It all began during KS2 SATs in May 2009. Ben, 11, was working on his KS2 reading paper and came across the inset page about the Brighton Earthship. He looked up earnestly from the pictures and text and asked, “Please, do you think we could go and see it? I would love to see it!” And so it was a few weeks later that a group of PLACE parents and children set out from Bedford on a scorching summer’s day for the Earthship, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, Capital Connect and staff at the Carbon Trust in Brighton.
The sun beat down as we walked from the station through the grounds of Stanmer Park. We were met in front of Stanmer House by Phil from the Carbon Trust and set out on a further walk in the steaming sun – this time uphill to the Earthship. We then spent a wonderful few hours with Phil, touring the Earthship and finding out how it had been built by volunteers who have an interest in sustainable living and in caring tenderly for our Earth.
 We viewed an open section of the wall of the house, which has been constructed using old tyres and bottles for building materials. We saw flooring made from re-claimed tiles; a re-cycled kitchen sink; clever lighting that uses natural sunlight focused in a way to illuminate the interior rooms brightly; screens made using the ends of coloured glass bottles to give both light and privacy inside the Earthship. We learned how rainwater is collected from the roof, which also boasts a large collection of solar panels; how waste water is filtered and re-used. We saw that there is a small wind turbine outside and also a developing vegetable garden to further enhance sustainable living. The south-facing glass suntrap at the front of the Earthship is so well served by sun that a banana tree grows there in full splendour, in addition to many other useful plants.
Inside, in the main living room of the Earthship, the children engaged in a workshop with Phil, seeing and handling many useful items made from precious resources normally discarded as rubbish. They spent part of this session constructin g wallets from tetrapacks, again thinking about how they might use items we view as “rubbish” in ways that may be useful to us.
Finally, the children had a talk from an organic gardener, Doug, who has an allotment near to the Earthship. Doug grows organic herbs for local Brighton restaurants and explained to the children how he uses natural methods to control pests of all kinds, including ladybirds to keep aphid numbers in check and Goldie the ferret to deal with any explosion in the local rabbit population. Phil manages to harvest a good crop using Nature’s controls and without any harmful effects on the local ecology. The long journey to see the Earthship was worth every mile. The children were fascinated by the Earthship and enjoyed the afternoon’s learning. They even helped Doug to plant some herbs before heading back to Brighton.
The grand finale of the day was a few hours on the beach – a great treat for those of us who live in Bedford, which is an awfully long way from sea and sand ,,,
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 22:38 |
