Fire & Fern Bakery, Woolsery The Fire & Fern Bakery is being built on the site of dilapidated storerooms and is one of the ongoing projects which in combination are revitalising Woolsery Village. The designs have a new service building linking the bakery with the historic shop next door. Above the shop, hotel accommodation will open out onto a roof terrace, adjoining a planted green roof looking out over the open space of the garden below. This area will be a common space for people to use and will also contain seating for customers, creating a sense of space and openness in front of the low linear building set back on the site.Emerging from behind the bakery shop front, the fired clay brickwork of the bottle kiln chimney, inspired by 18th & 19th Century bottle kilns, will house the commercial ovens.The materials used for the new building respond to the rural nature of the site and celebrates the local vernacular traditions of other commercial buildings in the village; with a weathered tin roof, English Oak and unrendered cob.Significantly, the focus, as with all of the projects in the village, is on local, sustainable produce and supply. Birch Farm, the 150 acre smallholding just down the road from the bakery will supply fruit, veg and meat; part of the business’s unique ‘farm to fire’ approach. The bakery in turn will serve locals and holidaymakers as well as supplying the pub, fish & chip shop, the village shop and the Manor house hotel; all part of the ethos of each local business supporting each other. Project team: Client: Michael and Xochi Birch - The Collective at WoolseryArchitects: Jonathan Rhind ArchitectsConstruction: Anthony Branfield Carpentry & BuildingLandscape Architects: Urquhart & HuntInterior Design: New Heritage DesignLighting Design: Michael Grubb Studio
