Build the Green Barn
Help us raise £50,000 to create a year-round home for learning, wellbeing and community at Birmingham Settlement's Nature & Wellbeing Centre.
The Nature & Wellbeing Centre Story So Far...
Over the last seven years we’ve transformed an abandoned playing field beside Edgbaston Reservoir into an inspiring community space for people and nature.
The Nature & Wellbeing Centre now welcomes thousands of people every year for nature connection, wellbeing activities, volunteering, community events, arts, culture and environmental learning.
Help Build a Legacy for Ladywood - Brick by Brick
A Place for Community: The Vision
The Green Barn is the final phase of transforming a once-neglected site into a thriving community space.
The Green Barn has grown from conversations with the people who use the site every week – local residents, schools, volunteers, families and community groups.
It is the final piece of the puzzle, completing a shared vision for a place where everyone is included.
The Green Barn will create a flexible, all-weather space that enables us to expand our activities, welcome more school groups and host larger community events, and provide much-needed office space for staff and volunteers.
It will make the site more accessible for everyone, particularly vulnerable people, while creating a welcoming space for local groups, community-led projects, meetings, shared learning and neighbourhood gatherings.
With planning permission secured and part-funding already in place, we’re now inviting our community, supporters and partners to help us over the finish line.
Why We Need the Green Barn
Our Nature & Wellbeing Centre has become increasingly popular, but our facilities can no longer keep up with demand, placing pressure on staff and limiting the site’s full potential.
Without a permanent covered space, activities are regularly disrupted by rain, cold weather and increasingly extreme summer temperatures. Our Red Shed Community Café often has to double as an activity room, limiting what it can offer and reducing the number of people we can welcome.
Every week we receive enquiries from schools, community organisations and local groups wanting to use the site – but too often we simply don’t have the space.
The Green Barn will change that! It will create a permanent, accessible, all-weather space where activities can continue throughout the year.
“Like the rest of the Nature & Wellbeing Centre, the Green Barn will demonstrate that climate action doesn’t have to feel complicated or out of reach. It can be practical, inclusive and community-led.”
A Building for the Future
The Green Barn is more than a building, it completes Birmingham Settlement’s vision of creating a place where community and sustainability work together.
The Green Barn will:
-
Connect to our existing ground source heat network.
-
Harvest rainwater for use across the site, reducing demand on mains water.
-
Incorporate a natural drainage system feeding into a reed bed pond, creating valuable wildlife habitat.
-
Use low-carbon construction principles and materials, minimising embodied carbon.
-
Integrate with our solar energy infrastructure.
-
Support biodiversity through sustainable landscaping.
-
Embrace design for disassembly, so components can be repaired, adapted and reused.
Co-building & developing skills
The construction of the Green Barn will also create opportunities for local colleges, volunteers and community members to get involved in hands-on learning and practical skills development.
Through landscaping, construction and site improvements, people will be able to contribute to the creation of the space while gaining valuable experience, knowledge and confidence through community co-building.
We Need Your Support to Help Make it Happen
We’ve already secured planning permission, completed the designs and raised significant funding towards the project, including £111,000 from the Pride in Place Fund.
Now we need your help to reach the finish line.
Every donation, whether from an individual, business or funding partner, brings us one step closer to opening the Green Barn and creating a lasting community asset for thousands of people every year.
Be part of building Birmingham’s Green Barn. Donate today.
Have a Slice of the Legacy
At the heart of the Green Barn will be a striking brick chimney, forming the centrepiece of a community pizza oven where people will come together to cook, share food and celebrate.
By sponsoring a personalised brick, your name, family or organisation will become a permanent part of this unique design feature and the story of the Green Barn.
CREATING SOCIAL VALUE
LOW CARBON DESIGN
A pioneering community space supporting low-carbon design, climate action and a greener future.
NEIGHBOURHOOD WELLBEING
A welcoming place improving health, connection and opportunity for local people.
UPSKILLING LOCAL PEOPLE
Creating skills, volunteering, learning, accessible activities and stronger neighbourhoods.
What the Green Barn Makes Possible
The Green Barn will unlock the final chapter for the Nature & Wellbeing Centre. It will enable us to:
- Welcome more schools, families and community groups.
- Deliver more environmental education and wellbeing activities throughout the year.
- Host larger events, workshops and our annual Neighbourhood Futures Festival.
- Create a welcoming meeting place for local organisations and community-led projects.
- Improve accessibility for older people, children and those with health conditions or additional needs.
- Provide much-needed workspace for staff and volunteers so the whole site can operate more effectively.
Most importantly, it will create a flexible community space that belongs to everyone.