Initiating phase 2 of Raise the Roof, BACH then joined up with architectural designer and recent Hooke Park graduate Georgina Bowman to further develop designs for a pilot of terraced homes. This work evolved alongside discussions with the forthcoming Foundry Lea development and focused on providing affordable housing solutions that would offer mixed occupancy dwellings and would be adaptable for Bridport’s shifting demographic’s needs. The designs considered structural methods that would enable locally-sourced timber to be employed in off-site fabrication and in conjunction with Modern Methods of Construction (MMC,) allowing for fibre-based insulation cassettes to be promptly placed on site, achieving a mortgageable shell sooner with resident-led self-finishing of the interiors.

Researcher Alexandra Carr of University of Plymouth worked to develop technical approaches to different insulation cassettes, testing methods of working with clay, lime and hemp within the project’s larger remit to develop a bioregional supply chain alongside the Hemp Field Trials. To aid in achieving Modern Methods of Construction approaches, the insulation mixtures were cast within CNC cut cassette frames made out of Ash planks that could be readily assembled on site. Ash Dieback is a disease that has affected much of the UK’s Ash trees requiring large amounts of felling. The fabrication of the cassettes tested various ways of working with natural wood in a digital workflow, intentionally substituting for plywood which is standard in these types of constructions but which is not produced in the UK.