Levels of interaction by Jonathan Davies

LEVELS OF INTERACTION ARBOREAL ARCHITECTURE, FLOODPLAIN DWELLING & FOREST ECONOMY

Ume책 School of Architecture Ume책 University

Laboratory for Sustainable Architectural Production Jonathan Davies 2015

“Every area of technical / functional organization of modern society can be regarded as a type of instrumentalisation that we are doomed to submit to. Technology stands, in many cases, between ourselves and nature. Perhaps also between ourselves and our own nature. And it regulates our relationships instead of us regulating them.” - Bjørn Berge, Arkitektur 2011

“It is quite wrong to make a distinction between action on the psyche, the socius and the environment. Refusal to face up to the erosion of these three areas, as the media would have us do, verges on a strategic infantilization of opinion and a destructive neutralization of democracy. We need to ‘kick the habit’ of sedative discourse, particularly the ‘fix’ of television, in order to be able to apprehend the world through the interchangeable lenses or points of view of the three ecologies.” - Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies 1989

Completed at Umeå Arkitekthögskola in the Laboratory for Sustainable Architectural Production 2015.

Director of Programme:

Professor Jüri Soolep

Additional tutors:

Adrià Carbonell & Kimmo Lylykangas

External examiners:

Joaquim Tarrasó & Walter Unterrainer

Master thesis submitted 25 May and presented 1 June 2015.

With thanks to Phil Christopher of Huff & Puff Construction for his enthusiasm for natural building, Nick Hoare of Stourhead Western Estate for his expertise of forest management, David Gordon, Peter Lansdown and Cara Naden of the Green Party for their interest and (last but not least) Natalie and my parents for their patience and proof-reading.

INDEX ABSTRACT

ABANDONING TECHNOCRACY

PRECEDENTS

SOMERSET LEVELS

AFFORESTATION & FOREST ECONOMIES

SITE SELECTION

SOMERSET CENTRE FOR NATURAL BUILDING

CONCLUSIONS

129

REFERENCES

131

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every area of technical / functional organization of modern society can be regarded as a type of instrumentalisation that we are doomed to submit to. Technology stands, in many cases, between ourselves and nature. Perhaps also between ourselves and our own nature. And it regulates our relationships instead of us regulating them.â&#x20AC;?1

ABSTRACT anthropogenic carbon emissions driven by increased consumption in all sectors: nearly a decade later, we remain on target to exceed the ‘carbon budget’ to keep global warming within ‘safe’ limits.

The machine is broken. Thus states the title of Bjørn Berge’s 2011 Arkitektur article responding to contemporaneous changes in Norwegian building codes that expands to counter the increasingly significant and compulsory place of technology within the built environment and the corresponding incidence of the building users’ alienation not just from nature but from genuine experience.

My thesis attempts to address some of these issues on a community scale to provide one potential model for sustainable development. The focus is an area of the West Country called the Somerset Levels, agriculturally significant at an increasing risk of inundation and economic ruin because of shifting weather patterns. Torrential rains in 2013-2014 left 115km2 drowned from January until midMarch with 150 homes flooded and whole communities isolated. Since these events, assessments made by DEFRA5 and FLAG6 both recommended programmes of afforestation and reforestation in the catchment to detain stormwater and prevent the rivers breaking their banks.

Berge is far from alone in his assertion. Emerson2 and Thoreau,3 writing at the time of the industrial revolution, both cautioned as to the ill-effects of rapid mechanisation and humanity’s sudden, wrenching divorce from nature: many recent studies validate their claims. It’s a theme that continued to fascinate and shock as more and more agricultural, industrial and social processes were first mechanised, lately digitised but ultimately all commoditised. As people were increasingly transformed from active participants, growing their own foods and making their own clothes, to agents of pure consumption, more than the physical connection with nature was lost. Humanity moved from an age of personally defining our subjectivities based on lived experience to one in which even our subjectivities are commodities constructed and controlled by Guattari’s Integrated World Capitalism.4

My project assumes these recommendations are implemented and afforestation occurs. Viewing forests as a valuable natural resource for livestock, construction and communities, my proposal is for a Centre for Natural Building to complement the strategy. A visitor centre and educational facility for the newly forested catchment of the Levels, it would promote engagement with nature and educate people in the use of locally harvested building materials – timber, straw and reed – to lower embodied energy in the built environment.

The consequences of globalisation and increased rates of consumption across the globe continued to place stress on resources and forced producers to seek increased efficiency: in agriculture, this was borne out through greater mechanisation, the growth of monocultures and reliance on chemicals for fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and so forth. Famously, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) rallied against the indiscriminate use of pesticides and the ecological destruction it wrought. Similarly high-profile, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) documented the disastrous potential of global warming due to 2

ARABLE

MARINE & COASTAL FRESHWATER 45,600 km2

30,590 km2

FOREST

2,490 km2

107,730 km2

16,580 km2

27,480 km2

URBAN

3,820 km2

PROPORTIONAL AREAS OF LAND USE

WILD

DECIDUOUS EVERGREEN

FOODSTUFFS ANIMAL FEED

PASTURE

7.29%

11.13%

12.61%

19.46%

45.98% 1.06%

1.63%

Recorded land use in Great Britain

J. Khan & T. Powell, Land Use in the UK, (Office for National Statistics, 2013), 5. 4

INDUSTRY

12.8 MtCO2e

PUBLIC SECTOR

9.5 MtCO2e

WASTE MANAGEMENT

22.6 MtCO2e

SHIPPING & AIR FREIGHT

41.0 MtCO2e

AGRICULTURE

53.7 MtCO2e

RESIDENTIAL

77.6 MtCO2e

BUSINESS

90.9 MtCO2e

TRANSPORT

116.8 MtCO2e

ENERGY SUPPLY

189.7 MtCO2e

CARBON CAPTURED

23.7 MtCO2e

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions in Great Britain

DECC, 2013 UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Final Figures, 12 & 25. 6

kg OF CO2 EQUIVILANT PRODUCED PER kg OF MATERIAL +1

-1

-2

+3 PLASTICS

CEMENT 50% port. 50% BFC

CEMENT portland

GLASS

POLYVINYLCHLORIDE

POLYSTYRENE

METALS

POLYETHYLENE

ZINC

STEEL hot rolled

STEEL cold rolled

STEEL galvanised

COPPER

ALUMINIUM

+6 CERA-

Relative emissions of long-life construction materials

STRAW BALE locally sourced

STRAWBOARD

CELLULOSE

CORK

OSB

MDF

TIMBER spruce profiled

CHIPBOARD

PAPER

TIMBER spruce veneer

PLYWOOD spruce

NATURAL ORGANIC (BIOMASS)

CONCRETE

BRICK

-MICS

R. MacMath. Carbon Dioxide Intensity Ratios. Austin: Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, 2000 + J. Wihan. “Humidity in straw bale walls and its effect on the decomposition of straw.” Master thesis, University of East London School of Computing and Technology, 2007, 17. 8

“Post-industrial capitalism, which I prefer to describe as Integrated World Capitalism (IWC), tends increasingly to decentre its sites of power, moving away from structures producing goods and services towards structures producing signs, syntax and – in particular, through the control which it exercises over the media, advertising, opinion polls, etc. – subjectivity.”4

ABANDONING TECHNOCRACY Berge’s article laments the move he perceives in building regulations across Europe from trusting human intuition to maintain comfortable internal climates to the mandatory intervention of technology. 7 He questions the very legitimacy of such claims, suggesting this system of technological dependency is far more beneficial as a tool of economic growth for the manufacturers of such devices8 than the users of buildings when the definition of ‘thermal comfort’ is the absence of thermal perception.9

devices. Even in the most well intentioned of circumstances, such as installing renewable energy systems or high performance insulation, homeowners are consuming products with a large carbon footprint (and possibly much broader social and ecological effects depending on the extraction, refinement and disposal of their constituent materials) that can take years to repay in energy savings. One telling Swedish study of low-energy homes found residents, whilst proud of their automatic climatic control system, displayed an alarming disinterest in how to operate the machinery.12 Rather than using the equipment to its potential, to actually significantly reduce energy consumption, consumers were instead content simply to accept the stated effect without critical reflection13 – or actual benefit. Berge, and Guattari with him, would argue that the lack of interest in how to employ the technology is symptomatic of a much larger problem: the compartmentalisation of the ‘real’ into discrete components that are no longer collectively considered or experienced14 and the consequential alienation from nature that disregards its formative role in human development.15 Guattari’s ecosophy aims to overcome this harmful division by introducing an approach constituting three intrinsically interlinked spheres of consideration. These spheres work together to establish and maintain a harmony that extends beyond tallying and reducing pollutants: they consider what Guattari calls the environmental, social and mental ecologies.16 Applied within the context of architecture and construction, these provide valuable lenses through which an holistic analysis of a building may be made.

Many others have been similarly perplexed by the tendency of architecture to unequally respect the senses and confer primacy to vision and the aesthetic. Architecture must consider more than purely visual parameters; excepting the case of a studio or competition presentation, a building is never experienced as isolated images but through the full range of sensory apparatus.10 Digitalisation of draughting techniques had a hand in elevating the status of the optical, reducing design to a visual exercise, but contemporary energy efficiency standards dispossessed building users of control and diminished their sensory experience by refusing any opportunity to participate in the optimisation of the indoor environment.11 In a Passivhaus, no-one can hear you scream (your frustration at the internal environmental conditions).

Promoting technological solutions for cutting energy usage leads to a contradiction in carbon emissions: it produces a market aimed at satisfying hedonistic environmentalism full of unnecessary paraphernalia. The domestic reductions in primary emissions they boast are often accompanied - and can be offset - by increases in secondary emissions brought about by the manufacturing, upgrading and scrapping (when a new, more efficient product is released) of the energy saving

These rallying cries against technocracy do not deny the basic utility of increasing 10

the efficiency of systems or the thermal performance of buildings: such steps are essential to decreasing carbon emissions and preventing dangerous levels of global warming.17 Construction affects a greater proportion of emissions than any other sector and globally contributes approximately 8.1Gt of CO2e per annum.18 In Great Britain, an already developed nation, the building industry consumes over 420Mt of materials, 8Mt of oil and produces over 29Mt of CO2 annually.19 However, it is an argument for redefining the approach to embody more than the “overwhelmingly quantitative” ecotechnic rhetoric20 because despite the media attention climate change and fossil fuel divestment attracts and in spite of all the reports predicting a probable global temperature rise of at least 2°C and the warnings sounded of the catastrophic threat this poses to our world, little changes in our rate of consumption. The great fallacy is the cleaner the energy we use, or the more efficient the devices we employ, the more we feel entitled to consume,21 attributable to an ignorance of the consequence of our actions and a deficient understanding of the interconnectivity of the ecologies.

performance and effects are untested over long periods.22 Like asbestos and PCBs, there is a potential risk to human health from these products off-gassing,23 particularly in volumes built to discourage high rates of air flow; even if the process of off-gassing causes no harm to humans, their performance could be compromised and the efficiency of a building far lower than calculated. The organic derivatives comprising this locally sourced category can be a panacea to this problem, providing locally cultivated materials that require little energy to process or transport, and that can be used with zero or negative emissions.24 Increasing biomass through afforestation and reforestation has already been identified as one of the most effective technologies in preventing severe climate change25 and this service is valued at double the worth of timber per hectare;26 if a complementary materials industry could interpret the resultant materials for construction, productively sequestering carbon in the process, it could only increase the financial viability of the strategy. Working with such materials can also be used as a tool to re-engage the mental ecology and overcome the passive indifference bred by the expensive, jargon-shrouded mysteries of technology.27 Reviving less complex material solutions can impart an awareness of low cost and low carbon alternatives and continue the growth of the ‘alternative movement’ who seek methods other than those advertised on television. The aim of such pedagogy is to break the pattern of passive consumption and encourage the definition of an individual’s own subjectivities by developing modes of assessing and comprehending the composition and performance of their household, allowing them to achieve energy efficiency through personal intervention; the reverberations are the influence of this knowledge - strong

Without need for extensive calculations, one of the most readily affected and easily explicable areas of emissions are the materials from which buildings are fabricated. Carbon emissions can be drastically reduced by substituting conventional energy intensive, internationally shipped composites with domestically sourced low-carbon alternatives. Such materials often come with the additional bonus of having been tested through use for centuries, if not sometimes millennia, in human construction and possess well understood qualities. Newly innovated compounds and complex composites in construction are still unknown quantities because their 11

mental capital - upon their network of neighbours, friends and family.

There are organisations worldwide championing the return of these materials with Brighton Permaculture Trust, Cornwall’s Eden Project and Machynlleth’s Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) being just three of those based in the UK. All have made valuable contributions to the national and international stages, exemplified in CAT’s ongoing Zero Carbon Britain research project and attendant advisory reports, but their impacts are more generally concentrated to their local communities. The town of Machynlleth in particular has greatly benefitted from piles of waste slate in rural mid-Wales being converted to a centre of innovation in sustainability: it is estimated that, as well as tourism, 200 qualified technical positions have been created in the locality through the dozens of spin-off companies it has inspired.28 The role these facilities play in promoting sustainability – deliberately described in its ambiguous, umbrella term because each delivers a different and contextually appropriate definition – and in reconnecting people with nature, is incalculable.

AA, HOOKE PARK Hooke Park is the Architectural Association’s woodland site in Dorset, south west England. The 150 hectare working forest is owned and operated by the AA and contains a growing educational facility for design, workshop, construction and landscapefocussed activities. It is used by visiting groups of London-based students, the Hooke Parkbased MArch Design & Make programme, and for short courses during the academic breaks. The forest was historically a deer-hunting enclosure and is designated as Ancient Woodland. It forms part of Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is sited within an active farming landscape close to the market towns of Beaminster and Bridport and a few miles inland from the Jurassic Coast – a UNESCO world heritage site. This historic rural landscape context provides a unique alternative to the conventional urban focus of city-based architecture schools. West Dorset is renowned for is rich craft and making traditions, food and rural cultures. The woodland is a mixture of broadleaved and conifer species that provide the prime source of timber for students’ construction activities. This ethical premise, of using the immediate material resource for building, was established in the 1980s in the three original campus buildings for the Parnham furniture college designed by architects ABK, Frei Otto and Edward Cullinan, and engineers Buro Happold. Following exchange of ownership to the AA in 2002, the campus development has continued with new workshop and accommodation facilities being designed and built by students of the AA’s Design & Make programme.

BRIGHTON, SUSSEX Brighton Permaculture Trust promotes greener lifestyles and sustainable development through design. Run as a charity, they host courses and events, applying permacultural principles to their projects. Its aims are: 1. To promote sustainable development for the benefit of the public by (a) the preservation, conservation and the protection of the environment and the prudent use of resources; (b) the relief of poverty and the improvement of the conditions of life in socially and economically disadvantaged communities; and (c) the promotion of sustainable means of achieving economic growth and regeneration. 2. To advance the education of the public in subjects relating to sustainable development and the protection, enhancement and rehabilitation of the environment and to promote study and research in such subjects provided that the useful results of such study are disseminated to the public at large. Sustainable development means development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the generations to meet their own needs. At the same site, Earthship Brighton represents the Low Carbon Trustâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first project and the first Earthship to be built in England. The project was constructed as a community centre for use by Stanmer Organics, built on a Soil Association accredited site in Brighton. The project has evolved over the last ten years, providing jobs for local workers and enabling people to come and experience an eco-build and be inspired to respond to climate change in their own ways back at home and work.

MACHYNLLETH, WALES CAT is an education and visitor centre that demonstrates practical solutions for sustainability covering: environmental building, eco-sanitation, woodland management, renewable energy, energy efficiency and organic growing. The facility has become embedded in the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainable development: as well as the visitor centre and on-site demonstrations sustainable solutions, CAT hosts schools, colleges and universities for curriculum-based learning, runs short courses for the public and specialists and has its own graduate school with postgraduate degrees in environmental architecture and renewable energy. Renewables installed at the facility include a range of wind turbines, photovoltaic, solar thermal, biomass combined heat and power (CHP) and hydroelectric with air source heat pumps, a community heat main with electricity flowing into a localised grid. There also exist two reed bed systems, an off-mains water supply and extensive organic gardens. One particularly significant contribution has been the instigation and publications of ZeroCarbonBritain, a research cluster addressing scenarios for reducing the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emissions to zeroby 2030.

West Sedgemoor 19

SOMERSET LEVELS The Somerset Levels are 648km2 of low-lying plains and wetlands in South West England facing an escalating risk of flooding due to the increased incidence of high volume rainfall in recent years.29 Its name derives from its topographical character as an almost uncompromisingly flat region sited an average of 6m above sea level; bounded by the Quantocks and Mendip Hills, many rivers and streams flow down onto the Levels, extending the catchment area to 1,700km2.30 The convergence of so many waterways on the plains - where the flow rate is very low owing to the aforementioned flat gradient of the landscape31 - presents obvious issues during extended periods of heavy rain, for once the saturation potential of the river basin has been reached, all drainage is carried through just three rivers: the Axe, Brue and Parrett.32

area.35 Approximately 70% of this area is used for pasture and 30% for growing crops, with agriculture playing a vital role in the local economy: statistics show farming on the Levels provides more than 20% of employment in the district and accounts for 6% of the county’s total labour market.36

Originally extensive marshes with human habitation limited to the fringes and raised ‘islands,’ drainage and reclamation of the land has occurred for at least the last thousand years.33 The landscape is a patchwork of fields separated by drainage ditches, locally referred to as ‘rhynes,’ most with pollarded willows growing on their banks. These rhynes are a ubiquitous feature of the locality and inherently multifunctional: whilst primarily drainage ditches that aided the transformation of the area from quagmire to pasture, they demarcate property and, in the summers, operate as irrigation channels and sources of drinking water for livestock.34

In the floods of 2014, approximately 115 km2 of land was inundated by 65 GL of water.37 150 households suffered flood damage38 and many more communities, despite no direct water damage, were cut off by flooded roads and rendered inaccessible without aquatic or amphibious vehicles for months. Affected agricultural land was estimated to need two years to recover former productivity.39 Flood warnings had been issued at the end of December 2013 as heavy rain caused the rivers to swell; by early January, all had broken their banks and overflowed onto the surrounding plains. Rain continued and evacuations were ordered a few days later with Somerset County and Sedgemoor District Councils declaring a ‘major incident’ on January 24th 2014. However, despite national support that included high-capacity pumps being imported from the Netherlands and the mobilisation of the military, the situation worsened through to late February as temporary flood defences were routinely breached by fresh rainfall; only in mid-March

Approximately 115,000 live on the Levels and an estimated 300,000 are contained within the wider catchment. Somerset has a slim urban bias (51% to 49% rural) but only three communities contained within the catchment have populations above 25,000: Bridgwater, Taunton and Yeovil. The M5, the only motorway serving the South West of England, runs through the Levels between Taunton and Bridgwater en route to the urban centre of Bristol.

The Levels still contain important wetland habitat, with 32 Sites of Special Scientific Interest - so called because their biological features are considered to be unique - of which twelve are Special Protection Areas under the EU Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. 314,727.8 Ha of Somerset’s land area is farmed, 73.4% of Somerset’s land 20

did waters subside sufficiently for access roads to be reopened. Flooding of the Levels directly disrupts agriculture on the Levels, affecting 15,000 jobs; impacts on the transportation network impede access to many more as well as education, healthcare and supermarkets. In the most severe and pessimistic of scenarios, failure to adequately deal with this situation could lead to the displacement of whole communities and the abandoning of this rich farmland. Thus, severe flooding of the Somerset Levels must be mitigated to preserve nationally significant wildlife habitat, protect agricultural productivity and so safeguard local communities and national food security.

These circumstances and analyses quickly determined the direction of my thesis project. They defined an educational facility, appropriately focused on the specificity of its context and the potential of local materials, that could contribute to the local economy while working in support of surrounding agricultural activity and assisting the implementation of an holistic flood abatement strategy: a programme of afforestation in the upland catchment.

Agriculture on the Levels 22

The Levels

Catchment

Contours

Waterways

Forest

Somerset Levels 1:250,000 24

The Levels

Catchment

SSSIs

Waterways

Forest

Sites of Special Scientific Interest 1:250,000 26

The Levels

Catchment

Contours

Waterways

Flood extent

Extent of flooding February 2014 1:250,000 28

Flooded agricultural lands 30

Flooded communities 32

Flooded infrastructure 34

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.â&#x20AC;?40

AFFORESTATION & FOREST ECONOMIES Trees also help to lower erosion and reduce levels of nutrients and sediment carried into waterways:53 this would be of particular utility in the waterways of the Levels, where annual silt deposits behind the tidal barriers can exceed 4m54 and have reduced the flow capacity of the rivers to 60% of what it was in the 1960s.55 A dredging programme costing £6 million was completed after the floods subsided56 to increase flow rates and capacity – however, whilst alleviating the upstream risk, such works increase the threat to downstream areas when undertaken in isolation as larger volumes of water travel there faster.57

At present, the UK is one of the least densely forested countries in the EU41 with 13% forest cover42 compared to an average of 37%.43 Forestry and primary timber processing contribute £1.63 billion annually to the British economy44 yet the great majority of timber used in industry is grown overseas: imports account for 81% of all wood products used in the UK.45 As well as timber products and derivatives, estimates suggest the social and environmental benefits of woodland in Great Britain exceeded £1.2 billion per annum (2002) with landscape valued at £185 million and recreation £484 million,46 providing an additional 17,900 jobs in Scotland alone.47

Woodland also fulfils important cultural, social, psychological and recreational roles. A reflection of this is the number of day visits to woodland conducted annually: in Britain, there are approximately 250–300 million.58 Reports suggest a direct correlation between time spent in nature and positive effects on mental health59 60 and community cohesion – even a decrease in levels of crime.61

An increase in yields of home-grown timber would have direct benefits for the national economy, raising the potential value of the forestry and primary timber processing industries and increasing the jobs they provide, up to an additional 40,000 positions according to the scenario outlined in Zero Carbon Britain;48 industry, increasing the ready availability of FSC-certified timber; and of course the environment, wherein locally grown and sustainably managed forestry can reduce carbon emissions from transportation and may help to curtail illegal logging and resultant deforestation in developing countries by eliminating the demand for uncertified products.

The proposed scenario imagines the application of this knowledge, building upon the proven value of forest economies to propose an arboreal architecture for floodplain dwelling. The diversification of agricultural production should confer greater resilience on the local economy, stimulating growth and investment in the region whilst acting to support the growing network of sustainable educational facilities in Britain.

Establishing more trees in the surrounding upland areas has already been identified by several authorities as integral to the prevention of the Axe, Brue and Parrett becoming swollen and breaking their banks, by retaining and retarding stormwater flows.49 50 51 Studies have concluded the presence of trees permits greater water infiltration and reduces surface soil compaction compared to grazed pasture, increasing the volume of water that can be absorbed before the ground exceeds its saturation point.52

The major assumption herein is a shift in agricultural land usage in the catchments of the Rivers Parrett, Axe, Brue and Tone to cultivate timber on current upland pasture, coppice and reed on the waterways of the floodplains and to utilise the by-product of already productive arable land. The built proposal would then respond to this 36

situation, creating a centre to promote and sell these locally produced natural materials. Cultivation and management of the ‘crops’ - timber, water reed and straw bales - would create jobs through their management and harvest, as well as establishing their presence in the local market. Greater access to these construction materials, alongside an established lime business,62 should increase the number of built projects able to integrate materials with low embodied energy.

thick straw wall with lime render has a thermal transmittance of approximately 0.13W/m2K.70 Reintroducing forests and extending plantations wouldn’t just add a new revenue stream for farmers and landowners. Whilst pigs were always kept in wooded areas – an economic and highly beneficial approach to animal husbandry71 - sheep, cows and chickens also benefit from spending time amongst trees. Studies have concluded that agroforestry - keeping livestock or growing crops with trees – increases yields by flattening the peaks and troughs of extreme temperatures, decreasing heat stress and promoting higher levels of productivity.72 Reforestation is thus not at odds with existing practices and need not displace Somerset’s traditional livestock industry but rather complement and benefit it.

Thatch, derived from water reed, has seen domestic production decrease from 100% of the UK’s demand to a low of 20% at the end of the last millennium.63 One hectare of reed produces approximately 1,000 bundles of thatch,64 enough for 100m2 of coverage65 and all while capturing carbon (subject to transportation). Once perceived as the roofing material of the impoverished, it has undergone a revival and is now associated with the other end of the financial spectrum. Well maintained thatch, built within its effective parameters, can provide roofing that lasts as long as 60 years.66

There are sixty or more species of tree considered indigenous to the British Isles - species established before the land bridge linking Britain to mainland Europe disappeared under rising sea levels 8,200 years ago.73 Native trees are generally considered to be valuable because of their tendency to support greater biodiversity;74 however, biodiversity is not the lone factor in the selection for afforestation.

Straw production is close to 3.4 tonnes per hectare per harvest; this equates to approximately 205 bales per hectare of cereal crop67 and typically, two harvests – and thus 410 bales – per annum. It represents a cheap, readily handled and carbon sequestering compressive building block that can be used structurally or as infill. The material is highly durable under the correct conditions and Initial investigations suggest it can last almost indefinitely in the British climate provided it is detailed to deflect rain and moisture can be ‘exhaled’.68 It also performs well in the role of insulator with a thermal transmittance of 0.055-0.065W/mK69 and so plastered straw bales provide excellent acoustic and thermal insulation for little embodied energy: a 450mm

Native deciduous trees can produce an average of 8-10m3 of timber per hectare per year on the Somerset Levels: factoring in the anticipated effects of climate change on the local climate, production would suffer almost inconsequential reductions by the time of first harvests in 2050.75 Additionally, evergreen and non-native deciduous species could provide yields up to 21m3.76 To compile a list of potential species, consideration was given to the quality of forest, suitability for use in agroforestry,77 ability 37

to enhance local biodiversity, utility of timber,78 growth rate and frequency of occurrence. As an example, sitka spruce was omitted as it is common in existing local plantations and considered ill-suited to agroforestry due to its requirements for dense planting and the resulting impenetrable canopy. Weighing up the advantages and disadvantages, eleven were tentatively selected that were compatible with agroforestry and could provide valuable timber products: ash (Fraxinus excelsior), aspen (Populus tremula), beech (Fagus sylvatica), birch (Betula pubescens and pendula), Douglas fir (Preudotsuga menziesli), European larch (Larix decidua), English oak (Quercus robur), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), European spruce (Picea abies and Abies alba), western red cedar (Thuja plicita) and wych elm (Ulmus glabra). Willow (Salix alloa) and hazel (Corylus avallana) were also chosen as coppice species that could contribute to small scale production of products for craft or fuel.

The logic implemented to define areas of afforestation was straightforward: all pasture land was considered to contain the potential. Sites of Special Scientific Interest, arable land and private gardens would be immediately discounted. Differentiating between different types of pasture, upland (defined as anything above 10m and therefore at no risk of flooding) would be considered for dense planting of timber species; the floodplains for sparse planting of chosen coppice species. These strategies were very much subject to specific site conditions, designed as a general blueprint for increasing the saturation capacity of the ground on the uplands and retard its flow into the tributaries of the Rivers Axe, Brue and Parrett. 38

Catchment

Contours

Waterways

Forest

Forest cover on Somerset Levels 1:250,000 40

Catchment

Contours

Waterways

Forest

Reforestation potential

Potential sites for reforestation 1:250,000 42

Species Ash, common (Fraxinus excelsior)

Properties Hard, dense, tough, elastic, low resistance to moisture, easy to bend under steam.

Areas of use Flooring, plywood, internal panelling, stairs, internal structural details.

Aspen (Populus tremula)

Moisture resistant but strongest when dry, does not twist.

Flooring, plywood, small structures, piles, cladding, piping and gutters.

Beech, common (Fagus sylvatica)

Hard, strong, medium resistance to moisture, twists easily, no smell, easy to work.

Flooring, balustrades, small structures, plywood, internal panelling, tar, vinegar.

Birch Tough, strong, elastic, low Flooring, panelling, stairs, (Betula pubescens & pendula) resistance to moisture, twists easily, plywood, chipboard, damp easy to work. proofing, small structures. Douglas fir (Preudotsuga menziesli)

Durable, easy to work, difficult to impregnate.

Hazel, common (Corylus avallana)

Strong and elastic, not particularly Wattle walling, straw bale durable. stakes.

Larch, European (Larix decidua)

Hard, dense, tough, elastic, flexible, hard wearing, low moisture resistance, easy to work.

Oak, English (Quercus robur)

Dense, heavy, hard, hard wearing, Structures, flooring, windows, elastic & durable, tendency to doors, thresholds, plugs, twist, not easy to work, moisture cladding, roofing. resistant.

Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)

Soft, elastic, strong, durable, easy to cleave and work, denser and more resin than in spruce, difficult to glue and paint.

Structures, flooring, cladding, windows, doors, tar, roofing, foundations below ground level.

Spruce, European (Picea abies and Abies alba)

Soft, elastic and medium hard wearing, sensitive to moisture, easy to glue & paint.

Structures, cladding, laminated timber, fibreboard.

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicita)

Durable, low strength, high mould resistance, easy to work.

Exterior cladding, roofing.

White Willow (Salix alloa)

Tough, elastic, easy to cleave.

Veneer, external wattle cladding.

Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra)

Strong, tough, elastic, durable, moisture resistant, not easy to work.

Flooring, balustrades, piles, stairs, panelling, internal details.

Structures, flooring, cladding.

Flooring, balustrades, stairs, plugs.

Tree speciesA Common ash Quaking aspenB European beech Silver birchC Pedunculate oak Wych elmD Douglas fir European larch Norwegian spruce Scots pine Western red cedarE

Age (yrs) at first thinning 16-25 10-11 27-39 20 26-38 16-25 17-24 17-34 20-30 20-35 25

Average age (yrs) at felling 70 20-25 120 60 125 70 50 60 60 60 80

Stemwood (ha-1yr-1) 8.3m3 F 20m3 8m3 G 10m3 10.3m3 H 8.3m3 17 m3 I 12m3 I 10.8m3 J 11m3 I 23 m3

Yield (ha-1cycle) 581m3 500m3 1,000m3 560m3 1,288m3 581m3 850m3 720m3 648m3 660m3 1,839m3

G Stemwood information and yield interpolated from The CABI Encyclopedia of Forest Trees, ed. Victoria Bonham (Wallingford: CAB International, 2013), 205. H Stemwood productivity and yield interpolated from S. Perić, & J. Gračan, “Growth and production of stemwood in 16 provenances of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) in Croatia,” (paper presented at conference “Nursery production and stand establishment of broad-leaves to promote sustainable forest management,” Rome, Italy, May 7-10, 2001), 189. I Stemwood information and yield interpolated from A.L. Tyler, D.C. MacMillan & J. Dutch, “Models to predict the General Yield Class of Douglas fir, Japanese larch and Scots pine on better quality land in Scotland,” Forestry, 69:1 (1996), 17-18. J Stemwood information and yield interpolated from Johan Bergh, Sune Linder & Johan Bergström, “Potential production of Norway spruce in Sweden,” Forest Ecology and Management, 204 (2005), 3.

A Table of thinning and felling ages for species, unless stated otherwise, are taken from Ben Law, The Woodland Way (East Moon: Permanent Publications, 2013), 84. B Thinning and felling information for species taken from Lars Rytter & Lars-Göran Stener, “Productivity and thinning effects in hybrid aspen (Populus tremula L. x P. tremuloides Michx.) stands in Southern Sweden,” in Forestry, 78:3 (2005), 285. C J. Hynynen et al., “Silviculture of birch (Betula pendula Roth and Betula pubescens Ehrh.) in northern Europe,” in Forestry, 83:1 (2010), 106. D Interpolated from comparison of ash and elm in Thomas Tregold, Elementary Principles of Carpentry (Philadelphia: E.L. Carey & A. Hart, 1837), 176. E Karel Klinka & David Brisco, Silvics and Silviculture of Coastal Western Red Cedar: A Literature Review (Victoria: Crown Publications, 2009), 56. F Stemwood information and yield interpolated from Dorota Dobrowolska et al., “A review of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.): implications for silviculture,” Forestry, 0:0 (2011), 8. 44

Hyacinthoides non-scripta in Curry Woods 45

SITE SELECTION in all locations being able to sustain some speculative programme of reforestation and - incidentally but unsurprisingly given the agricultural economy of the county production of straw but suitable locations for reed proved more elusive.

Once potential areas for afforestation had been identified, ten sites for the building were shortlisted and subjected to closer scrutiny. Each was chosen because of the intersection of several key factors, namely: opportunities to cultivate reed, straw and thatch; proximity to established woodland; proximity to existing agricultural concerns; proximity to existing highways and proximity to (potentially) navigable rivers/ channels. These areas thus shared traits established as indispensable to the building programme. A varied range of locations with different characteristics were represented from the heart of the Somerset Levels, the slopes of the Quantocks and Black Down Hills, and several upland sites in Dorset that remained within the catchment.

Existing woodland was also scrutinized to establish if there was latent forestry potential, whether coppicing could be a viable option to produce timber products before the reforestation programme bore dividends and begin investigating the environmental ecology of the area.

Any that were proven capable of sustaining material needs were then assessed by access and proximity to three discrete transport networks - rail, river and road. Rail and road networks are obvious enough: if they exist within the area, it is assumed they can be used. Moving goods by water is more difficult to assess for even if an area contains many rivers, the depth, width and flow rate of each must be fit for purpose before it can be tentatively proposed. For this, only available information on the breadth and slope of the rivers were used to establish suitability.

With these locations identified, more detailed mappings were conducted to analyse suitability. As well as plotting topography, hydrology and forestry, existing roads and settlements were marked to demonstrate the distribution networks and the local communities who could benefit from economic stimulation. Choices were entirely meritorious, based on the analysis described below.

In three instances, areas that may have otherwise fulfilled all criteria were disqualified after closer inspection revealed unforeseen complications. In these cases, the extenuating circumstances - an MOD rifle range, extensive SSSI designation and a country estate with heritage value - were of such a nature that they rendered the areas incompatible with the needs of the proposed building programme.

Notes were taken on location - proximity to towns or villages, density of human habitation, placement relative to the floodplains of the Somerset Levels - to provide an overview of local conditions. Topography and hydrology were then examined to determine whether the area could facilitate the production of reed, straw and timber. Some fertile lands that would provide good opportunities for cereal crops and agroforestry were unable to support reed cultivation; others proved to have large areas of relatively infertile or exposed land that would be unsuitable for any of the proposed crops. The initial criteria, â&#x20AC;&#x153;proximity to existing woodland,â&#x20AC;? resulted 46

Area 1

Area 2 47

Area 3

Area 4

Area 5

Area 6

Area 7

Area 8

Area 9 48

Area 10

Location

Woodland

The area is 8km north of Taunton, hilly with high valleys between the hilltops, quickly rising from a minimum elevation of 50m to peaks of 300m. The land supports a very small local population, dispersed villages and a number of working farms.

Wind Down and Paradise Plantation, commercial coniferous projects, are adjacent to deciduous Smocombe Wood, Ruborough Camp and Potato Copse. Scope still exists for a large scale reforestation project using nearby farmland. 49

Area 01 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

Existing forestry and extensive local agriculture provide opportunities for straw and timber production. However, the elevation above the floodplains - and the steeply sloping topography of the site - render reed production infeasible.

Road links, no trainline or navigable rivers.

Conclusion

Unsuitable due to distance from floodplain. 50

Location

Woodland

The area is 5km south of Taunton with relatively gentle gradients. A maxiumum height of 135m falls to 35m and the area, just beyond the development ring of the county capital, is sparsely populated with only a few farmsteads.

A mix of deciduous and coniferous exists above 50m with Pridley Plantations in the south east, a mixed commercial project. Afforestation could be an easily achievable target by converting local pasture for agroforestry. 51

Area 02 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

Extensive existing woodland and farmland would facilitate straw and coppiced timber harvests. However, the woodland may diminish the extent of reforestation available and distance from the floodplain makes reed cultivation infeasible.

Road links, no trainline or navigable rivers.

Conclusion

Unsuitable as reed production is infeasible. 52

Location

Woodland

The area is west of the small settlement of Hatch Beauchamp, set in undulating hills with lows of 35m and highs of 95m. The parish is very rural and relatively affluent with many farms and some small villages in close proximity.

Bickenhall Wood and Benâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Copse are adjacent plots of deciduous trees. Sturmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hill Plantation is the only nearby commercial planting and is very small, no more than 7ha in total, with a mix of coniferous and deciduous species. 53

Area 03 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

Small existing woods and widespread agriculture would facilitate straw and coppiced timber harvests with the scope for agroforestry. Distance of the site from the floodplains makes successful reed cultivation unlikely.

Road links, no trainline or navigable rivers.

Conclusion

Unsuitable as reed production is infeasible. 54

Location

Woodland

North of Curry Rivel, west of Langport on the River Parrett, the area is the eastern extent of a ridge stretching 6km southwest to Hatch Beauchamp. Overlooking West Sedgemoor, livestock graze on the plains and cereal crops grow on the hillside.

Several small plantations of mixed species exist to the south interspersed with agricultural lands; on the northern side toward West Sedgemoor a narrow band of established deciduous woodland skirts almost the full length of the hills. 55

Area 04 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

The varied topography affords opportunities for all three crops: timber can be grown on the hillside, flood-resistant tree species (such as the traditionally pollarded willow of Somerset) alongside reeds on the floodplains and straw from existing cereal crops.

Road, river and rail links for transportation.

Conclusion

Well-suited to the building programme. 56

Location

Woodland

Less than 3km northwest of Langport, overlooking North Moor, the area encompasses Aller Hill and the villages of Aller and Beer. The hill rises to 98m above the surrounding 5m floodplain; agriculture is diversified by an MOD rifle range.

Aller, Breach and Breech Woods straddle the 50m contour of the hill and go on to cover the summit. The deciduous band on the hillside are labelled as an SSSI, transitioning to a mixture as the hill plateaus then becomes strictly coniferous. 57

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE RIFLE RANGE

Area 05 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

Varied landscape types would afford the opportunity for reed, straw and timber production. However, the presence of the MOD rifle range - and the exclusion zone it requires while live - would reduce the utility of much of the forest.

Direct road access with river and rail links.

Conclusion

Unsuitable due to MOD presence. 58

EAST POLDEN GRASSLAND (SSSI)

Location

Woodland

Next to Compton Dundon and Dundon, Dundon and Hurcot Hills rise from the floodplain to 120m. Both are relatively steep sided toward the Levels, falling slowly to the east and surrounded by plentiful arable and pastural lands.

Butleigh, Copley and Great Breach Woods start at 50m and covering the crests of the hills. All three are a mixture of coniferous and deciduous trees; Great Breach and Copley Woods are SSSI with the adjoining Eastern Polden Grasslands. 59

WALTON HILL & IVYTHRON HILL (SSSI)

GREAT BREACH & COPLEY WOODS (SSSI) Area 06 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

The hills and lowland areas together offer the chance to produce reed, straw and timber. However, the label of SSSI potentially disqualifies the site as changes to habitat, including forestry projects, are unlikely to be accepted.

Direct road access, no river or rail links.

Conclusion

Unsuitable due to restrictive SSSI designations. 60

Location

Woodland

Between Charlton Mackrell and Somerton, the area lies within the Kingsdon and Nut Hills. Slopes rise to a maximum of 85m and the minimum elevation is approximately 10m, falling toward the floodplains. Agriculture is commonplace.

Forested areas sit above 25m with Kingsdon and Somerton Woods almost exclusively deciduous; similarly stocked, coppicing is practised in The Shields and Coombs Plantation. Land use supports the proposed strategy of reforestation. 61

Area 07 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

The landscape would support reed, straw and timber production but only small harvests of reed without extensive landscaping. Plenty of pasture could be speculatively reforested and the grain crops already under production would provide straw.

Direct rail and road access; unnavigable river.

Conclusion

Suitable but lacks possible river transportation. 62

Location

Woodland

1km west of Sutton Bingham Reservoir, the land is at a minimum of 60m around the water and rises to peaks of 135m on the hilltops. East Coker is 1.5km to the north; the closest settlement is the village of Hardington Marsh to the west.

The existing Coker Wood, Abbotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hill and Binghamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bower Plantations are primarilly coniferous with just a few deciduous specimens in the eastern portion of Coker Wood. Copses on the shore of the reservoir are largely deciduous. 63

Area 08 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

With a majority of farmland in this area arable, opportunities for straw production already exist; pasture land could easily be converted for agroforestry and some small scale reed cultivation would be possible around the shores of the lake.

Direct rail and road access; unnavigable river.

Conclusion

Unsuitable due to upland location. 64

Location

Woodland

1km southwest of Stoford with a tributary of the River Yeo beside it, the area is characterised by a gently undulating landscape with highs of 60m and lows of 35m. Agriculture is again widespread with a mixture of arable and pasture land.

Clifton Wood is a large forest with a coniferous centre and deciduous peripheral mix. It is, however, the park of Clifton Maybank, a significant country estate on which sits Clifton Farm and the 16th Century, Grade I listed Clifton Maybank House. 65

CLIFTON MAYBANK

Area 09 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

Agriculture is common with potential for agroforestry and small scale reed cultivation around the river. As the estate is heritage listed and considered to be of historic significance, changing the character of the landscape may be against the wishes of conservationists.

Direct rail and road access; unnavigable river.

Conclusion

Unsuitable position and site heritage value. 66

Location

Woodland

Partially encompassing the hamlet of Rowberrow, the site is on the cusp of the Black Down Hills. Rising from 120m to 315m, cut through with gorges made by fast-flowing streams, arable land competes with the sparsity of the moors.

Rowberrow Warren is a mixture of coniferous and deciduous species, though the southeast quadrant is entirely coniferous. To the southwest, Callow Hill - an active limestone quarry - is skirted to the east and west by deciduous growth. 67

Area 10 1:10,000 Opportunities

Infrastructure

The heaths atop Black Down Hills are exposed and unfertile, making straw production infeasible and agroforestry impractical given how wind would deform at least the first crop of timber. Reeds are also unsuited to the conditions.

Light roads, no navigable river or nearby rail.

Conclusion

Unsuitable terrain and topography. 68

Following scrutiny of the various options, a site in the vicinity of Oath and Wick was selected as best-suited to hosting the programme. It met all criteria and initial examinations revealed extensive arable concerns on the surrounding hills from which straw could be collected, an extensive network of rhynes which could support reed cultivation, large tracts of upland pasture which could be planted with trees and several established plantations. There are numerous nearby farms and multiple transportation options with possible connections to rail, river and road: the River Parrett is wide and slow-flowing enough at this point to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;floatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the possibility of barge transportation.

established ecosystems, and therefore of more value to retain than deliberately coppice or fell. Applying the aforementioned planting strategy, upland afforestation would convert a further 40.8 hectares of pasture to productive forest and the remaining 120 hectares would be sparingly planted with willow and hazel for agroforestry. Implementing a 1m bank of reeds either side of rhynes would account for the other 4 hectares of cropland. Using averaged growth and production figures, this area should yield approximately 326-938m3 of construction-grade timber, 66,000 straw bales and 4,000 bundles of thatch per annum.

The exact site, again determined through application of the programme parameters, was chosen as the hillside between Curry and Rivel Woods. Steeply sloped pasture, it was selected because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s within existing woodland, in the vicinity of both livestock and crop farms and safely above the level of the floodplain whilst possessing views across recently flooded pasture and down to the River Parrett beyond. It was thus considered to deliver all the factors necessary to a centre requiring physical and visual connections to woodland, river and field. Defining the area to consider for calculating material harvests was done by assuming work would not cross public roads (an assumption to ensure easy access for machinery rather than imposing an absolute limit). Restricting the area within this perimeter left 404 hectares for consideration containing 5 farms, 35 households, 165 hectares of pasture, 160 hectares of cropland and 27.6 hectares of existing woodland (coverage therefore representing half the national average). The existent tree cover is deciduous, primarily a mix of mature beech and oak with well69

Curry Woodsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mature deciduous mix of beech and oak 70

CURRY WOODS 2.8km west of Langport 1.2km south of the River Parrett Eastern extent of a 6km woodland range Overlooks site of Oath medieval village Beside West Sedgemoor

71 Client

Date

July 2013

Curry Woods 1:10,000

LOCAL LAND USE Pasture on floodplains & hillsides Arable on hilltops 165 hectares of pasture 160 hectares of cropland 27.6 hectares of existing woodland

Land use 1:10,000

2014 FLOODING Oath residents cut off from January to March Only accessible by amphibious vehicle

Flooding 1:10,000

REFORESTATION

4 hectares

160 hectares

40.8 hectares 77

Reforestation 1:10,000

MATERIAL YIELDS

4,000 bundles

66,000 bales

514m3 79

SITING THE BUILDING Connections to field, forest and water Accessible from road for pedestrians Accessible from road for HGVs Must not disturb existing public footpaths

SOMERSET CENTRE FOR NATURAL BUILDING ground falls away; the result is passage through the canopy which delivers visitors onto the roof platform for the primary viewpoint and access through the building by the central lift core. A staircase integrated into the side of the building ducks back under cover of neighbouring trees to the entrance terrace, accessing visitor centre and classrooms. Stairs through the eco-shop lead onto the main landing, framed by the canteen and secondary viewpoint. A final external stairway descends to the lower landing where the circulation reconnects with the public footpath to continue through the field and down to the working yard.

The separation of visitor centre/ residential education facility from the working yard and workshops was considered a necessity from the outset. Combining the two into one building required too many compromises: heavy machinery poses too many inherent dangers in a public facility and heavy goods vehicles, with their access requirements, would have brought the entity away from the impressively sloping topography of the hillside and views over the landscape. Instead, the programme envisioned a campus or complex split between the forestry processing facilities and attendant functions (material storage, sawmill, energy facility, offices) on the flat plains, and the educational facilityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public programme (visitor centre, shop, classrooms, lecture theatre, offices, residential accommodation, canteen) on the hillside. Proposed workshops, both commercial and educational, were amalgamated into the working yard, and accommodation for the forest manager coupled with the centre on the hill.

The composition of the programme clusters public functions around this circulatory core: toilets on the ground floor; canteen, ecoshop and lecture theatre on the first floor; and visitor centre on the second floor. Split across three levels thus, the building responds to the topographical challenges of the site whilst retaining accessibility. The sequence of movement through the building switches focus between wide-ranging views of the floodplains and intimate acquaintance with the surrounding forest.

The character of the centre is of the forest and it aims to embrace both its floor and canopy. Designed to straddle an existing public footpath without impeding its flow, it offers extensive views over the floodplains from a number of viewpoints. Integrating the public byway was a key factor in the design of the building: as the project statement announces the continued relevance of the three ecologies, a building promoting the mental and environmental could not denigrate the position of the social by obstructing a public route.

The structure is a hybrid, two halves combining very different approaches: rammed earth, which grounds the building to the east of the footpath, and raised roundwood timber with straw bale infill to the west. Crowning the building is the cantilevering visitor centre of timber truss construction, bridging and reliant on both sides. The dichotomy is deliberate to better showcase the range of structures, internal environments and finishes that are possible with the use of natural materials.

From the proposed off-road parking, a new raised walkway complements the trodden grass track and provides accessibility for all potential users of the building. The walkway leads visitors down a gentle slope as the

The construction is quite deliberately â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;skinnyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; with an average internal width of 4m. This was driven by two considerations: firstly, 84

buildings would have tanks installed: this could then be heat-treated using the CHP’s output and – theoretically, at least - refined for human consumption. Compost toilets make sense, simply: instead of flushing away nutrient-rich fertiliser to be chemically treated, let it decompose into a safe state and put it back into the system.79

quality of the interior spaces with regards to daylight and natural ventilation; secondly, the smaller material dimensions required by short spans mean that fewer mature trees need be felled and the potential use of thinnings in the construction is greater. The first point was carried through to minimise the need for artificial lighting or mechanised ventilation, instead giving people control over the internal environment with operable windows. Local availability was a must and both the soil for compacting and straw bales for infill are obtainable on or adjacent to the site. Planting trees and waiting for a harvest before commencing the build may be too speculative a strategy: however, sustainably practiced forestry in the vicinity can provide timber while the planting scheme is instigated. One known source within half an hour of the site practices continuous cover forestry, growing Douglas fir, European larch and Western Red Cedar to FSC standards.

A range of sustainable ‘devices’ were considered for the building but only three were finally implemented: biomass CHP, rainwater harvesting and compost toilets. The most complex of the three, a combined heat and power generator in the working yard, complements the proposed forest management and timber processing whilst giving the potential to move the complex ‘off-grid.’ The unit burns wood shavings and trimmings to produce heat and electricity that is conveyed up the hillside by conduits buried in the track between the buildings. Rainwater harvesting, whilst obviously contributing very little to flood prevention, enables the centre to use a commonly occurring resource for non-consumptive roles instead of wasting potable water. With over 1500m2 of roofing between them, both 85

PROGRAMME School of Natural Building 01- visitor centre 02 - lecture theatre 03 - classrooms 04 - workshop 05 - eco-shop 06 - administration 07 - offices 08 - dormitories 09 - canteen & kitchen 10 - washrooms

100m2 50m2 50m2 50m2 150m2 50m2 100m2 200m2 150m2 50m2

02 07 03 08

Natural Buildersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Merchant 11 - storage/ timber drying 12 - materials yard 13 - energy facility 14 - sawmill 15 - offices

1,000m2 500m2 200m2 200m2 50m2

Forest Management 16 - foresterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accommodation 17 - tool storage 18 - workshop

11 100m 50m2 50m2 2

18 13 14

35,000m2

Potential site 1:1,000 90

Public footpaths 1:1,0000 92

COMMERCIAL

COMMUNAL

Site disperal 1:1,0000 94

Site & strategy model constructed at 1:1000 96

Site plan 1:715 98

BIOMASS CHP

TIMBER PRODUCTION 99

Site section 01 1:715

COMPOST TOILETS

RAINWATER HARVEST 100

Natural Buildersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Merchant

Afforestation

Storage/ timber drying Materials yard Energy facility Sawmill Offices

Ash Aspen Beech Birch Cedar (Western red) Elm Fir (Douglas) Larch (European) Oak Pine (Scots) Spruce (Norwegian)

101

Perspective of the facility School of Natural Building

Forest Management

Visitor centre Lecture theatre Classrooms Eco-shop Administration Offices Dormitories Canteen & kitchen Washrooms

Foresterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accommodation Tool storage Workshop

102

Beginning of the descent

Building viewed between the trees

Visual connections to the Levels

Ground floor decks First floor decks Second floor decks Roof deck Total

130m2 91m2 234m2 239m2 694m2 109

Roof plan 1:200 110

10 1 1 12 13 14

Common sitting room Communal washrooms Accommodation Visitor centre Classrooms

35m2 37m2 97m2 173m2 87m2 111

14 14 14

12 12

11 12

Second floor plan 1:200 112

01 01 06 07 08 09

Private dwelling Canteen Unisex toilets Kitchen Eco-shop

51m2 95m2 12m2 28m2 148m2 113

08 06 07

First floor plan 1:200 114

01 01 02 03 04 05

Private dwelling Offices Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toilets Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toilets Lecture theatre

60m2 54m2 16m2 17m2 38m2 115

04 03

Ground floor plan 1:200 116

117

Section 01 1:285 118

119

Section 02 1:285 120

STRUCTURE Cantilevered roundwood truss with wool insulation for weight reduction Massive rammed earth to east Roundwood frames on piles to west with insulating straw bale infill

121

Structural axonometric

Somerset Centre for Natural Building constructed at 1:200

05 02 01

04 03

01 02 03 04 05 06 07

Sales office Tool storage CHP plant room Workshop Unisex toilets Sawmill Material storage

55m2 41m2 81m2 140m2 14m2 295m2 993m2 125

Working yard plan 1:395 126

127

Sawmill & buildersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; merchant constructed at 1:1,000 128

129

CONCLUSIONS Therefore, viewed through Guattari’s lens, my project purposefully addresses the three ecologies. Repairing, reinstating or establishing riparian zones, and reforesting upland pasture to protect nearby agriculture and ecosystems, sequesters atmospheric carbon in a form that strengthens the local economy. It also promotes natural building materials and challenges people to individually redefine their subjectivities. The centre encapsulates Berge’s argument that the built environment needn’t be a mechanised volume, devoid of sensation but can be a sphere of tactile and responsive experience.

already been mentioned and access to woodland is perceived in the public mind as beneficial to a person’s wellbeing.81 Improving the ‘green credentials’ of individuals living in the area - acknowledging contributions to a sustainable economy - whilst they benefit from a more affluent community should also inspire an affirmative mental ecology.

Environmentally, protection against floods ensures the Levels’ 32 Sites of Special Scientific Interest remain unspoilt while new habitat is created and ecological diversity increased.80 Simultaneously, increasing the output and availability of natural building materials would contribute to making ‘production’ more costeffective, decreasing prices and increasing their competitiveness on the market. Promoting and facilitating these alternatives to the highly processed and energy intensive materials used in conventional construction would assist in lowering carbon emissions generated by the industry. Socially, job creation through complementary animal husbandry practices increases economic output and attracts more investment, both in financial (e.g. the provision of new services) and social capital (more social enterprises and potential community engagement). This will improve the conditions and relationships in local communities to positively influence their continued development. Improving environmental and social ecologies should have immediate benefits for the mental: the positive effects of nature have 130

REFERENCES 1 Bjørn Berge “The engine is not responding: A critique of the automatic energy-saving home.” Arkitektur 1 (2011): 5. 2 “[...] I see no instant prospect of a virtuous revolution; yet I confess I should not be pained at a change which threatened a loss of some of the luxuries or conveniences of society, if it proceeded from a preference of the agricultural life out of the belief that our primary duties as men could be better discharged in that calling. [...] It is easy to see that the inconvenience would last but a short time.” Ralph Waldo Emerson “Man the Reformer.” Lecture presented to the Mechanics’ Apprentices’ Library Association, Boston, Mass., January 25, 1841. Reproduced in Nature and Selected Essays. London: Penguin Books, 1982, 134. 3 “Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.” Henry David Thoreau Walden, or Life in the Woods. 1854. Reprint, Raleigh: Hayes Barton Press, 2007, 9. 4 “Post-industrial capitalism, which I prefer to describe as Integrated World Capitalism (IWC), tends increasingly to decentre its sites of power, moving away from structures producing goods and services towards structures producing signs, syntax and – in particular, through the control which it exercises over the media, advertising, opinion polls, etc. – subjectivity.” Felix Guattari The Three Ecologies, trans. Ian Pinder and Paul Sutton. London: The Athlone Press, 2000, 47. 5 Acronym for the Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs.

6 Acronym for the Flooding on the Levels Action Group. 7 “Indoor air quality and energy management will increasingly be at the mercy of finely tuned machinery, that is beyond our influence. Control systems for temperature and lighting, fully automatic boilers and blinds, heat pumps, heat exchangers and balanced ventilation system will take over the job we have previously done for ourselves by opening and closing windows, firing the woodstove, dressing in sweaters, turning on and off lights, drawing curtains, etc. . And the assertion that they can apparently also do the job better than us has legitimized an aggressive marketing and subsidy policy, with the stated goal of as many people as possible taking up this new technology.” Berge “The engine is not responding,” 1. 8 “One might almost be tempted to speculate as to whether the climate crisis is a hoax, staged in order to ensure economic growth. It appears in fact to be a very good idea arriving at just the right time: Climate technology represents a whole range of new products, that we are only a few years ago had no clue that we needed.” Ibid, 3. 9 “The EU standard for comfort is based on the so-called PMV scale, developed by the Dane Ole Fanger. It includes air and radiant temperature, air velocity and relative humidity, with 0 on the scale representing “I feel neither cold nor hot.” The reference condition of comfort thus defined as a perceptual absence. The same method is applied for the norms of smell, where the ‘absence of smell’ should be sought.” Ibid, 4. 10 “An architectural work is not experienced

as a series of isolated retinal pictures, but in its fully integrated material, embodied and spiritual essence. It offers pleasurable shapes and surfaces for the touch of the eye and other senses, but it also incorporates and integrates physical and mental structures, giving our existential experience a strengthened coherence and significance.” Juhanni Pallasmaa In The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester: Wiley Academy, 2005, 12. 11 “Design could optimize systems and then let humans have the control. At NASA, although the windows can open and close automatically, humans can simply open a window the old-fashioned way. Our thinking was, ‘What if someone wants to hear the song of the bird that just landed on the tree near the window?’” William McDonough & Michael Braungart The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance. New York: Melcher Media, 2013, 64. 12 “Common to household members with whom we discussed this issue, was a very positive response to our question of the value of automatic control. After exploring how and when each of them tends to use their automatic temperature regulators, another picture occurred, however. Despite the fact that they expressed such a positive way of looking upon automatic control, they did not show any interest in making use of it or even learning how to connect it or use it. On the contrary, some of them seemed to show an almost active disinterest in this possibility.” Annette Henning “Can qualitative methods support the development of more flexible and energy saving thermal comfort?” in proceedings for the international conference ‘Comfort and energy use in buildings - getting them right’, Windsor, UK, 27-30 April 2006, 5.

13 “Throughout our world consumer goods propelled by hyperbolic advertising techniques serve to supplant our consciousness and diffuse our reflective capacity.” Steven Holl “Thin Ice.” In The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, Juhanni Pallasmaa, 6-8. Chichester: Wiley Academy, 2005, 8. 14 “It is quite wrong to make a distinction between action on the psyche, the socius and the environment. Refusal to face up to the erosion of these three areas, as the media would have us do, verges on a strategic infantilization of opinion and a destructive neutralization of democracy. We need to ‘kick the habit’ of sedative discourse, particularly the ‘fix’ of television, in order to be able to apprehend the world through the interchangeable lenses or points of view of the three ecologies.” Guattari The Three Ecologies. 41. 15 “We are increasingly separated from contact with nature. We have come to forget that our minds are shaped by the bodily experience of being in the world – its spaces, textures, sounds, smells and habits – as well as by genetic traits we inherit ideologies we absorb.” Robert MacFarlane Landmarks. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2015, 74-75. 16 “Despite having recently initiated a partial realization of the most obvious dangers that threaten the natural environment of our societies, they are generally content to simply tackle industrial pollution and then from a purely technocratic perspective, whereas only an ethico-political articulation - which I call ecosophy - between the three ecological registers (the environment, social relations and human subjectivity) would be likely to clarify

these questions.” Guattari The Three Ecologies. 27. 17 “The magnitude of potential emissions savings is huge. By 2050 over 80% of global business-as-usual buildings’ emissions (including indirect emissions from the power sector) could be avoided in low-Carbon scenarios that may limit global warming to 2°C.” Mark Jennings, Neil Hirst & Ajay Gambhir “Reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the global building sector to 2050.” Report GR3, Imperial College London/ Grantham Institute for Climate Change, 2011, 1. 18 IEA “Energy Technology Perspectives 2010 Findings.” London: Grantham Institute for Climate Change/International Energy Agency, 2013, 205. 19 “The UK construction industry consumes over 420 Mt of materials, 8Mt of oil and releases over 29 Mt of carbon dioxide annually, including a significant quantity of new materials disposed of as waste.” Geoffrey P. Hammond & Craig L. Jones “Embodied energy and carbon in construction materials.” Energy 161, no. 2 (2008): 96. 20 “The Ecotechnic logic is based on a technorational, policy-oriented discourse which represents a belief in incremental, technoeconomic change and that science and technology can provide the solutions to environmental problems. […] The rhetoric of the ecotechnic approach tends to be overwhelmingly quantitative, success is expressed in the numerical reduction of building energy consumption, materialembodied energy, waste and resource-use reduction, and in concepts such as life-cycle flexibility and cost-benefit analysis.”

Simon Guy & Graham Farmer “Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology.” Journal of Architectural Education, 54:3 (2001), 142. 21 “The main conclusion, then, is that an exogenous increase in energy efficiency may not lead to lower energy consumption, and hence lower emissions. On the contrary, it is very likely that this “growth effect” will result in higher emissions. Furthermore, the results show that the CO2 tax change necessary to counteract and hold CO2 emissions constant is quite large, 135%. In addition, we show that an increase in energy efficiency will also lead to changes in other emissions, such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides” Runar Brännlund, Tarek Ghalwash & Jonas Nordström “Increased energy efficiency and the rebound effect: Effects on consumption and emissions.” Energy Economics, 29 (2007), 15. 22 “For example, a wide range of building materials introduced over the past fifty years, have been shown to emit harmful gases into the indoor environment.” Berge “The engine is not responding,” 3. 23 “Building materials are the source of various kinds of pollution inside completed buildings. Many organic materials, as well as mineral materials with organic additives, are apt to host fungal growth when exposed to continuous humidity. These can emit mycotoxins and other serious irritants. A wide range of common building materials emit particles and gases that carry a variety of health risks. Examples are volatile organic compounds such as solvents in paints. In such cases, emissions will be greatest during the first weeks or months. In other cases, the emissions are persistent, as from plasticizers in soft plastic flooring. In yet other cases, emissions may increase later as a material ages or is exposed

to excessive temperature or humidity. These emissions are most often the cause of respiratory problems, whilst many may increase susceptibility to asthma and allergies, and in some cases they include highly toxic and carcinogenic substances.”

currently has the highest annual social value of the Woodland ecosystem services considered; however, as it remains largely a non-market value, there is little incentive for landowners to increase its provision or to maintain existing carbon storage at present.”

Bjørn Berge The Ecology of Building Materials. Trans. Chris Butters and Filip Henley. 2nd ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2009, 42.

Robert Watson, Steve Albon et al The UK National Ecosystem Assessment: Synthesis of the Key Findings. Oxford: Information Press, 2011, 73.

24 Robert MacMath & Pliny Fisk III Carbon Dioxide Intensity Ratios. Austin: Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, 2000, 5 & Jakub Wihan “Humidity in straw bale walls and its effect on the decomposition of straw.” Master thesis, University of East London School of Computing and Technology, 2007, 17. 25 “First, ‘no-regrets’ NETs (NR NETs), which are characterised by low upfront capital costs, co-benefits (such as enhanced soil fertility), no CCS dependence, economic and environmental co-benefits, and fewer uncertainties, include afforestation, soil carbon improvements, and biochar. Even considering the potential for limited release of stored carbon in the future, they are the most promising NETs between now and 2050.” Ben Caldecott, Guy Lomax & Mark Workman “Stranded Carbon Assets and Negative Emissions Technologies.” Working paper, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment & University of Oxford, February 2015, http:// www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/researchprogrammes/stranded-assets/publications. php, 32. 26 “The social value of net carbon sequestration by UK Woodlands is currently at least double the market value of wood production per hectare; and the total value of net carbon sequestration by UK Woodlands planted after 1921 increased more than six-fold over the period between 1945 and 2004, falling thereafter. Carbon sequestration

27 “The increasing deterioration of human relations with the socius, the psyche and ‘nature’, is due not only to environmental and objective pollution but is also the result of a certain incomprehension and fatalistic passivity towards these issues as a whole, among both individuals and governments. Catastrophic or not, negative developments [évolutions] are simply accepted without question.” Guattari The Three Ecologies, 41. 28 “The centre’s organisers estimate that 200 jobs have been generated. They are invaluable technical posts in a rural economy otherwise dependent on tourism, sheep and farm subsidies. Some of the luckier geeks have founded firms which have the potential to turn them into millionaires.” Roger Harrabin Turning a slate quarry green: 40 years of Centre for Alternative Technology. Guardian. 14-08-01. http://www.theguardian. com/environment/2014/aug/01/turning-aslate-quarry-green-40-years-of-centre-foralternative-technology (Accessed May 09, 2015) 29 “What in the 1960s and 1970s might have been a 1 in 125 day event is now more likely to be a 1 in 85 day event. This supports other evidence that UK rainfall is increasing in intensity.”

Jones et al “An assessment of changes in seasonal and annual extreme rainfall in the UK between 1961 and 2009.” International Journal of Climatology, 33 (2012), 1178 1194 & Maraun et al. “United Kingdom daily precipitation intensity: improved early data, error estimates and an update from 2000 to 2006.” International Journal of Climatology, 28 (2008), 833 - 842. 30 “The Somerset Levels are served by four main rivers – the Parrett, Tone, Brue and Axe, which together, drain water from a surrounding catchment of over 200,000ha. The floodplain, which is largely freshwater and covers around 60,000ha, is generally very flat.” Paul Webster, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, Tony Juniper & Pete Harrison Floods and Dredging – a reality check. CIWEM & Blueprint for Water, 2014. http://www.wcl.org.uk/docs/Floods_ and_Dredging_a_reality_check.pdf (Accessed February 10, 2015),15. 31 “The general elevation of these moors is 10-12ft O.D. The rivers which flow across the moors have a very slight fall (e.g. the Parrett falls one foot per mile for 11½ miles between Langport and Bridgwater, the Brue falls 8.4 in. per mile for 8 miles above Highbridge Clyse, and the King’s Sedgemoor Drain falls 6.5 in. per mile for 8 miles above Dunball Clyse) and in places the level of the river beds is nearly equal to that of the surrounding land.” Michael Williams The Draining of the Somerset Levels. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970, 8. 32 “Another basic cause of the flooding is the relatively high rainfall on the upland periphery of the Levels, the average annual rainfall over Exmoor and the Mendip and Blackdown Hills being over 40 inches. During the autumn months of September and October there is fairly consistent rainfall of moderate duration and intensity, which is

associated with the prevailing south-westerly winds crossing the high ground of western and southern Somerset, and with frontal activity. These weather conditions normally produce no flooding because the saturation potential of the river basins is sufficient to prevent too rapid a run-off, but towards the end of October the catchments are becoming increasingly waterlogged, and only moderate falls are needed in November and December to cause a flood.” Ibid, 11. 33 “For much of prehistory, this part of Somerset was under the sea and it is only in the last few thousand years that the land has been emerging: the area around Burnham and Highbridge has therefore been particularly vulnerable to the vaguaries of sea and river. Not surprisingly, the history of settlement in the area has been partly conditioned by natural and artificial changes in the coastline and the drainage pattern. For at least a thousand years and perhaps longer there have been drainage cuts altering water flow from the Levels.” Clare Gathercole An archaeological assessment of Burnham on Sea and Highbridge. 2002. http://www1.somerset.gov. uk/archives/hes/eus/burnham_eus.htm, 4. 34 “Apart from the more important drainage channels each field was surrounded by rhynes. These were the finest and ultimate part of the drainage network, but they were also boundary ditches. Open ditches were preferred to hedges because they were quicker and easier to establish. In addition, there was a strong prejudice on the part of the graziers to hedges and trees, as they thought that the hedges harboured flies which teased the cattle and hindered the progress of fattening, and that the trees disturbed the free circulation of air. […] Added advantages

of the rhynes were that water for summer drinking could be held in them by penning, and that the network of channels provided a means for the minute control of flooding, for pest control and for warping the land, provided, of course, that co-operation between neighbouring landholders was first achieved.” Williams The Draining of the Somerset Levels. 187.

Oslo: Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe, 2011, 286-287. 42 Jawed Khan & Tamara Powell Land Use in the UK. London: Office for National Statistics, 2013, 5. 43 Sian Atkinson & Mark Townsend The State of the UK’s Forests, Woods and Trees. Woodland Trust, 2011, 11.

35 “314,727.8 Ha of Somerset’s land area is farmed under a commercial farm holding (73.4% of Somerset’s land area). This is on par with the national average.”

44 Forestry Commission “7 - Employment and Business.” In Forestry Statistics 2014. Edinburgh: Forestry Commission, 2014, http:// www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-9mbhsd (Accessed April 13, 2015), 140.

NFU 2014.

45 Ibid, 38.

36 15,000 agriculture jobs (NFU, 2014) to Somerset’s 259,000.

46 “The social and environmental benefits of woodlands in Great Britain (GB) were valued in 2002 at more than £1.2 billion per annum (at 2010 prices), with the landscape value of woodland estimated at £185 million (2010), and recreational visits valued at £484 million (2010). However, only 55% of the population has access to woods larger than 20 ha within 4 km of their home.”

SCC “EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: State of the Somerset Economy 2013,” July 2013. 37 National Farmers’ Union. “Somerset Levels flood plan announced,” last modified January 28, 2014, http://www.nfuonline.com/news/ latest-news/somerset-levels-flood-plan-in-sixweeks/ 38 BBC “Somerset floods crisis: How the story unfolded,” last modified March 19, 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englandsomerset-26157538 (Accessed February 20, 2015). 39 Ibid. 40 George Orwell “A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray.” George Orwell: Essays. London: Penguin Books, 2000, 365. Originally published “A Good Word for the Vicar of Bray”. Tribune, London, April 26, 1946. 41 FOREST EUROPE, UNECE & FAO State of Europe’s Forests 2011: Status and Trends in Sustainable Forest Management in Europe.

Watson, Albon et al The UK National Ecosystem Assessment. 73. 47 “Using the Scottish Recreation Survey expenditure data on average expenditure on trips for outdoor recreation (TNS, 2006b),44 the total first-round (direct) impacts of spending from forest-related tourism and recreation is estimated to be 17,900 FTE jobs. Of this total, 13,400 FTEs are due to tourism, which is defined here as trips that are non-regular (less than weekly) and more than three hours in duration where woodland is the main destination. Forest-related spending due to recreation, i.e. trips that occur more frequently and are of a shorter duration,45 supports about 3,700 FTEs.” David Edwards, Anna Elliott, Max Hislop,

Suzanne Martin, Jake Morris, Liz O’Brien, Andrew Peace, Vadim Sarajevs, Maud Serrand & Gregory Valatin A valuation of the economic and social contribution of forestry for people in Scotland. Edinburgh: Forestry Commission Scotland, 2009, 30. 48 “In addition, the scenario envisages more than a doubling of forested area. We therefore estimate the creation of about 40,000 additional jobs in forestry and the primary processing of wood products.” Paul Allen et al Zero Carbon Britain: Rethinking the Future. Machynlleth: Centre for Alternative Technology Publications, 2013, 128. 49 DEFRA Project RMP5455: Slowing the Flow at Pickering. 2011. 50 Simon Marrington Forestry Commission. Slowing the Flow in Pickering and Sinnington. 2009. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-7ZUCQY (Accessed February 1, 2015). 51 Flooding on the Levels Action Group 7 Point Plan for Future Flood Management. 2014. http://www.flagsomerset.org.uk/Media/7Point-Plan.aspx (Accessed February 1, 2015). 52 “The main findings of the study were: • Mean water infiltration rates were much higher in the tree plantations compared to the open grazed pastures. Continuous, steady infiltration had a mean of approximately 100 cm/h 5 m into the tree plantations and was negligible 5 m into the open grazed areas. • There was an indication that older plantations had higher infiltration than younger plantations (7-year-old > 6-year-old > 2-year-old), although true replication of different plantation types would be required to confirm that this effect was due to age.

• Infiltration data suggest that the impact of trees extends out into the adjacent grazed areas further than the boundary of the plantations. • Soil surface compaction followed a similar trend to water infiltration with lower values in tree plantations compared to open grazed pastures.” Simon B. Bird, B.A. Emmett, F.L. Sinclair, P.A. Stevens, B. Reynolds, S. Nicholson & T. Jones Pontbren: Effects of tree planting on agricultural soils and their functions. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, 2003. http://www. ceh.ac.uk/sections/bef/Pontbren_report.html (Accessed February 2, 2015), 5. 53 “Woodland buffers on mid-slope and down slope field edges, can be effective in increasing water infiltration, reducing and slowing runoff and intercepting nutrient and sediment.” Mike Townsend & Sian Atkinson Planting trees to protect water: The role of trees and woods on farms in managing water quality and quantity. Woodland Trust, 2012. http://www. woodlandtrust.org.uk/publications/2012/08/ planting-trees-to-protect-water/ (Accessed February 2, 2015), 14. 54 “The magnitude of deposition that occurs as a result of these conditions can be gauged from the fact that in one summer 7ft of silt have been observed to accumulate on the seaward side of the Bleadon Clyse of the Axe, 8ft at Highbridge Clyse and nearly 14ft at the Dunball Clyse sill. These instances were not considered particularly abnormal.” Williams The Draining of the Somerset Levels. 10-11. 55 “The River Parrett that could once take a 60ft barge is now barely navigable by a canoe during the summer months. As the only

route to the sea, this leisurely river is running at less than 60% of the capacity it was during the 1960s, as it is sadly blocked by years of undredged silt.” Matilda Temperly Under The Surface: Somerset Floods. Huish Episcopi: Burrow Hill Books, 2014, 3. 56 BBC “Somerset Levels river dredging completed on schedule,” last modified October 31, 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/uk-england-somerset-29851345 (Accessed February 10, 2015). 57 “As noted above, dredging a channel will increase its potential conveyance while that capacity is maintained. This, accompanied by any straightening of the channel, will increase flow velocity and route floods downstream more quickly. This can lead to an increase in flood risk and sediment supply downstream.” Webster et al Floods and Dredging – a reality check. 11. 58 “Woodlands are highly valued by people for social and cultural services; there are approximately 250–300 million day visits to woodlands per year. Woodland includes nearly 5,000 Scheduled Ancient Monuments, plus many areas managed for geological study.” Watson, Albon et al The UK National Ecosystem Assessment. 73. 59 “A wide range of evidence suggests that contact with safe, green spaces can improve a number of aspects of mental and physical health and wellbeing as well as various social and environmental indicators. For example: • Contact with green spaces and natural environments can reduce symptoms of poor mental health and stress, and can improve mental wellbeing across all age groups.

• Access to green spaces can increase levels of physical activity for all ages. • Having green spaces in an area can contribute to reduced health inequalities. • Safe, green spaces can increase levels of communal activity across different social groups as well as increase residents’ satisfaction with their local area. • Green spaces can help with our response to climate change through their potential to reduce the impacts of heatwaves and reduce flooding and reducing CO2 emissions. • Green spaces and natural environments can improve air and noise quality and support sustainability through increasing biodiversity, encouraging active transport and community participation.” Jo Nurse, Damian Basher, Alan, MaryonDavis, Peder Clark, Rachel Jolley & William Bird Great Outdoors: How Our Natural Health Service Uses Green Space To Improve Wellbeing. Faculty of Public Health & Natural England, 2010, 1. http://www.fph.org.uk/ uploads/bs_great_outdoors.pdf (Accessed April 25, 2015). 60 Matilda Annerstedt Nature and Public Health: Aspects of Promotion, Prevention, and Intervention. PhD diss., SLU, 2011. http://pub. epsilon.slu.se/8424/2/annerstedt_m_111109. pdf (Accessed April 25, 2015). 61 William Bird Natural Thinking. RSPB, 2007. http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/ naturalthinking_tcm9-161856.pdf (Accessed April 25, 2015). 62 Limebase Products Limited of Taunton, Somerset produce lime from limestone quarried in Cheddar. 63 National Society of Master Thatchers Thatching Materials. http://www.nsmtltd.

co.uk/thatchMaterials.html (Accessed November 11, 2014). 64 Norfolk Reed for Thatching Materials. http:// www.thatch.org/reed (Accessed January 27, 2015). 65 Roland Stultz & Kiran Mukerji Appropriate Building Materials: A Catalogue of Potential Solutions. Zurich: SKAT Publications, 1988. http://www.collections.infocollections.org/ ukedu/en/d/Jsk01ae/ (Accessed January 29, 2015). 66 “In East Anglia long straw thatchers will cite examples of roofs constructed from the material they say have lasted as long as 60 years.” Clive Fewins Building Conservation. Thatch in the 21st Century. http://www. buildingconservation.com/articles/thatch/ thatch.htm (Accessed January 29, 2015). 67 Assuming a standard bale is 17kg and an acre of cereal crop produces between 2.75-4 t/ha of straw. James Copeland & David Turley National and regional supply/demand balance for agricultural straw in Great Britain. Report prepared for The National Non-Crops Food Centre, 2008, 4. 68 “However, moisture isn’t the only indicator of microbial life, and its influence on organic matter breakdown, as well as the influence of the other factors, is still not completely understood. However, it is clear that for the extensive decomposition of straw, microorganisms need a long term supply of liquid water, that is, an environment with relative humidity very close to 100%.” Wihan “Humidity in straw bale walls and its effect on the decomposition of straw.” 162. 69 Andy Sutton & Daniel Black “Straw Bale: An

introduction to low-impact building materials.” BRE: Information Papers 15, 2011. http://www. bre.co.uk/filelibrary/pdf/projects/low_impact_ materials/IP15_11.pdf (Accessed May 8, 2014). 70 “In walls typically over 450mm thick the U-value is 0.13W/m2K, two or three times lower (i.e. better) than contemporary materials, and much lower than current Building Regulations require.” Barbara Jones Building with Straw Bales: A practical guide for the UK and Ireland. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Green Books, 2009, 9. 71 “In the United Kingdom and Europe, farmers traditionally sent their pigs into forests to forage. This custom served many functions: Pigs could eat a wide variety of foodstuffs, the farmers didn’t have to pay for extra scraps to feed them, and the pig’s foraging helped control weeds and small pests and recycled nutrients for improved soil quality. In essence, pigs were calorie and nutrition skimmers. The pig went into the forest – the perhaps frightening, brambled forest – and came out with the best pickings of that forest in its belly. When the farmer killed and cooked the pig, he and his family benefitted from its expert foraging. The pig was an efficient machine for capturing the riches of the forest for human consumption, for gathering energy for human consumption.” McDonough & Braungart The Upcycle.93-94. 72 Mark Townsend Benefits of trees on livestock farms. Woodland Trust, 2012. 73 “Britain finally separated from the mainland 8,200 years ago, when the area that geologists call Doggerland, which connected the east coast of Britain to what is now Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, succumbed to rising sea levels. As conditions changed from tundra to temperate, pioneer species, such as birches and hazels, began to

colonise. They were followed by Scots pine, then alder and oaks, next elms and limes, then ash, beech, holly, hornbeam and field maple.” Gabriel Hemery & Sarah Simblet The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, 27. 74 Gabriel Hemery & Sarah Simblet The New Sylva: A Discourse of Forest and Orchard Trees for the Twenty-First Century. London: Bloomsbury, 2014, 28. 75 Forecast productivity of native deciduous tree species accounting for climate change (rises in both temperature and CO2 concentrations). Mark SJ Broadmeadow, Duncan Ray & CJA Samuel “Climate change and the future for broadleaved tree species in Britain.” Forestry, Vol. 78, No. 2 (2005), 149-150. 76 Macaulay Research Institute http://www. macaulay.ac.uk/agfor_toolbox/trees.html (Accessed January 28, 2015). 77 Suitability derived from information available via: The Agroforestry Research Trust. “Selecting tree species.” http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/ agrotree.html (Accessed February 16, 2015). 78 Timber utility was assessed using a table of material qualities sourced from: Berge The Ecology of Building Materials. 166167. 79 “In the Western world, for more than a century, people have been misled into thinking that our “waste,” what we flush down the toilet, is somehow toxic, that it cannot be worked back into the natural system, that it cannot be used as compost for growing

plants.” McDonough & Braungart The Upcycle. 131. 80 “A remarkable consequence of the use of silvopastoral systems is the increase in biodiversity when compared with pasture only systems. The presence of shrubs and trees very greatly increases cover for wild birds, mammals and reptiles. The greater range of plants increases the number of larger insects, and the more complex soil increases soil insects and other invertebrates.” D.M. Broom, F.A. Galindo & E. Murgueitio “Sustainable, efficient livestock production with high biodiversity and good welfare for animals.” Proceedings of the Royal Society, 280:20132025, 2013, 5. http://dx.doi. org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2025 (Accessed May 1, 2015). 81 “An estimated 82% of the Scottish adult population agree or strongly agree that woodlands are places to reduce stress and anxiety, while an estimated 79% agree or strongly agree that woodlands are places to exercise and keep fit.” Edwards et al “A valuation of the economic and social contribution of forestry for people in Scotland.” 77.