A Classroom with a view?

Another challenging brief has led us into a long and twisty design journey where we had a requirement to build a comprehensive eco-classroom for an Academy School in the UK. Our in-house design team are always happy for a challenge, and they set to work, creating a floorplan and a 3D visualisation of a building which contained four classrooms, toilets, kitchen, a central garden area, an office and plenty of break-out space.

Glamping Staycation Rentals

It was a surprise to me, though it really shouldn’t have been. Camping out in the Lake District with small children and basking in the sunshine for a few glorious days. Only to be cut short due to dark thunderous clouds, lashing rain and gale force winds. I did what any parent would do. Stubbornly refused to give up on our short family holiday. Frantically scouring the numerous websites such as Booking.com, Trivago, AirBNB… in the campsite cafe.. desperate. Just for a room. One room. One night. Two. Three. Anything. Anywhere.

How can the whole of Cumbria be booked up? Shepherds Huts, caravans, lodges, hotel rooms, guest houses, tree-houses, upturned boats, busses, trains.. glamping pods and cabins of all shapes and sizes. Zero availability.

Until November.

Why, indeed, not only was everything booked up. It was two or three times more expensive than usual.

We ended up in what was little more than a Travelodge, 50 miles away, in a run-down forlorn town in the back end of nowhere. At £250.00 per room, per night. In the rain.

We glumly resigned ourselves to the fact that we were fighting for accomodation with 66million other brits.

So, now, I realise the huge opportunity this presents to our clients. Past, present and future.

If there were EVER a time to build a holiday cottage or boutique lodge. Now is it. Today. Yesterday would’ve been even better.

If you are a landowner or an existing B&B…. Quick! Increase your capacity!

We rent Rotunda Roundhouses out to those who don’t have the immediate capital. Rental prices are £200.00 per week for a 5.5m en-suite building.

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So, if you’re quick. You could ride the wave which clearly, many accomodation providers are experiencing this year. Of course, they need to, given the restrictions placed upon all of us last year. This is the time to catch- up and hit the ground running.

How does the saying go? “Make hay whilst the sun shines?”

I hope you do!

Gemma x

……RODENTS!??

Rarely do we engage with clients without key construction questions arising. “How does it sit on the ground?” we’re asked. “Why is round structurally stronger?” “What thickness are the walls?” and “How does the roof support itself without internal pillars?” along with our absolute favorite…..

“How do we stop rodents from getting in and nesting under the floor?!”

This is usually accompanied by a theatrical gasp of horror, twinkling mischevious eyes and a hand firmly clamped over their mouth… feigning the reality of living with that situation!

We LOVE these questions! For we’ve been dilligently designing superlative features into the manufacture of our Roundhouses over the past decade in anticipation of just such events.

When it comes to design; we are a team of worriers at Rotunda HQ. We worry about the “What ifs” and the “What mights” more than we probably should. But, we build for schools and nurseries. Children are using these buildings on a daily basis. One thing we love, as much as trees, are children! As a consequence of this, we have over-engineered what was once a modest and unassuming little garden room into a bomb-proof feat of engineering.

Buildings like ours (modular) are constructed in insulated ‘cassettes’ which are pre-fabricated in our joinery workshop. When they arrive at site, they are installed first. Soon after, the walls go up…

All in all, each element comes together to make a Rotunda, absolutely unique and unbelievably durable. If you’d like to see a building which we have constructed, please do call us on 0161 223350 and arrange a site-visit to a building near you.

Until then……..Enjoy the sunshine!

Early Years Transformation

On a breezy and blustery day back in late 2019 David King, our photographer was setting up his equipment on the lawn of the local infant school, Combs. Located on a open site, beneath a backdrop of craggy hills and under the wide canopy of a 100 year old Oak tree. This was a special eco-building, sited in a National Park of the Peak District, Derbyshire. We knew how important this building was to Combs, and since it’s been installed, we are told that the Roundhouse has transformed how this little school operates.

With a mere 24 children in the building and overheads running much higher than the income could support, Combs was threatened with closure. What they needed was an increase to their PAN number, a handful of extra children to increase the size of their school and bring a sustainable revenue to support their operations. But, operating from a village hall, the two rooms which supported the existing school pupils was already bursting at the seams.

“We would have shut down, by now.” the head teacher remarks wistfully. “This building has literally saved our school. We now have a waiting list.”

When it comes to job satisfaction, all of us, at Rotunda Roundhouses can confidently state, we have the best jobs in the world. Transforming education from the ground up.

Setting up a Retreat?

Life. It can be extraordinarily difficult. It really can. Our contemporary society propels us rapidly from one time-consuming task to another and we are all under enormous pressure to be excelling in our careers, as parents, as thoughtful friends, siblings and managing to keep our houses clean and children fed. No wonder one in four people experience a mental health issue of some kind each year in England. In the past 12 months, in particular, we have seen several of our clients come to us with their idea of setting up a retreat. Their reasoning? For all of the reasons above… and another, very wise business diversification project to capture the inflated number of British tourists which will (when allowed!) descend into our UK countryside looking to escape the never-ending lockdown situations we’ve all been faced with.

The leisure industry has been facing dramatic upheaval in the UK but is now set to bounce back with vigour (due to restricted foreign travel). Glamping sites, B&B’s and hotels are all bracing themselves for a record year. 2021 could be the perfect year for you to jump start a powerful transformation and slingshot your existing B&B or Farm business into a retreat centre. Why? Because we need more than a “holiday”. We need healing. We need therapy. We need nurturing. We need a mental and physical overhaul to overcome the hardship and struggle which many of us have endured.

Setting up a Retreat experience for UK Tourists not only provides you (and them) with overnight stays, but weaves in an element of activity and healing which can be of enormous benefit to your guests. You have a plethora of choices when it comes to your offering. Retreat experiences are expanding out from the basic yoga or fitness retreats that created this trend but are taking new and emerging offerings each year, as many extraordinary hosts & speakers create genuine transformational experience. When setting up a retreat, you can incorporate as many or as few practices as you feel there is a market for. Retreats span all areas of life: from personal growth to active travel adventures to spirituality to women’s empowerment to consciousness and everywhere in between.

When considering setting up a retreat, it is important to assess which of the practices/experiences/workshops you would like to deliver and whether there is (a) a market for these courses (b) that you have no local direct competition (c) that you have access to course leaders and facilitators (d) whether you will run accomodation options or provide day courses only.

You may already have an existing glamping or leisure site and might be concerned that many others are hurriedly setting up new sites to capture the new influx of UK tourists – so the competition is going to be tough this year. But, of the landowners considering setting up a retreat may be few and far between. Experiences, not just overnights, are becoming increasingly popular. This is apparent by the transitioning of the popular travel agency model AirBNB. Sensing that experiences are a perfect bolt-on to overnight stays, the AirBNB experience was launched.

Recent articles such as this one https://www.countryandtownhouse.co.uk/travel/meditation-retreats-uk/ and this one https://bookretreats.com/s/wellness-retreats/united-kingdom are worth a read, they could give you some insight as to what is currently available in the UK before you embark on setting up a retreat of your own.

It’s worth considering whether this is a seasonal offering or a year-round business. The seasonal tourism should support an excellent attendance and guest rate, but if you wanted to maximise this opportunity, a year-round building might just increase the viability of your offering and bring you a stable income and more sustainable long-term revenue model for you.

Ultimately, it all comes down to how much value YOU find, in a retreat centre. If you, like us, feel that an experience holiday is setting you apart from your competition, giving your business a whole new identity and creating value in transformational experiences, setting up a retreat on your land is the most natural thing for you to do.

If you need a building – you know who to call! A circular Temple might just be the platform you need for your sensational workshops and events.

Colour in the Garden Room

Considering a garden office or garden room to ease the homeworking situation? There are so many choices when it comes to a garden room and clients always come to us after looking at the plethora of square and rectangular garden rooms only to find a unique charm in the change of shape.

But it’s not just shape that can enhance the experience of working in your garden room.

It’s colour!

Here are five things to look out for when choosing a colour scheme for your garden room:

1. Choose a colour which suits the size. Dark colours on walls give the illusion of bringing them closer to you. Thus, the room seems smaller. Choose dark colours only in larger spaces, or just on one feature wall.
2. Choose tones which are complimentary. Select two colours from opposing sides of the colour wheel (two warm, two cool) and have some fun with your garden room! You can often find example of complimentary schemes in nature. We have illustrated the electric blues, teals and burnt orange from a kingfisher on the above mood board. Your two complimentary colours work with all neutral shades. (Browns, greys and beige).
3. Work with your existing property. Do you have a style of window/door in your existing home which you could colour match? Many clients like to paint their windows in the same shade. Traditional sage greens for windows look wonderful in a Garden Room.
4. Colour psychology – create the right atmosphere. Colour can enhance or disturb the mindset of the occupant who’s spending time in the garden room. For example, red will increase the heart rate and make one want to spend just small windows of time in there. Greens and blues are soothing, they are ideal for longer periods of time. (Perfect for a meditation room or therapy studio); Orange increases the appetite! Excellent news if your garden room is a dining room!
5. Tie-in the blinds/curtains and soft furnishings. If you are furnishing your garden room, take time to incorporate the colour scheme into these fabrics or vice versa. For example, if you have Floral curtains, you can pick out the shade of a light green stem and use that either on the walls or as a block colour on cushions and throws.

We LOVE colour – so we are happy to compile some colour schemes for you whilst your Rotunda garden room is in production. A complimentary interior design service is something many of our clients have felt is valuable so feel free to contact us if this is of use to you too.

Eco Roundhouse Nursery Building

Last week our exceptional cameraman “Charlie Round” (I know!) captured a recent installation of ours in Slough. This is a 9m Roundhouse with 3m extension wings to house an office and toilets. The clients were so delighted with their Rotunda Roundhouse that they agreed to allow us to film their testimonial – thank you Blue Willow Day Nursery!

Winter Trading for Glamping Sites

Depressingly, as all Leisure and Glamping sites will attest to, this year has been difficult. No trading through the spring and summer season has left many sites bereft. In particular, the seasonal sites who depend upon the warmer months for their entire annual revenue.

A client of ours called in shortly after the restrictions were relaxed for Lockdown No.1. This client, (thankfully) was calling to tell us that they’d had an exceptional winter season preceding the lockdown. This, they told us “saved their business”. Enabling them to ride out the storm (during the forced closure) on their cash reserves built up over the winter.

With the option of ‘year-round’ functional eco-buildings available to Glamping and Leisure sites, some of our clients choose to upgrade their Yurts and Tipis and invest in the long term.

“Why would a Glamping site pay 10 times more for a Rotunda than they would for a Yurt?!” some hesitant glamping site owners have asked us. This is understandable, if you are acheiving £100 per night for a yurt why on earth would it make sense to increase their capital outlay for the same return?

The investment isn’t for short term gain. It’s long-term. To increase the trading period from 6 months to 12 months, and to continue trading with warm, luxurious and winter-proof eco-buildings which will:

• Transform a Glamping site to a ‘Boutique self-catering B&B’
• Increase TripAdvisor ratings and improve the Glamping site brand
• Capture the Autumn, Christmas and Valentines season for couples
• Create a +30 Year investment which will not degenerate

The benefit to trading in the winter is that your business is bringing a revenue in all year round which enables you to work your business around your life, rather than the other way around!

If you are a Glamping site and you currently have Yurts on your site, it may be very simple for you to remove the planning conditions that are currently restricting your trading months and replacing your “Yurts” with “Wooden Yurts” so you can make a smooth and painless transition to the next evolutionary stage of your business.

In the meanwhile, keep positive everyone,

Rotunda x

2 bed eco-building for Glamping Sites

This cleverly designed little eco-building was designed in-house to suit a specific brief given by a client of ours. We love being challenged and coming up with new concepts.

Have an idea for your glamping project? Are you seeking innovation? If so, please feel free to try us – we’ll put our thinking caps on and design your eco-building to suit your site…. Remember; the only limitation is your imagination.

Ahead of the Curve!

This is for sure a curve that doesn’t need any flattening! From our perspective, this must certainly be one of the most architecturally interesting houses built in the UK during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Designed exclusively by Joanna Hayes, our company director. It’s an architectural masterpiece. We can happily declare that; we’ve got it covered. Curves are here to stay.

Yesterday, Philip Kay and I popped over to see how our client was getting on with her 5 bedroomed eco-home which has been under construction for about 11 months. Nearing completion now, the staircase and the kitchen are both going in, along with the plumbing and electrical system.

Usually, I am someone who talks a lot and is overly-passionate about every single one of our Roundhouses. This, however? This building rendered me literally speechless for a good five minutes. Walking around, gazing at the sweeping cuves which flow toward and away from eachother in a never-ending dance of movement. The light-filled rooms, contracting and expanding curves in the hallways and fibbonaci style curved stairwell seamlessley meld together. The whole house is full of vibrancy and movement and the tactile nature of it all is utterly compelling. One could spend all day just looking at the walls.

There is still some way to go until the final fix and the paint finishes perfected, the guttering and external detailing complete and the internals ready for the furniture to arrive. But ,it’s a good glimpse of how this showstopping Rotunda-home is going to look…

The photographs are hopefully enough to illustrate how this building is now coming to life, but, really, to experience it is another level entirely.

Clambering up to the upper level bedroom on a tall ladder was a humbling and surreal experience. It’s a wide spiral, ascending to a cirle; like climbing up a pristine white nautilus shell.

This is the first time we’ve constructed a dual-level Rotunda Roundhouse and, for me, the first time I’ve stepped into a round above a round. The feeling of the space is simply magnificent.

We are tremendously excited to unveil the building when it’s fully complete. For us, the idea of living in anything other than a flowing, organic, tactile and warm environment which is nurturing and exciting is paramount to human wellbeing and I for one, am on the waiting list for the next one !

Take care everyone, stay safe

Rotunda x

Trees AREN’T square!

Treehouse with Curves!

Rotunda is levelling up. Up a tree, that is! Over the years, we’ve designed and built all sorts of treehouse style structures but this one really is special. Those curve fanatics out there (we hear you!) will most definitely appreciate the fibbonaci spiral integration…

There is little we can say about this scheme for it’s in the preliminary stages pending planning appoval BUT what we will say is this; “Trees aren’t square.” This configuration hugs the natural curves of the tree it’s supported on and wraps around as a natural spiral and curves like a nest would. In our opinion, all houses should be round, but none more so than the humble treehouse.

We are now completely booked up for 2020 and are taking enquiries for 2021/2022. If you are looking for a scheme and would like to chat to one of us please don’t hesitate to call on 0161 2223350 whereby we’ll be happy to help you with any ideas or visions you may like to share.

6m Primrose Suite at a Wedding Venue

It was only a week or two ago that we received an excited call from our client, up in the Highlands of Scotland. “I’ve got bookings running through until November already..” he began.

The Rotunda Honeymoon suite had been competed less than a month ago and already his wedding business was picking up from where it’d left off, pre-lockdown. Like most businesses, we’d all had to stop mid-construction and then return when it was safe to; but now, we were all back on track and our client hit the ground running!

The site of this gorgeous 6m Rotunda is a wedding venue near Edinburgh, a country estate, with acres of manicured grounds, ancient trees, a panoramic view of the ocean and, incredibly, it’s very own gothic church.

So, their brief was very clear from the outset. They wanted spectacular. We love spectacular too. So, we worked with them to design their perfect Rotunda Roundhouse with deep, sweeping extension wings and an enormous decked area for a hot tub. The decking extended out over 20m to terminate around a majestic pine tree.

So, there she is. The treehouse at Dunglass Estate. Welcome to the world!

Our installations schedule has totally filled up now for 2020 so we are now booking in 2021 Roundhouses for all of our new clients. Please don’t delay, if you’d like to see us for a site survey or to secure a manufacturing slot for 2021 time is of the essence!

Until then, stay sane, keep smiling & enjoy the roundness of life!!

It’s time to do things differently.

Dome Blinds are now available

So, you tell me….. You actually want to be left in the dark?!!

Well, now you can. For a lie-in, that is! The final details have now been ironed out on our new design and we now have beautifully contemporary working rooflight dome blinds installed in some of our buildings.

We listened carefully to a client of ours who was enamoured with his Rotunda Roundhouse but struggled with being woken up in the early hours of our British Summertime with “gods’ flashlight”beaming down on him whilst he was in bed! Solution….?

This is now an upgrade feature available to all of our clients so please do ask if you are keen to have a blind fitted on your Rotunda. We can retrospectively fit these units so if you’d like us to upgrade your existing model please do contact us and we’ll get a blind organised for you.

Hampshire Wildlife Trust

Last year, in the summer of 2019, we at Rotunda Roundhouses have been fortunate enough to build a small 4m diameter Eco-building for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife trust. Set in the wetlands of the the Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve, this gorgeous little engagement office greets visitors as they arrive.

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This unit is unique, as are all of our commissions. The Wildlife Trust were keen on having an extra large bi-fold door which is a light oak effect Aluminium and spans a 2.5m width. The roof is our standard sedum blanket which promotes biodiversity for the insects and the interior walls are finished with their selected Farrow & Ball paint shade.

Overall, despite the harsh winter in an exposed spot, the building is weathering well and will continue to stand here as a beautiful “welcome office” for decades to come.

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Larch, incidentally, is our cladding of choice on all of our structures. It’s got excellent water repellent features due to it’s high resin content which is also a natural insecticide. The Scottish, historically used Larch for boat building and we beleive it to be the most durable exterior wood finish available in the UK. Working lifespan of a building like this would exceed 30-40 years.

So, if you take a visit to the nature reserve and spot a little round building boasting a Mandala on it’s glazing… you’ve met our little baby. We love this building so much!

Winner announced!

…. Drumroll please……

And the winner of the #Lockdown HERO campaign is…..

Congratulations Anisa! You have a free Weekend break at the Yurt Retreat in Somerset! https://www.theyurtretreat.co.uk/

House build on-going in Cheshire

Fortunately for our client, the COVID situation hasn’t affected the progression of her beautiful 5 bedroomed house construction in Lymm, Cheshire. Before we unveil it publicly on it’s completion we thought we’d upate you with a few progress shots…

Ah! This is the mother of all Rotundas! With the largest Roundel measuring 13m diameter and the second largest at 12m; this is a truly exceptional undertaking. Designed by our director Joanna Hayes, this is the largest build and the first double storey we’ve ever constructed. Breaking boundaries, pushing paradigms and building a better world, one Roundhouse at a time.

Oh, and the plans… just to give you a glimpse of what the finished project will look like…

Remember to water that roof!

We are so fortunate to have the most amazingly clear skies and warm weather at a time of national and international crisis! Whilst we are busy honing our newly acquired skills in baking soudough and homeschooling (erm, well, if you could call it that) it’s easy to overlook some key maintenance requirements in the garden. Although our English lawns are not yet as dry and parched as they were back in the summer 2018, the lack of rain is starting to affect many of our small shrubs and border plants.

One plant that might have been overlooked is the one on top of your Rotunda Roundhouse garden room! It’s a very hardy little succulent; the sedum. Nevertheless… if left in a drought situation it can end up looking like this:

But it doesn’t take much to revive it- you can either purchase some seeds from us and re-seed it, or go directly to our Sedum roof supplier SKYGARDENS who can perform a maintenance service for you.

If you remember that your roof is a living organism and if you remember to give it a little water in a drought, you can keep your roof looking like this!

COVID-19 Update

To protect the health of our workforce we have had to slow our organisation down. As of Monday the 30th of March we have had to cease activity in our joinery workshop. We still have builds on site ongoing and we are still answering our phones and email.

This does mean, that work in production as slowed down and we have prepared our factory so that the moment the lock-down is lifted we can get straight back to work. We have a dozen clients waiting on their buildings over the next three months. Be rest assured that although you are still a priority for us, our installation schedule will certainly be affected by this temporary shut-down of operations. We will be in touch to advise each and every one of our clients of the estimated build date once we have a clearer idea of when we can commence manufacture pending hibernation.

Please bear with us whilst we ride out the storm. We will be fully operational again as soon as the situation improves.

Contact us here if you have any queries in the meanwhile. See you soon!

Rotunda Roundhouses x

MP visits Rotunda Roundhouse at a local school to offer condolences

On Friday the 20th of March in the little Peak District village of Combs, the one and only infant school closed its doors to the vast majority of their children and families in local community.   The MP Robert Largan came to visit the school as they closed their doors to wish everybody well, offer his condolences and support.  Whilst remaining open to key-workers families, this temporary school closure is particularly difficult for Combs Infant School considering it was only six months ago that they celebrated the opening of their inspirational new eco-building “The Treehouse” which afforded them the space to accept extra pupils and keep their school open despite funding cuts.    A truly unique building which was very special to the school; a circular timber-framed structure designed to provide an uplifting and engaging learning experience, inspired by the Iron Age roundhouses of our ancestors and the circles, nests & cycles of nature

When asked how he felt about the National school closures Robert Largan stated that “it’s an unprecedented situation and very sad to see it happen but the government are having to do this based on the best medical advice. But at the same time they are doing it in a way which allows key workers to send their children in. This ensures that NHS staff can continue their vital services. We realise that we are asking a lot of parents teachers and everybody involved but I’m confident that we will find a way through this”. He finished by stating “We’re all In this together”. 

Mrs Cook added that: “Combs is a small school but all the staff and governors are working really hard to support our children and parents.  At this difficult time it has also been great that all the local schools have been working together to support each other.”