Exclusive, unique, fly-on-the-bark exclusive access to a year in the life of Britain’s greatest living woodsman, via his two apprentices.
Ben Law is best known in Britain as ‘The Man Who Built His House in The Woods’ on the all-time favourite episode of the long-running architectural series ‘Grand Designs’.
Ben’s stunning roundwood-timber and straw-bale home, made from materials that surround him in Prickly Nut Wood, Sussex, marked his debut as a natural builder, but house-building is just one of many long-neglected traditional skills he’s mastered, and passed on to apprentices.
Ben Law’s Woodland Year follows Ben and his apprentices through the seasons, as he passes on his hard-won expertise in everything from coppicing to charcoal and hurdle-making.
We have the privilege of listening in, as they experience Ben Law’s Woodland Year, which makes sustainable living look like an aspiration, rather than a sacrifice.
Inspired to know more?
Ben Law’s Woodland Year.
When I saw a picture of Ben’s round pole home with waney edged board siding in the West Sussex woods, I got a jolt. Once in a while, a building will just stop me in my tracks, where everything works to create a harmonious whole – design, materials, craftsmanship, siting. Here was such a creation. Here was a kindred spirit.
Lloyd Kahn (Author of Shelter)
Ben Law on Grand Designs, Ch4.
Grand Designs | Channel 4 | Sussex 2003.
Kevin McCloud watches Ben build a handmade, cruck-framed, self sufficient house.
Kevin also revisited Ben in 2008.
View the episode here.
