Roundwood Timber Construction for Longwood Community Woodlands
What Was The Brief?
Ty Pren were contracted to design a new roundwood timber frame construction to be a visitor centre in the Longwood community woodlands. This centre would be an attractive space to visit, but also function as an office for the manager, and be a usable community space for meetings and events. As a stipulation- only local timber from Longwood Community Woodlands would be used.
How Was Our Design?
The initial design of this project was never realised. After Ty Pren designed a building the National Lottery, who were providing the budget, wanted the building to be designed by a registered architect.
The architect who tendered successfully for the design had never worked with roundwood timber frame before- so he collaborated closely with Jamie Miller of Ty Pren to produce something ambitious and feasible, that pushed the 50K project to the absolute limit.
What Were The Project Challenges?
There were a number of challenges on this project. Firstly building what could easily have been a 120K design for a budget of 50K. There were also technical challenges with the foundations, that were to be built on an uneven timber storage yard.
The budgetary challenges were surmounted with the help of community volunteers who provided their labour free of charge, and Ty Pren also delivered large aspects at their own expense.
The issue with the uneven foundations were overcome by a Ty Pren innovation. In order to conform to building standards, a floating log raft set in drainage stone was built. This was a collaborative solution between Jamie and the architect.
What did our clients think?
In short- they loved it. Jamie Miller has gone on to sit on the board of directors for the Community Woodlands. The building also set the precedent for low impact building with Ceredigion council building control. The community space is very popular. The volunteers who worked on the project formed a strong bond that has reinforced community ties.
On an interesting note- the waste from this project was incredibly minimal. Only three bin bags of waste were created in the entire project. This was mostly lunch waste and the insulation packaging.