Fabrication of a Tiny House – the Peatland Progress Mobile Inspiration Hub

Invitation to tender

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire (Wildlife Trust BCN) Great Fen wishes to engage a suitably experienced contractor manufacturer/fabricator to build a trailer mounted Tiny House (trailer suitable for use in the UK) also to be known as the Mobile Inspiration Hub using an existing concept design. The Tiny House will be constructed in part or in whole of paludicultural materials (materials derived from paludicultural crops, i.e. crops grown at high water tables within a wetland system) with high sustainability credentials, as part of the Delivery stage (stage 2) of our National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) Heritage Horizons project Peatland Progress  - A New Vision for the Fens project January 2023 – December 2027.

The concept design was created by Moor and More during the Development stage (stage 1) of Peatland Progress. It is recognised that in this, the Delivery stage of the project, the concept design will evolve further through subsequent iterations in response to the tender.

Our intention is that the Tiny House will be a unique setting to showcase sustainability and climate change options, connecting people with nature. It will also demonstrate the potential end uses of materials derived from paludiculture and so promote the concept of paludiculture through engagement with general audiences (visitors to the Great Fen) as well as new audiences including farmers, growers, landowners, scientists, and policy makers. This mobile resource will be a beautiful and inspiring outreach tool, in short, a Mobile Inspiration Hub.

The manufacturer/fabricator should have the capacity to construct the Tiny House to the Moor and More concept design and/or its iterations and should have the ability to source and use paludicultural materials.

The tender invitation will be extended to Tiny House builders in the UK and Europe.

Timeline for contract: Procurement May – June 2024, contract duration 1^st July 2024 –31^st December 2024 for delivery to UK by  *31^st December 2024 (*subject to circumstance, it is recognized that some flexibility may be required).

Closing date for applications: 5pm on  Friday 14^th June 2024

The contract delivery will be managed by Lorna Parker, Great Fen Restoration Manager WTBCN who will be the primary contact for questions relating to the contract, and from whom the procurement brief (containing full details) and supporting documentation may be obtained lorna.parker@wildlifebcn.org.

www.greatfen.org.uk and www.wildlifebcn.org