and building a structure like the outdoor classroom involves a whole team and indeed support from the wider community. Many of the tasks such as use of shaving horse and draw-knife, or stripping bark from the poles where they are cut in the forest, are immediately accessible and could provide inspiration to learn more to anyone.

Roundwood timber buildings are extremely tactile buildings, each pole hand shaped to fit, the architecture of the frame echoing the arching forms of the forest, layers of timber built one upon the other.

The DVD has something for everyone, in that it works as a top rate instruction video, a documentary describing the creation of a marvellous community building, and a celebration and resurrection of the connection between trees, woods, buildings and community.

Visually delectable throughout, anyone who loves trees and natural building, and who is looking for a new vision for the building industry, will love this DVD.

Graham Strouts, teacher of permaculture and Natural Building at Kinsale College of Further Education
http://www.kinsalefurthered.ie/permaculture_course_level2.htm
www.zone5.org (Posted on 07/10/2010)