OPENING JUNE 2008
Why do we need a new centre?
When Occombe was opened in March 2006, we had to make compromises to fit everything in. Our vision is of a business with a heart, that is successful both educationally and commercially – and Occombe is well on the way to achieving this vision. But we need more space to do it in. At the moment, when school groups come to Occombe, we have to close half of the café, and the rest of the time the café shares the education space. For groups wanting to use the bakery, we can only hold around 15 children at a time, and we have to work amongst large-scale commercial production equipment. And holding adult education classes is really difficult too. Despite these problems, we are fully booked with school groups and we know the demand is there for us to expand.
A green building.
True to our mission to demonstrate techniques that will allow society to function without needless damage to the environment, we want the new building to have as small a carbon footprint as possible.
- no cement will be used in it
- the building will sit on used car tyres as a damp-proof course
- the walls will be of straw bales, plastered with lime mortar
- the roof and floor boarding will be made of larch harvested from our own woodlands here in Torbay
A learning project.
We are very proud to be working with the Construction Department at South Devon College on this project. The department is a Centre of Vocational Excellence and it will use the construction of this building as the first “Construction in the Community” project the College has ever undertaken. The College has won funding from the Learning and Skills Council to provide tuition and project management so that students will build the new centre and learn sustainable construction skills in the process.
We aim to start work on the foundations in November and will be building the straw bale walls in January (pray for good weather!); in February we’ll get the roof on and from then on it’s the internal fit-out, plastering, wiring, plumbing etc. All the work will be carried out by students under proper supervision, as part of their course work.
Funding.
The new centre is being funded entirely through a grant from an anonymous charitable trust, which is paying for the materials used. The Learning and Skills Council is funding the College’s input, and the students are all working as volunteers. Our deepest thanks go to all those involved.
Find out more. Go to www.occombe.org.uk
