Monthly Archives:August 2014

Adding a green roof to the straw bale classroom

28 Aug 14
Michelle Gaffaney
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The walls are up, and it’s time to add the green roof to our straw bale classroom at Castle Hill School. First the beams go on Then we need to edge the roof It will be a green roof – a living ‘lawn’ of sedum on top of the classroom, so a strong ‘fence’ around the […]

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School toilets

19 Aug 14
Michelle Gaffaney
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Do you remember your school toilets? Not a good memory, right? If they were anything like mine, they were smelly, dingy and felt a bit like there might be a bully about to grab you at any minute. It doesn’t have to be like that – with thoughtful design, school toilets can be positive, clean […]

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Match that colour with Pantones

11 Aug 14
Michelle Gaffaney
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Finding the right shade for your home is really important – you’re going to be looking at it a lot! If you see a perfect colour and need to match it, there’s a simple tool to help – the Pantone system. What are Pantones? If you find it tricky to identify a precise colour shade, […]

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VIDEO: The classroom so far

11 Aug 14
Michelle Gaffaney
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Take a look at our straw bale classroom in progress! Our wonderful work experience student Autumn has put together this fab video showing the build so far at Castle Hill School. It shows the foundations being dug and built, the straw bale walls going up, and finally the timber roof going on: Of course, there’s […]

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Architect work experience – Autumn shares her story

07 Aug 14
Michelle Gaffaney
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This post is written by Autumn Jones, our fabulous work experience student. Autumn has been working with Michelle for the past few weeks and learning about all elements of Greenstone Design’s architectural design practice. Last week I arranged to work with Michelle to try and get some experience in architecture. I’ve always been interested in […]

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Straw bale compression – finishing off the walls at Castle Hill School

05 Aug 14
Michelle Gaffaney
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The walls are up at Castle Hill School, and we’re preparing to add the roof. Missed the wall-raising? You can read about that here. Meanwhile work has been continuing at a pace. We’ve had a mixed bag with the weather – plenty of swelteringly hot July days, but some rainy ones too, forcing us to […]

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