After months of speculation and last-minute rallying of the troops, the group left Birmingham and arrived in Warsaw for The Natural House Clay Build Technology (CBT) project. A further bumpy ride via Frederick Chopin’s residence took us to our final destination in the beautiful area of Laziska to our hosts’ residence. We were welcomed with fantastic hospitality and a great meal.

Photo by Claire Appleby

We likened the experience to Big Brother with a group of strangers thrown together to be given tasks and filmed for the duration. The simile (comparison?) was further reinforced when four of us were evicted from the Big Brother house on the first night. As there were not enough rooms in our hosts’ house, the four evictees stayed at a separate location. The hospitality here was equally as warm and the location equally as idyllic. Two of the evictees had the fortune to inherit for the week a clay/straw building for their sleeping quarters. We were very impressed with the build and it gave us our first taster of the clay build technique.

Photo by Alan Cheeseman

The mood in the group is good. There is a great deal of excitement about the week ahead and we are all looking forward to the first day of the course.

Tom