What is ‘Natural Building’?

Natural Building can be a broad and nebulous concept, but generally speaking it refers to a sustainable construction approach using local, minimally processed, and eco-friendly materials — such as earth, straw, wood, and stone — to create durable and low-carbon structures.

Whilst some processed materials may be required the intention is to prioritise local and ecological materials, creating spaces that are healthy and hearty. Natural materials lend themselves toward more curvacious and organic forms, facilitating creaing spaces outside of the box-ish shape we’ve become accustomed to.

We loving working with wood at Woodcraftian and wherever possible we try to include locally produced timber products into our building projects - be that roundwood poles, coppice products, or chucks of wood for cordwood poles.

We understand that cost is the limiting factor for most clients and so we utilise natural products to help to reduce material costs, whilst holiding space for volunteer participants to help produce supplemental labour. We’re not purists though and will use components such as metal fixings (gasp) where necessary.

We’ve never used concrete and have no intention to start any time soon! We work to rigourous standards and technical specifications but go the extra distance to utilise innovative and sustainable construction methods, tried and tested.

What Woodcraftian Can Make For You

We’re experienced in both roundwood and convenitional square timber framing - what we can make is limited only by our imagination and ingenuity, and aligning this with material concerns such as cost. Check our our gallery for examples of our previous work and feel free to get in touch with any idea, as dreamy as you’d like.

Woodcraftian is set up for off-gird working and we can create a structure in any space. We are experienced for a variety of walling systems - wattle and daub, abode, light clay slip, and strawbale - and roofing options, although green roofs remain our personal preference.

Whether it’s a habitable cabin, garden room, sauna, or roundwood timber framed roundhouse we are happy to meet you needs and create a beautiful natural building with you.