Dancer swaps New York for house of straw

Apr 29 2008 by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

ITS walls are made of straw bales, its powered by wind and sunlight, was 12 years in the making and largely built by unskilled women volunteers from all over the world.

Perched atop the mouth of the River Teifi, at a spot once used as a lookout point by the monks of the now ruined St Dogmaels Abbey, the UKs only load-bearing two-storey straw bale house was even visited by Amazonian tribes people and Aboriginal chiefs during its lengthy construction.

And, having finally been completed this year, it is now one of three buildings vying for the title of Eco-Home of the Year, to be awarded at Channel Fours Grand Designs Live show next week.

Owner Rachel Shiamh gave up an off-Broadway dancing career in New York and a Manhattan lifestyle to return to Wales and oversee the project, living in a shed in woodland for seven years before building finally started in 2003.

The result, Penwhilwr Welsh for watch tower has no mains electricity or water supplies, uses biomass heating fuelled by coppiced wood from the surrounding woodland, has a rainwater harvesting system and all waste is composted on site.

Its uniqueness led to it becoming a virtual pilgrimage site for people from across the globe who arrived in the remote corner of West Wales in their hundreds to help build it. They still make it a destination now for its courses, retreats and conferences on the ways of authentic living, natural building, yoga, healing, music and meditation.

I came back home to visit my parents and I found the land. I wasnt really looking for it but when it came up I had such a strong sense that I needed to live in nature, said Ms Shiamh, 42.

Then it changed the course of my life. It took five years to build because it was a self-build project and a way of building which encompassed education and working with the community.

It had a natural ebb and flow to it which was also reliant on my own energy levels.

I realised that if I wanted the home I envisioned I would have to project manage it myself.

After two years of communications with Pembrokeshire Planning Authority who have given me a lot of support I received planning permission to build a sustainable house.

Meanwhile I lived without mains in a shed, carrying water from a local spring, using candlelight, a gas stove and reaping the benefits of a compost loo.

My way of life completely changed as I lived here. I dropped my dance career to be in nature and allow the simple daily tasks of living here unfold.

Ms Shiamh cultivated a garden with some herbs and flowers already growing on her land, made flower essences and sun-infused oils from flowers and herbs and set up a space to silversmith and create jewellery inspired by her surroundings and meditations.

Whats interesting is that the site was once connected to the abbey, Ive always had a sense it was going to be bigger than me and it is starting to unfold that way, she said.

The homes original designs were drawn up by Lindsay Halton an architect whose new book The Secret of Home explores a homes physical aspects as deeper reflections of its owners spiritual life and path after a chance meeting resulting from his daughter being in Ms Shiamhs dance class.

Its construction during which straw bales were stitched together with bailing twine and cut into shape with saws before being painstakingly covered with clay and lime by hand and topped with a timber roof was then supervised by Amazon Nails, a company run by women which specialises in straw bale builds. The technique began more than 100 years ago, shortly after the introduction of the baling machine in America. There are still straw bale houses standing today that have stood the test of time and the elements.

You spend hours making a mix, all with hands and feet, then you spend the rest of the day spreading it on your walls with your hands, said Ms Shiamh.

Then, at the end of the day you stand back to look at it and it seems like youve done nothing at all.

It’s a grand week for home design on television

Fifteen homes from across the UK will compete for the title of Grand Designs Home of the Year 2008.

As part of its heavily promoted Grand Designs Live Week, Channel Four will screen six spin-off episodes of its flagship property programme over consecutive days, with viewers voting for what they believe is Britain’s best home in a number of categories before an overall winner is chosen.

Rachel Shiamh’s straw bale house will feature in the Eco-Build category. The television programme will run from Sunday to May 9 with a live exhibition being held over nine days, from Saturday to May 11, at London’s ExCel centre.

The event will feature more than 450 exhibitors, building workshops, including straw bale building, design tutorials and energy-efficiency hints.

Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud will also attempt to build an entire house within the event’s duration.

Little boxes. . .Kevin McCloud has blamed Grand Designs for sparking a fashion for identical-looking homes.

The presenter, 49, (below) said the Channel 4 series was partly responsible for the plethora of a "white boxes" that so many people live in today.

He said: "We’ve had a rash of applications for designs that five years ago we’d have rushed to film – basically, white rendered rectangular boxes with punctured projections, wood-clad or slate- clad with some glass. That’s more or less a cartoon description of that type of building."

He told the Radio Times: "If Grand Designs hadn’t been around, perhaps we wouldn’t have seen so many of those being built.

"But five years ago we were campaigning to get people to build modernist buildings, so I’m not going to grumble."