Ecology Building Society

A circular, loadbearing straw meeting room built for the Ecology Building Society in Silsden, West Yorkshire 2005. This design was drawn up by other architects based on details from Barbara Jones, who also designed the cement-free foundations. These are stone with lime mortar, built directly on good bearing soil, no trenches only the top soil removed. The slab is insulated limecrete made with leca (clay balls) on a capillary break also of leca (silicon coated). This was the first ever modern building with this type of foundation to be built and required some discussion s with the Building Inspector – but this type of foundation is common in Yorkshire in older houses built before cement was invented. It was built through courses run by Barbara Jones of Amazon Nails and Dales Contracts, builders