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Work on new Dartmoor Wing and shower block

November, 2022

It was, and still is, a great joy to have completed the work on our new Dartmoor Wing this summer. Thanks to the tremendous generosity of our extended community, the crumbling stone garages opposite the Hermitage have been transformed into a beautiful two-storey, wood-clad building.

The new wing was officially opened in July with a wonderful community day attended by friends from near and far.

This fabulous new space, which exists entirely thanks to the kind donations we received, means we can now offer:

  • 10 additional single rooms for group retreats (we have 20 in total now!)
  • 4 additional toilets and 2 additional showers in Denbury Wing (plus we have 7 further showers in the new shower block)
  • Separate, quiet accommodation for group retreat teachers
  • A new lounge and larger meditation room for our residential service community
  • New meeting rooms for staff and teachers, which means the Library and Lounge are now more available for retreatants
  • More spacious offices for our staff team, away from the main silent retreat space

The enforced shutdown period of 2020/21 was the ideal time to get on with the noisy construction work without the concern of disrupting our exquisite silent retreat environment. We are pleased to report that we managed to complete the building project for less than we had budgeted, primarily by managing the build in-house and switching to an architect who was able to offer us friendly rates.

Additional shower block

Seizing the opportunity of the pause in our usual operations, we made a determined effort to build a new shower block next to the Garden Wing. We now have seven new shower cubicles that are heated in an ecologically sustainable way via a heat exchanger that uses our existing biomass boiler, which means near to zero carbon output in heating the showers.

The block was completed in 10 months and was ready for when we were able to welcome back our first retreatants in summer 2021. As we were still very much restricted to social distancing conditions at this time, the seven additional showers allowed us to offer more retreatant places than we would otherwise have been able to, which both increased access to our retreats and helped Gaia House re-gain some financial security.

The Dartmoor Wing and shower block are by far the biggest developments to our site since the Chapel, Hermitage and Garden Wing were built in the 1950s and 60s by the sisters of the Convent who resided at ‘Ogwell House’ before it was taken over by Gaia House Trust in 1996. We are so thankful to our Building and Grounds team, Iain Fraser and Richard Rendle, who managed the project to the highest standards and lowest costs possible.

We would once again like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the generous support of our sangha to enable these long-planned and much-needed developments to happen. The new buildings have significantly improved Gaia House’s offering for all retreatants now and into the future, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

The background

Since moving to our beautiful, peaceful site in West Ogwell in 1996, there had been no major structural improvements to the building. In fact, the house remained pretty much the same as it did 50 years ago, with the last major upgrade in 1967 when the Garden Wing was built.

Yet, the demand for what Gaia House offers had increased significantly over the years and our facilities were stretched to the limit.

To address the challenges that we were experiencing, we developed plans to enable our site to catch up with the vast numbers of people visiting Gaia House each year and increase accessibility.

The aim of these plans was to improve facilities for group retreatants by increasing the number of single rooms we could offer and increase the number of toilets and showers available. In addition, the plans aimed to improve our residential community accommodation and minimise disruption to the retreat space by moving our offices outside of the main house.

Future plans

In time, with further fundraising efforts, our aim is to develop the ground floor of the Garden Wing to provide an accessible bedroom and bathroom suite. The final component planned is a beautiful covered walking meditation area running alongside the Meditation Hall.

Thank you for your support!

Present and future generations will benefit from your generosity.

“I have been involved with Gaia House almost since its inception, and I am heartened again and again that it continues to be a refuge for people in need of kindness, understanding, nature and quiet. This building project will be an opportunity to improve the facilities so that all of us, teachers, staff and students alike, can benefit.”
Martine Batchelor
 

 

“Gaia House is where I healed from years of pain, learnt about love and became the whole human being I was always meant to be.

Discovering Gaia House saved my life. I hope it will be there for centuries to come, making the teachings of wisdom and kindness available to all who seek them.”
E.T.