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Sarah's Sustainable Slovakian Experience

Students and staff with the mud wall they made (Sarah second from left) (click image to enlarge)

A CONSERVATION lecturer from Duchy College Rosewarne has just returned from a volunteering trip to Slovakia, where she learnt more about sustainable building techniques and traditional building methods.

Sarah Chafer, from Camborne, spent a week at a village near Sahy on the Hungarian border in Slovakia, gaining experience and exploring different practices of Slovakian building. Sarah went on the trip with some conservation lecturers and students from the College’s Stoke Climsland campus.

Sarah explained: “I was really keen to go because I wanted to further my knowledge and explore the opportunities for work placements for our students next year. It was so useful, really interesting work and great to get involved with the projects. I’ll be sharing my new skills with the students and intend to use them in our next equality and diversity festival at the College.”

During the trip the group spent two days in Bratislava, worked with a builder from Germany who specialised in building with mud bricks in a traditional style and helped to renovate a traditional Slovakian house for future eco-tourism.

Sarah added: “It was a really fantastic trip, I particularly enjoyed helping to renovate the eco-house; we learnt about mud brick making and rendering, we made a rustic shelter out of maple trees and it was so interesting to see all the different eras in the building.”

Andrew Counsell, Head of Duchy College, said: “This was an extremely worthwhile visit; it’s wonderful to see our staff sharing and expanding their skills and expertise. I’m sure the students will really benefit from Sarah’s experience and hopefully next year some of them may be able to partake in the trip themselves.”

To find out more about the conservation courses available at Duchy College Rosewarne, please call 0845 605 0455 or visit the website www.duchy.ac.uk.

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