In February, Laurence Llewelyn Bowen visited the Hockerton Housing Project to find out more about Eco homes and sustainable living. This was for a current series called Laurence Llewelyn Bowen’s History of Home , charting the changing relationship and attitudes towards our homes. The 9th out of 10 programmes, The Eco House , uses Hockerton Housing Project (HHP) as a case study. This will be broadcast on Thursday 3 April 2008 15:45-16:00 (Radio 4 FM).
Laurence interviewed both Nick White and Simon Tilley, both residents of HHP, to try and find out more about the emergence of eco housing, discover some of the misconceptions, and try to understand where it maybe leading to, for instance zero carbon homes. In Laurence’s typical flamboyant style, the interviews were very spontaneous, tangential and with distinct velvety undertones!
HHP opened the doors of its new ‘Sustainable Resource Centre’ (SRC) for visitors at the beginning of 2005, after 18 months of construction and kitting out. The building was designed, work supervised and most of the labour contributed by project members themselves. The new building is in stark contrast to the infamous ‘shed’ used for visitors over the last 7 years for slide presentations, offering comparatively luxurious facilities including a dedicated audio-visual room, seminar facilities and permanent exhibitions.
The new facilities will allow HHP to demonstrate more effectively the key sustainability principles of the project. The ‘eco-community building’ is low profile situated near and complimenting the houses, including an earth covered roof. This building has been designed to meet the same high standards as the homes, ‘Zero CO2’, ‘Zero heated’, and ‘Autonomous’ standards’.
HHP receives 1000 visitors a year, however, the numbers of visitors has been restricted due to lack of suitable facilities. Thus, HHP members have had a long ambition to provide better facilities to demonstrate its sustainable achievements. As the interest has grown in HHP (it is anticipated that HHP will double or treble visitors in the next few years), the need for a dedicated Sustainable Resource Centre on site seems ever more apparent. Construction plans for the building are beginning.
The SRC will be an inspirational centre and act as regional catalyst for sustainable action, offering improved facilities, including a dedicated audio-visual room and permanent exhibitions, and more extensive activities for a wide range of interest groups, particularly local schools.
HHP has received a significant boost to its plans to develop the Sustainable Resource Centre (SRC) through a National Lottery grant of £49,619 from the New Opportunities Fund, awarded by the Social, Economic and Environmental Development (SEED) Programme.
