ecological adaptation of the built environment

Straw Bale Professional Training Qualifications for the EU

Leonardo da Vinci II

Life Long Learning Programme

This project is funded through the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme. RESET Development is very grateful for their support:

www.lifelonglearningprogramme.org.uk

Updates

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2nd December 2012

4th Meeting of Leonardo II Straw Bale Training Qualification, in Verden, Germany

Bee Rowan and David Semenysin attended this meetign hosted by the German group FASBA in Verden. The meeting exchanged further information on straw bale construction methods as well as visiting local examples f straw bale buildings.

David presented ideas on the thermal performance modelling he had been carrying out on the construction details shared between partners.

The next meetings will be in Spain in February 2013, Slovakia in May and the final meeting in the Netherlands in June.

5th May 2012

RESET hosts UK Leonardo II meeting, 25th - 30th April
Centre for Alternative Technology

As the UK's National Agency for this EU-funded project, RESET Development hosted 20 of our European partners at the Centre for Alternative Technology, where straw bale construction and training has been taking place for over a decade.

Training and Good Building Practice Working Groups worked through training standards approaches and detailing differences between countries. The group also visited Michael Howlett's (and some stayed over night) radical two storey load-bearing strawbale semi-detacjhed houses on a suburban street in Pembroke Dock. Radical as much as anything because of its 'normality' and conventional appearance, which the planners loved.

We then went to the other extreme at Brithdir Mawr living community, visiting Tony Wrench at 'that roundhouse' and Emma in her own straw bale roundhouse, a personal demonstration and commitment to living in simplicty and harmony with the natural world.

Rachel Shiamnh's lovely 2 storey loadbearing house us a track on the edge of St Dogmael's was followed by a visit to the Lammas Housing Co-operative who then hosted us for the rest of the afternoon, visiting Simon Dale's beautiful straw bale roundhouse and the lovely, large and light Community Building which is somehow reminiscent of a French threshing barn.

Another day of working groups was finished off by celebrating Zuzana's birthday, with singing and eating in the traditional way! A really positive meeting with a large amount of ground covered, on the way to producing a straw bale construction training programme that can help move the construction industry towards being a genuinely low carbon sector.

22nd November 2011

RESET Development, in partnership with seven other EU national agencies, has been awarded funding of 20,000 Euros under the Leonardo da Vinci Life Long Learning Programme, to develop a straw bale qualification, as part 2 of the Leonardo Programme.

RESET is working in partnership with Bee Rowan and Barbara Jones of the previous organisation Amazonails that did so much to develop straw bale as a recognised ecological construction method in the UK and beyond.

More information will follow shortly.

For more information on the Programme:

European Strawbale Network
Leonardo - European Learning Partnership for Strawbale Building

www.lifelonglearningprogramme.org.uk

or the EU Strawbale Network

www.strawbale-net.eu

RESETing the built environment

In 2011 RESET Development was selected as a country partner to the Leonardo da Vinci II Programme, to help design a straw bale training programme and standards for the EU.

Working in partnership with UK straw bale experts Barbara Jones and Bee Rowan, who led the previous Leonardo I Straw Bale Construction programme through Amazonails, RESET is supporting the development of professional training units in association with 6 other country partners, coordinated by the German strawbale association Fachverband Strohballenbau.

Once developed, this training programme and qualification will be transferable throughout the EU. A summary of aims and activities is below.

The 2-year Programme runs from September 2011 - July 2013.

For more information on the Programme:

European Strawbale Network | Leonardo - European Learning Partnership for Strawbale Building

www.strawbale-net.eu

Programme Partners

* Fachverband Strohballenbau Deutschland e.V., Germany | Coordinator
* Strobouw, Netherlands
* RESET Development, UK
* Les Compaillons Réseau Français de la construction en paille, France
* Pospolitosť pre harmonický život, Slovakia
* Red de Construcción en Paja, RCP, Spain
* asbn – Österreichisches Netzwerk für Strohballenbau, Austria

Working Groups

* Training
* Good Building Practice

Activities and Results of the Working Groups

Tasks of the Leonardo partnership to be integrated by the working groups
The results of the first Straw Bale Leonardo I project will be extended and developed. We will incorporate the building and training techniques of the new partners, to produce clear guidelines on best practice techniques and details, and incorporate these into a European ECVET training programme for delivery throughout Europe.

The detailed topics of the 10 training units developed will each be integrated in session plans, skills, knowledge and competences will be defined and each topic will be supported by information, exercises and technical sheets for the target group of professionals, craftspeople and trainers.