The Woodland House (Hardcover)

~ Ben Law (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Full of stunning color photographs, this book is a visual guide to how Ben built his outstandingly beautiful home in the woods. It is also a practical manual and the story of a man realizing his lifelong dream to build one of the most sustainable and beautiful homes in Britain.

Ben's amazing chestnut timber framed house was hewn from his own woodland. He infilled the frame with local straw bales and plastered them with his own clay and locally sourced lime. the roof was made from chestnut shingles and the weatherboard is local hand-milled oak. He even made his own window frames out of hand planed ash. He built the whole structure for under 28,000 British pounds with the help of volunteers, with no crane, no waste, no skip and not a unit of electricity off the national grid. His electricity comes from the sun and wind, his heat from wood and solar hot water panels and his water from a spring and the sky. His greywater is purified by a reedbed system and his compost loo feeds the fruit trees in his orchard.

The Woodland House gives details of the evolving design process, identifying materials, costs, project management, and the actual building. It proves that low cost, low impact, and high aesthetics can go hand in hand, and that it is possible to build green and to build affordably.

In the United States, Ben will appear on the Home & Garden Network’s The World’s Most Extreme Homes , a series with more than seventeen million viewers per episode, in the spring of 2006.

About the Author

Ben Law is an innovative woodsman who has lived and worked in West Sussex for over twenty years. He is a woodlands expert held in the highest regard and author of The Woodland Way: A Permaculture Approach to Sustainable Woodland Management .

Product Details

• Hardcover: 93 pages
• Publisher: Permanent Publications (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856230317
• ISBN-13: 978-1856230315
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #830,062 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Follows the step-by-step process of its construction with color photos all the way, August 16, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Author Ben Law build a lovely home in the woods - one of the most sustainable and lovely in Britain - and here provides his experience on the whole process, completed under L28,000 with the help of volunteers and no crane, no waste, and no electricity from the grid. His home is an inspiration and was featured on the TV show 'Grand Designs': the book follows the step-by-step process of its construction with color photos all the way.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch