Bridport Cohousing, the group behind the new Hazlemead development in Bridport, is hosting a series of courses in natural building, using locally sourced and some recycled materials.

The courses are expected to prove extremely popular and will be led by Barbara Jones, the UK guru of straw bale building and co-founder of the School of Natural Building.

The courses have already started but there are more coming up, covering straw bale construction, straw bale volunteering, lime plastering, clay rendering, and a Build Fest with talks from multiple experts.

You can find full details of the courses at https://bridportcohousing.org.uk/courses/

Bridport Cohousing CLT provides a shining light for affordable housebuilding. This community-led project, which has been coming to fruition over the past 14 years, is now nearly completed at Hazelmead.

Most of the affordable, eco houses are now occupied – there are children playing on the car-free streets and residents have planted up a community orchard and are now harvesting a mountain of courgettes in the communal growing beds.

The one bedroom flats will be the last homes to be occupied and it is hoped that builders will be off site at the beginning of September.

Building a common house – a vital part of a co-housing community – was always going to prove difficult for this neighbourhood of low income families and retired people.

'Chipping in' to cover costs is prohibitive and there is no grant funding for a non-residential building which does not have open access to the public.

Building costs have almost doubled in the past few years and residents didn't want to saddle themselves with debt for years to come - it was necessary to think outside the box.

A conversation with some designers and natural building experts created a radical approach to the problem and they are now realising that this is their one-off opportunity of finishing of the project at Hazelmead in Bridport - the biggest co-housing development in the UK, with the largest community microgrid (to date) on site and the first co-housing / CLT scheme in the country, and in partnership with a housing association.