Edwards Cob Eco Buildings

If you’re looking for a new, exciting and educational team building day for your team or company, you’ve come to the right place. Our workshops are hands-on, encourage team work, creativity, problem solving, and are linked closely with highly topical issues of sustainability.

Everyone will leave this engaging and exciting day with the skills to build their own earthen pizza oven, and a better understanding of themselves and their interaction with the environment and their co-workers/colleagues.

Unique location

Most team building days take place in Norfolk at our idyllic location on the edge of the breathtaking Filby Broad in Norfolk. The unique location allows participants to enjoy a new experience, in surroundings far removed from their usual office or work environment.
As teams learn and work together, they enjoy views over the water and are surrounded by nature. It is an incredibly relaxing place to be, and adds to the overall learning experience.
We can also visit your site and build an oven with you there if you'd prefer.

A brilliant day out

Building a pizza oven with the earth is an enriching and fun experience. You'll get your hands dirty, throw some mud around, and enjoy an uplifting and inspirational day. Past participants have commented they've "never laughed so much and learnt so much in one day". And of course, there's the mouthwatering pizzas from an earthen wood fired oven you devour at lunchtime too.

Learning Objectives

Every group that joins us on a team building day will have different objectives and learning goals. We will discuss these with you beforehand and ensure the day meets all your expectations.
Your objectives may simply be for your group to enjoy a great day out whilst learning a new skill and more about sustainable building. Alternatively you may have more specific objectives related to for example - team work, creativity, problem solving, confidence building etc.
All our courses are flexible and are tailored to your requirements.

A typical course might include...

The day will start with introductions , whilst sat on the straw bales under the green mess tent, enjoying a hot tea or coffee. The learning objectives for the day are shared.
A brief background on earth building and other traditional building methods is given. Issues surrounding sustainable development are also looked at.
Next the group are shown how to source sand and clay from the earth. In pairs the participants then mix their materials to form ‘cob’ – this is done by dancing on mud and straw on tarps! Participants are shown how to test if they have the correct mix. A delicious lunch of homemade pizzas in enjoyed – pizzas are cooked in another earthen oven already built on site.
After lunch participants work as a team to build their earthen oven, and enjoy sculpting a shape they choose as a group.
During cake and tea, participants discuss the days learning, and any questions or further ideas are explored. Everyone should leave the day with the ability to go away and build their own earthen pizza oven.
Within this basic frame work we can set specific challenges and tasks designed to meet your learning objectives.

Team Work

The day is filled with team work – whole group work, smaller group work and pairs. Everyone plays a vital role in the day and the building of the earthen oven. The course leaders are particularly specialised in encouraging everyone to feel confident participating and ensuring everyone gets the most they can from the day.

Course Leaders

Kate Edwards is the course leader and earth building expert.
As well as having extensive knowledge and skills in earth building and other forms of sustainable building, she is also an experienced teacher. She runs tens of earth building courses every year for various groups on everything from how to build a whole house, to how to build an earthen oven.
As a qualified Art Psychotherapist Kate also has extensive experience in facilitating groups and group dynamics.
Kate also as a degree in sculpture from Camberwell, London.
Kate has a professional and natural ability to bring the best out of individuals. Her enthusiasm for earth building is infectious and inspiring, and her teaching style is informative, engaging and entertaining.

Charlotte Eve is the assistant course leader.
Charlotte Eve is who you will probably liaise with before you attend the course. She specialises in designing the day around your learning objectives and ensures everything runs smoothly. Charlotte is experienced in working with groups – she is a qualified teacher and has a degree in Psychology, with particular interest in group dynamics and Occupational Psychology.

Past groups include:

Groups from a wide range of industries and sectors find our team building courses beneficial. To date we have run team building days with groups from schools, architectural firms, charities, the media, the building trade, environmental groups and more. It should be stressed that your group does NOT need any previous experience in building or sustainability. The day is relevant and engaging for groups from any type of group or organisation.

Prices

The pizza oven workshop works best with between 8 to 10 participants. We can be flexible with this.
The standard day with eight participants costs £135 per head.
Prices can vary though. For example, some additional learning activities may incur an additional fee.

Accommodation

Many groups come to us from all over the UK and even the world. We can assist you with finding accommodation. Recent groups have stayed at the lakeside campsite, 5 minutes walk around the lake from the course location. However, you may prefer somewhere with a few more creature comforts. There are plenty of excellent hotels and B&Bs to suit all budgets, nearby in Norwich, Acle and Great Yarmouth.

How do you book a team building day?

To find out more and to book a team building day in Norfolk or at your site, please call our Educational Director Charlotte Eve, on 01493 369952 or 07766 220526 . Alternatively email us as sheepie32@hotmail.com