OUR INSPIRATIONAL NEW STUDY CENTRE TAKES TO THE TREES!

Posted on Tuesday 29 April 2008

The ‘New Forest Treehouse’, as it will be known, is coming on apace. The pictures above were out of date before we even got to press; such is the rate the new buildings are going up. We were promised that change would quicken once the classroom platforms had been erected and how quick that change has been. Such current progress aside the project is a month behind schedule due to earlier problems with the delivery of wood; you can’t build a treehouse without wood and it has to be FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) wood! We are due to move into the new teaching spaces by the end of May so that the old rooms, and those awful old toilets, can be demolished and the new loos and office cum store cum boilerhouse built in their stead.

The finishing date for the whole scheme is still scheduled for August with the opening ceremony possibly in September. We have been fortunate in securing the services of Alan Titchmarsh, the broadcaster, writer, countryman and indeed Hampshireman by choice, to open the centre.

The treehouse centre will have several ‘sustainable’ features that are intended to be environmentally friendly and be educational. The central heating will be fired by a pellet boiler which uses wood pellets derived from scrap wood. In summer this would be inefficient to just heat water for washing, so we will have a smaller log gasification boiler fired once a week or so to heat an accumulator tank and will use logs from the surrounding woodland. The rainwater from the roofs will be collected to flush the loos (with the excess feeding the pond) and the office block will have solar panels to provide lighting in the loo block. Clear panels in the walls will show different kinds of natural insulation and the ash from the boilers will be mixed with our composted waste to provide a balanced fertiliser for the garden!

It is all very exciting and you can watch the progress by going to www.cet.org.uk/treehouse. We are not home and dry on the funding as these things always cost more than planned, but we are nearly there so any contributions gratefully received!

David Bridges, Director

Other recent news

• Watch the video of Alan Titchmarsh opening the new centre!
  25 Nov 2008
• TV GARDENER OPENS OUR NEW CENTRE!
  09 Oct 2008
• A Partner's View of Our Exciting Treehouse Build
  26 Mar 2008