ATA shortlisted for Hackney co-housing project

ATA is one of the five practices shortlisted to design proposals for the Hackney Co-housing Project. HCP in partnership with Hanover Housing Association are looking at a site to build 15 new homes ranging from one-bedroom flats to four bedroom family houses, a common house and other shared facilities such as vegetable gardens, bike shed and kids play area.

season's greetings from ATA

new office

Our new address:

Anne Thorne Architects
iNDUSTRY
Adelaide Wharf
21 Whiston Road
London E2 8EX

And our new telephone number:
020 7749 6931/ 32

the principles of retrofit

On 4th November Bob Prewett and Fran Bradshaw did a workshop for the Flash programme on 'The Principles of Retrofit'.

Delightfully organised for the RIBA by Emma Livingston Jones, at Bere Architects inspiring Mayville Community Centre, participants were lucky to be given a guided tour at the end, and even see inside the engine room - the most beautifully neat plant room!

The participants were asked to join in and do some hands-on calculating, measuring and guessing, and what a great response! It was fun, and all learnt lots about what's most useful for architects.

Another workshop - improved on the basis of what worked best - coming in the new year.

meanwhile, user-friendly design inspiration from Japan

Junko sent us a photograph from her recent trip to Japan. A common site there, but certainly not around here, almost every public toilet has a child seat in the corner, even in the smaller sized toilets. If you've ever tried going to the toilet with a child (or two) you'll know how much sense this makes… 

thinking about the passivhaus conference

It's a few weeks since the Passivhaus conference, after the busy time running up to the event, I've been thinking about what was significant about it: there was a real buzz of excitement, and a great feeling that something new is really taking off here in the UK.

It was such a coming together of all the building professionals who already have lots of expertise in passivhaus, knowledge and experience of sustainable design, and lots of new people too.

The talks I heard were great, doing a call for papers meant there was a really wide range of presentations, and it was so good to hear about a range of UK completed projects, and be able to visit some.

It felt like a good successor to last year's great conference, bigger, more established, and it was really well organized event. People especially liked the light and space of the conservatory, and there was lots of opportunity to talk.

But the importance of the event seems to me to be a feeling of gathering momentum- picking up clients, planners, architects, contractors, suppliers, local authority legislators - all the people who are needed to really role out new and refurbished buildings to the standard we know will perform. When I think how much has changed over the last few years it makes me feel really hopeful.

Apologies to anyone who had to listening to me hoarsely whispering on the second day, loosing your voice at a conference is just bad planning!
Fran

uncovering centre 404

Building work is under way on Centre 404 on Camden Road. At basement level, foundation for the new garden room have been excavated and old partitions taken down, uncovering the history and timeline of the building. We've found beautiful layers of old wallpaper, decorative tiles as well as old lath and paster work… as well as some less interesting, more recent additions!

We're thrilled about watching the building work progress - connecting the building to the garden, opening up the space and making Centre 404 more accessible to all.

Anne curates walk in Aldgate

Anne Thorne has curated a walk around Aldgate focused on Gender. Other walks by Muf's Liza Fior, Graham Fisher of Toynbee Hall and artist Kate Rich have looked at Faith, Philantropy and Trade taking as a study area anywhere within 10 minutes walk of Aldgate tube station. The walks are part of a much wider project done in collaboration with Publica which will see over 600 students from the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Design and The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design thinking about this area and developing site-specific projects.

Anne's talk looked at the Aldgate Subways, Women in the Guilds, Women in the City (or lack of), Women's Library, Brick Lane (Heba Women's Project and SsBA), the Royal London Hospital (nursing, midwifery, Florence Nightingale's influence on ward design, Elizabeth Fry) and the Jagonari women's centre and the work of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative.

refurbishment and extension to listed building in Stoke Newington

The major refurbishment and extension to 237 Stoke Newington Church Street has been completed. The Grade II listed building is part of the Clissold Park Conservation Area. ATA assisted Eaves Developments with all stages of Planning, Listed Building consent and detail design. Three stunning flats fronting onto the Park, and onto a beautiful garden at the rear, have been skilfully developed. Efficient boilers, internal insulation, solar panels and organic paints coexist with original fixtures on this mid-18th C house.

A good term for Biomimicry

I miss Anna Maria Orru!
We met at ATA's office, then in Islington, in 2003. Amongst other things she was running the refurbishment of Holles House, a block of flats in the Angell Town Estate, in Brixton. I, then on my year out, was working on the new building at Boatemah Walk, also at Angell Town. We've been close friends ever since. She left ATA a few months later and spend five or six years working with other interesting people, mostly in the field of sustainable design and later of Biomimicry. Just over a year and a half ago she settled in Stockholm. Part of me envies her... She's done it, alone, with a handful of contacts and a head full of ideas.
This term she's running a course at KTH on nature-inspired architecture and urbanism - I really wish I could be there. In the first lecture they look at the work of Hans Haacke, followed on by the 'systems-thinking (the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole) aspect of ecosystems'. If you happen to be in Gothenburg at the end of the month, check out her seminar at the Nordic Architecture Fair.
And follow her blog here.
Also out just a few days ago is Michael Pawlin's new book Biomimicry in Architecture (Anna Maria was a collaborator at Exploration Architecture). It looks interesting and has a wonderful cover photograph.

But shouldn't all of us, designers, be looking at nature more? I can't think of anything more natural that to mimic the very best.

For a good read on Biomimicry try Janine Benyus book or watch her TED talk.

The UK Passivhaus Conference 2011

The UK Passivhaus Conference is going to be full of the latest information about passivhaus projects - newbuild and retrofit -  in the UK, talks by practitioners, academics, clients, contractors, and occupants, so you can find out anything and everything you wanted to know about Passivhaus. Jennie Swain from ATA will be talking about retrofit and using natural materials and Fran Bradshaw chairing one of the group sessions.
There will be discussion workshops about what are the barriers and the opportunities to developing passivhaus, and policy directions, visits to the Bere Architects refurbished Mayville Community Centre, and it looks as if it is going to be the conference of the autumn, come and join us!

Current Building Research

Last week was a great opportunity to see different approaches to building research here in the UK and in Germany.

At Insite 11 at the BRE on 'Rethink Refurbishment' we participated in the Technology Strategy Board Low Carbon Retrofit workshop; nine brief contributions on different aspects of the 'Retrofit for the Future' projects, ours on using natural and breathable materials, all fascinating, and raising lots of questions.
The Innovation Zone featured some good ideas - it'd be good to hear more about the cellulose based aerogel insulation, if it gets taken up by a manufacturer. We hope so.


On Friday Ecological Building Systems organised  'Challenges and Solutions to Thermally Upgrading Existing Masonry Walls with Internal Insulation' Among other great talks, Dr Rudolph Plagge from The Institute of Building Climatology at Dresden University of Technology spoke in detail about the science behind working with existing buildings in a sympathetic way. He showed examples like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where upgrading the building thermally and conserving the exquisite brickwork was undertaken so thoughtfully,  with research backup so that the Museum could be really confident of the effect of insulation on moisture travelling through walls, frost action, mould growth, and improved thermal performance. Several of us present at the workshop felt that there is a real need to develop further links with this research institution.

Thank you!

Thanks so much to those of you that came to our party last night, it was so great to see everybody, we were overwhelmed by the lovely feeling of celebration and appreciation, and felt so lucky to have been and to be able to work with such great people - as clients, contractors, consultants and friends.

Keep us in mind for future projects, we're a bunch with wide ranging interests, and love doing something different, as well as developing our core interests.

Thanks to Ben Croxford for the photo!

Read the AJ Footprint post here.

Reflecting on 20 years of practice and new directions

Anne Thorne Architects
Reflecting on 20 years of practice and new directions
In conversation with Hattie Hartman, architect and AJ sustainability editor
August 2011

ATA have put together a small publication to celebrate their 20th birthday and the 1st of ATA LLP. Download it here.

Green Sky Thinking

'Green Sky Thinking' took off this week with breakfast launch in splendour at Carlton House Terrace, home of the Royal College of Pathologists - as Paul Morrell pointed out in his address, their strapline 'the science behind the cure' is entirely appropriate to describe our work.
It then moved (I hope significantly) nearer Westminster to the Energy Saving Trust, focussing on 'Engaging People in the Retrofit process'  where Peter Rickerby introduced the Institute for Sustainablility retrofit guide sequence. These look as if they are going to be really useful, obtainable through the FLASH programme.

I and Matt Bush from Metropolitan Housing Trust spoke about joint 'Retrofit for the Future' and other projects, and getting residents to get the best out of low energy houses through understanding how the building works. The design of heating controls seems like a perfect challenge for some really creative 'green skies thinking'.
FB

At the AECB conference

The AECB conference was in Nottingham University this year, and we got to hear a bit about the Hopkins campus and see the demonstration houses there (and observe some of the many things that can go wrong with low energy design and how not to install MVHR).
As usual the greatest pleasure is talking to the people one only gets to meet at AECB conferences, and catch up on the years' events, but equally the workshops I went to were fascinating and the discussions were really good...
I chaired the 'does language matter?' workshop - a rhetorical question of course, people had such a lot to say and it reminded me that AECB people aren't just the most knowledgeable people around about low energy design and building, they are also incredibly thoughtful and interesting on wider political/social matters. A great pleasure - as always.
More here
FB

Inside Housing Discusses the Realities of Retrofit Roll-Out

There's been so much interest in our Retrofit for the Future projects which is fantastic as reducing CO2 emissions and increasing comfort and fuel security in our existing housing stock is a prescient issue.

Inside Housing focused this week on some of the pragmatic issues, and the issue of the sheer numbers of dwellings that need to be improved.

Read Full Article Here...

Johnathan Porritt at the TCPA

Jonathan Porritt gave the Frederic J Osborn Memorial lecture 2011 for the Town and Country Planning Association on monday night - a witty and devastating appraisal of the Localism bill - where 'sustainable development'  is mentioned uncountable number of times, but is never defined  and is therefore meaningless. 

He identified a number of government papers on environmental limits and ecosystem services which were clearly not referenced, and pointed out the lack of reference to 'place making, well-being of communities and health - all of which are not mentioned at all.

So its over to us all to take it up: we want a definition, the sustainable development commission gave us the pretty useful 5 principles, they need to be embedded in the document.

Chatting afterwards to one of the few developers in the room, I was told that 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' was in there somewhere,  so maybe it needs to be brought to the front of the document!

Get writing all!

ATA Teaching at CAT Summer School

Fran and Junko spent a most enjoyable couple of days at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) architecture diploma summer school, talking about projects and about participatory design. A workshop in which we played the architects and students were allowed to be clients had us all laughing, but illustrated a great truth - bringing all the participants into the design process makes it much more interesting!

Delightful too to see the setting out drawings for the timber building in the woods, and the photos of the build in action, we love the bird hide, even if birds might hide in it better than humans

Click here to see a fantastic video by the CAT students of their bird hide construction, and here for photos taken by the students.

ATA Celebrates 20 Years!

Anne Thorne Architects invites you to celebrate its 20th birthday and the 1st of ATA LLP

ATA Host Idaho Charette Students

ATA hosted students Corey Becia & Charles van Ausdell from the architecture school at the University of Idaho for their one day design charette at the end of the students month long visit to the UK. The charette brief was to design a sustainable serpentine pavilion. The students took sensory experiences as their theme and designed a beautiful pavilion constructed from greened gabion wall, a delicate roof structure, and lightweight structure, weighted by a body of water that collected rainwater run off from the roof.

The student trip focused on sustainable architecture and design in the UK and was led by Bruce Hagland, professor at the University of Idaho, who'd taken the 20 architecture students on building visits and to the Centre of Alternative Technology in Wales during their time month here.

Passivhaus and Retro-fit Scheme Submitted for Planning

ATA have submitted Passivhaus and retro-fit scheme to Dan Leno house in the conservation area for Planning

ATA have submitted their new housing scheme following the consultations with the local residents in the conservation area.
The scheme includes three new-build houses and sustainable, low carbon refurbishment & retrofit to existing adjoined terrace houses that will create 5 new flats.   Dan Leno (1860–1904) an English music hall comedian lived in one of the houses. There is a blue plaque.
The Existing street comprises a number of styles of architecture from mid 19th Century to 21st Century. The variety of houses in different floor heights and window lines, mainly in blocks of four, gives the street an interesting, varied appearance and rhythm. The new buildings respect the qualities of craftsmanship and human scale. ATA have maximised the thermal performance in the new houses to provide good quality on the inside as well.

West Hendon Pilot on Site...

ATA's terrace of six houses and a pair of semi detached houses are in the middle of construction as part of the first new buildings in the regeneration of West Hendon, with Metropolitan Housing Trust & Barratt Homes.

The houses respond to the natural slope down to the Welsh Harp Reservoir, the south facing orientation, potential views towards the water, and opportunities for use of solar energy.  Together these suggested the asymmetrical pitched roofs, stepped gables and bay windows, which give each house its own identity.

Sustainable construction and services are at the heart of our strategy; well insulated walls, roof and floors which perform well over building regulation requirements, sustainably sourced timber and timber products, including high performance timber windows,  whole house ventilation, low water use fittings and duel flush WCs, rainwater collection for garden and external use, condensing low NOX emissions boilers, low energy use light fittings.  High levels of insulation and solar thermal water heating will mean reduced utilities bills to residents.

Passivhaus Environment Centre Starts on Site!

The timber piles are almost complete on site, ready to take the timber frame for the building. The low-impact timber pile foundations will support the 300 sqm building in the centre of the regenerated Lordship Recreation Ground. The timber foundations remove the need to use CO2 intensive concrete foundations in the middle of this valuable green space with the London Borough of Haringey.  

The Environment Centre has been designed by Anne Thorne Architects to exemplary sustainable standards, with the local community involved through all stages of the design process. The building is to act as a sustainable learning tool in both it's construction, it's operation, and the future activities that will take place under it's green roof once the building is complete.

The Secret Millionaire Visits Centre 404!

Centre 404 was featured on Channel 4's The Secret Millionaire programme. The money donated from the secret millionaire will continue to fund the centre's Juniors Club for the next year and a special event for the  family carers.


The centre has also been fundraising hard to get the building refurbished and disability access incorporated.  ATA are working with Centre 404 to create a more accessible new basement floor with new garden room, level access reception, accessible lift to all floors, changing places facilities and level access to their beautiful garden, which is why the fund raising is so important!

Centre 404 is a centre for carers of children with learning disabilities and works towards building a community and a society where people with learning disabilities are valued. 

Over the years Centre 404 has built vital services within the borough of Islington that have enabled children and adults with a learning disability and their carers to have a voice and to access community activities and support.

Innsbruck Inspiration!

ATA's Jennie Swain was at the 15th International Passivhaus Conference in Innsbruck on the 25-29th May. An inspirational conference, people, architecture, lots to digest....really interesting presentations on retrofit and cost effective passivhaus, and even a passivhaus cattle auction building!
Watch this space for Jennie's review and pictures from the Austrian Passivhaus building visits......


In the meantime, great blogs here on the conference by fellow UK passivhaus architects Jonathan Hines of Architype and Mark Elton of ECD

Tenant Feedback from Stoke Retrofit so far...

The tenants for the Stoke-On-Trent retrofit for the future project that Anne Thorne Architects carried out with Sanctuary Housing have given us some really interesting feedback from life living in their house so far. The house will be monitored for energy use and comfort conditions, and just as significant the recording of the tenant's views and experiences of living in the house.

"After our first two months here, we love our eco-house, and enjoy living here, and it’s good to feel environmentally responsible without having to make vast lifestyle changes."

Some really good feedback in living in a house with a heat recovery ventilation system, and feedback that we will move to improve on in future schemes and retrofits.

The tenants were involved along the design process, from the technical specification of the house and insulation levels, as well as choosing pain colours and finishes for their new home.

ATA seeks to gain feedback from completed buildings through our work with researchers to ensure we have detailed information on building performance, and can learn from it....!

Read more on the project blog here

Shared Learning Across Construction - Fran at ProBE

ATA's Fran Bradshaw presented a talk on Friday at Westminster University as part of the Centre for the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) Symposium and Launch.

This symposium sought to identify key elements and strategies needed to develop a more integrated system of vocational education and training for the built environment in the UK.

Fran's talk discussed topics of shared learning potential across the construction industry and education, and Anne Thorne Architect's collaborative approach and experience in shared learning across their projects with clients, self-builders, construction professionals, young people and community groups.

Click Here to View Fran's Talk

Visit Probe Website Here

ATA working with LoCo Cohousing Group

ATA are working with the Cohousing group  London & Countryside Cohousing (LoCo) to develop a mutually supportive community, living in low energy homes, with some shared facilities, encouraging social contact and individual space, in a community managed by themselves, the residents. 

Affordable housing will form part of the scheme but all residents agree to the aims and objectives of Co-housing. As architects, ATA believe it is important to approach the designing of LoCo's new homes in the same way that they intend to the community to function. Our aim is to act a informed facilitators. 

Consultation and consensual decision making is a key part of the development process as well as the final project.

Passivhaus standards will be used for the homes and grey water recycling.  The houses will be built to Lifetime Homes standards  The group is a mixed community but with particular emphasis on the needs of older people.

Highwood Village Hall AECB Visit

As part of the London AECB group, we visited the lovely essex hamlet of Love Green, part of Highwood Village, to visit a community-led sustainable village hall build, almost complete. 

Community members Petra and Richard gave us a really inspiring talk through the life and story of the project, from the need to create a sustainable hub for the village, and a social centre for the local community that would also act as an exemplar low energy building for future development in the village.

A significant PV array, partly grant funded, on the roof is hoped to bring income to the community for reinvestment and running costs.

The community has future plans for a community orchard

Click here for more details on the project.

Fran speaking at Sustainability Now

Fran is speaking at Building Design's Sustainability Now online conference event at 3pm on 19th May. 

Chaired by Amanda Birch, Technical Editor of Buiding Design, Fran will be tackling Sustainable Architecture and Design in relation to minimising the negative environmental impact of buildings, and particularly the issue of Embodied carbon, as Anne Thorne Architect's has long championed the use of low-embodied energy materials through their work.

Another topic on the agenda and close to all at ATA's hearts is the issue of engaging with occupiers to achieve innovative design. Fran will be speaking alongside Robin Nicholson, Senior Partner at Edward Cullinan Architects, and Chris Twinn, Director, Arup.

Click here to listen to the talk...

http://www.sustainabilitynowevent.com/

Works Starts on Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre Masterplan

(Image by Junko Suetake, ATA)

ATA have started work on a visionary masterplan for Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre in Haringey. The Centre provides the community with a great resource that includes a Plant Nursery and Garden Centre open to the public and for wholesale plant sales, educational visits from local schools, and a great cafe with the strongest homemade ginger beer i've ever tasted. There is also the gem of a Palm House which is well worth a visit

The centre provides a valuable training opportunities in catering and horticulture for people with disabilities, as well as volunteer opportunities for the wider local community.

An exciting project for ATA to get their teeth into!

Low Carbon Tricks for Old Bricks

"Traditional buildings: adapting for a low carbon future" was a very well attended conference with a great programme of speakers explored this issuing surrounding traditional buildings and techniques and desicussion around how you provide significant reductions in energy use, whilst remaining sympathetic to the character and fabric of our historic buildings.

Actual monitored U-Values of existing stone walls, limecrete floor construction, ventilation to existing buildings, and the possibility for renewables were all on the agenda.

Jennie of ATA spoke on behalf of the Passivhaus Trust, and as a Certified Passivhaus Designer and her experience of applying the Passivhaus Enerphit standards to our existing UK housing stock using natural insulation materials and breathing wall construction. To view Jennie's presentation, click here.

The joint conference was held by Cumbria Action for Sustainability, The North of England Civic Trust and the Churches Trust for Cumbria.

Click here for more details

Edwardian Terrace Retrofit BD Article published

Amanda Birch has written a great article in Building Design magazine on our Retrofit for the Future project for Metropolitan Housing Trust. ATA modeled the existing house using the Passivhaus Planning Package that enabled us to design and retrofit high levels of insulation and air-tightness to dramatically reduce the energy consumption of the building for heating, giving 80% reduction in the buildings carbon emissions.

Read full article here...

Hawthorn Road Retrofit features in Building Design

Great article on our Retrofit for the future project for Metropolitan Housing Trust that focuses on the technical experience of working on an Edwardian terraced house project to gain deep cuts in carbon emissions to reach the governments 2050 targets.
We used a passivhaus approach, as certified passivhaus designers, to model, calculate and super insulate the existing house. Read more here.....

BD Article

Treehugger Article

ATA Retrofit Article in Green Building Magazine

Fran and Jennie's article for Green Building Magazine ATA's two Retrofit for the Future projects is featured in this season's publication.  Click here to read more...

Stoke Retrofit Open Day Presentation

Great turn out at the open day held at St Luke St for our Retrofit for the Future project for Sanctuary Housing, which shows the level of interest in the realities and challenges of retrofitting our existing housing stock.

Presentations from contractor's Seddon, and Fran and Jennie from ATA gave all present a great insight and overview into all aspects of the project from design to completion on site.

Click here to view ATA's presentation of how we designed to reduce the CO2 emissions at St Luke St by over 80% using Passivhaus Enerphit approach

Passivhaus Retrofit Open Day at St Luke St

Beechmont Assisted Self-Build Project Opening

ATA were delighted to attend the opening of the assisted self-build scheme at Beechmont Close, a project, which we started to work on in 2005. Like many self build schemes, it takes determination and patience to bring such a scheme to fruition, but it was great to see so many of the people who had helped to make the project a success, and especially Nicolas Taylor, John Gillespie and Alison Marray  from Community Self build. The young people who were enrolled back in 2008 are now able to enjoy living in the flats they helped to build.  They worked on site with the Contractor, Enterprise and trained at Lewisham College. Some of them are now planning a career in the building industry.

One of the young people, a mother of two, was interviewed on completion of the build;-

"I always wanted to build my own house,  I did wood work in secondary school and it triggered off from there, just design and working with different materials, I didn’t really know how to get into it, so when I heard about this, I thought it was like a dream come true".

Jennie now official Certified Passivhaus Designer!

Jennie received her exam results today from the Passivhaus Institute in Darmstadt, Germany, confirming her new status as a Certified European Passivhaus Designer!

Jennie took the intense course and exam at Strathclyde University in December just before christmas, and it's been a tense few weeks waiting for the results.....

ATA are already designing to passivhaus standards, and now Jennie is a certified passivhaus designer, ATA have all the skills and expertise to deliver the quality of design and rigourous energy standards that the Passivhaus Institute demand - expertly detailed building fabric, low-energy ventilation and heating systems, comfortable, user-friendly houses, schools, public buildings and more.  Watch this space for news of future ATA passivhaus projects....... 

AECB London at Temple Yard

ATA hosted the AECB London group's first gathering of the year at their offices in Temple Yard this Wednesday. The theme was 'delicious details', and a great turn out of about 30 people stretched our drinks and nibbles to the limit, but kept our meeting room toasty warm with all the watts we were collectively emitting!

Many thanks to all who attended and contributed to the debate.

Click below for a summary of the evening, please feel free to comment below, and see you at the next AECB london meet....

Retrofit whips up a storm of discussion in the blogosphere

ATA's Retrofit for the Future project at Hawthorn Road has whipped up a storm of discussion in the blogosphere....

The Architects Journal blogged the article on the sustainability Footprint blog, but unfortunately didn't clearly express that the true project costs (Actual retrofit works cost £80K of TSB research and development funding - the £200k includes £120k that the housing association were spending on the house due to fire damage and major structural works - our retrofit - £80K - piggy-backed on this build.

Mark Brinkley's blog thought the £200k figure was the retrofit cost, which isn't the case, but an interesting debate was had below the blog, once the facts on the actual retrofit costs had been clarified (thanks to Andy for helping to put the facts straight!). 

Mark's blog is a good read and forum for anyone interested in a view on sustainable construction, very matter of fact and excellent self-build pragmatic comment.

ATA submit Lambeth Passivhaus Scheme for Planning

ATA have submitted their latest passivhaus scheme for planning approval. The scheme, located within a conservation area, includes three new-build four-bed family houses to passivhaus standard, that will be timber-frame construction.

The houses knit together an existing Victorian Terrace in Lambeth, that has been vacant since being bomb damaged during WW2. The scheme also carries out a major sustainable, low carbon refurbishment & retrofit to existing adjoined terrace houses  that will create 5 new flats.

Playtime at Harlow Fields School!

Pupils at Harlow Fields School are loving getting to grips with their interactive and sensory new playground!

ATA is working on a series of phased upgrades at Harlow Fields School and College, Essex, for pupils with special needs.   The new playground for primary children is with living willow tunnels, swings, and musical instruments. Green oak benches and a bamboo sun shelter with many planters give the playground a natural feel. The benches and bollards were commissioned Carpenter Oak Ltd to utilise the stock of off cuts. 

Open Day Great Success at Hawthorn Road Retrofit

The opening last friday of the Retrofit for the Future 'Haringey PassivTerrace' by Anne Thorne Architects for Metropolitan Housing Partnership, construction by Sandwood Design & Build, was attended by local MP Lynne Featherstone, and Councillor John Bevan, Housing Association representatives, housebuilders and lots of architects!

Existing House

The refurbishment works to 10 Hawthorn Road are to a very high energy standard, part of the ‘Retrofit for the Future’ programme, funded by the Technology Strategy Board to show how we can retrofit existing houses to achieve 80% reductions in CO2 emissions.

‘Passivhaus’ Principles Retrofit

We used Passivhaus design principles and components, concentrating on a 'Fabric First' approach with high levels of insulation and air-tightness to dramatically reduce the energy demand and CO2 emissions for this solid-walled terrace house.

The retrofitted house has been designed to consume over 80% less energy than the existing house, thereby reducing carbon emissions by 80%.  We used the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) to model the existing and potential heating needs and energy use of the house, to allow us to see the effect of small adjustments to the design of insulation, quality of windows, air-tightness, cold bridging, ventilation strategies and heating & hot water systems.

A Natural Approach

This retrofit uses insulation materials from renewable sources, such as sheepswool and woodfibre insulation, and natural mineral plasters such as lime plasters internally and clay aggregate for chimney void fills.

These materials are used for their hygroscopic/vapour-open qualities to help deal with moisture within the existing building fabric, and also reduce the embodied energy of the retrofit materials in the house, actually sequestering / locking carbon into the build (unlike other forms of building materials, such as phenolic foamed insulation, etc,).

Predicted Space Heat Demand  = 31 kWh/sqm/yr

Predicted Heating Load  = 16 W/sqm

Predicted Primary Energy Use = 91 kWh/sqm/yr

Target CO2 Emissions = 18 kg CO2/sqm/yr

Bateman Mews Published!

Anne Thorne Architect's award-winning Bateman Mews project that was shortlisted for the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize has been been featured in the newly published 'Architecture 10 - RIBA Buildings of the Year' book. 

Hot off the press, the book features the award-winning projects of 2010, which includes the tactile cedar-shingle clad curves of Bateman Mews social housing scheme caught the eye of the architectural critics when it was completed last year.