Client moves into York passivhaus

'Now that I have been in for a couple of months I can really appreciate how brilliantly

the house has been designed and built. Everyone who comes is amazed at how good it 

looks and feels, even with boxes still piled up everywhere’ 

client

Certification plaque was fixed up to applause and thanks to contractor Croft Farm Construction

"It’s been a great job to work on -  a pleasure to work with both client and Contractor. 

Congratulations city of York to your first certified passivhaus, and may there be many more!

We hope the house will be open again for interested visitors, at next year’s Passivhaus Open 

Day in November”

Fran Bradshaw

Fran to speak at Brighton Green Architecture day on saturday 19th march, see www.brightonpermaculture.org.uk

'Green Architecture Day is an annual event Brighton Permaculture has run in partnership

with Low Carbon Trust since 2002. Since then, the event has attracted over 2,000 participants 

to hear inspiring talks about how we can live and work in greener buildings. It has featured 

talks from speakers as varied as Ben Law, Christopher Day, Pooran Desai and Satish Kumar.

At Brighton Permaculture Trust, we believe that we need to give equal weight to sustainability 

in the built environment and regenerating our landscapes’

Scaffolding finally down at Hickling straw-bale house

Scaffolding finally came down 11th December revealing the duvet-like lime rendered straw bale walls, stainless steel cills span the depth of the bales and render, and straight lines of stainless steel cills contrast with wavy wall. Lots of pics below:

Strawbale building, hickling, norfolk, passiv house

A special thank you to all the people who have come to help over the last few weeks, great progress!

1 roof rafters in place

2 dormer cheeks craned in

3 foamglass upstand

4 straw arrives - summer wheat

5  so far

6  fire boarding, taped

 

7 dressing bales

8 'the pursuader' a very useful piece of equipment

9 Paul Jennings explains!

10 moisture monitors in place

11 monitor with fixed probes

12 compression with car jacks

13 Twisting the hazel stakes in to pin the straw bales together

14 thatcher's fixings and reed thatch

15 thatcher setting out verge

The Eco-Hub on the cover of Green Building Magazine

In-depth article - 5 pages! - with illustrations and explanations by Junko and Fran.
Thanks, AECB and Green Building!

inner city bale out

. . . And another great article on the Tottenham straw bale, this time in the Riba Journal's June issue

Eco-Hub article on low-tech / high-tech fusion

... by Amanda Birch, worth a read!

17th International Passivhaus conference: highlights from Fran Bradshaw

ABG plenary talk, ABG are like the Co-op but operate in housing -  private and social, and everything else you can build  - car parks, offices, banks, police stations, nurseries. Apparently a quarter of Frankfurt's population live in one of their houses/flats, they've built 2000 passivhaus flats/houses and have 4000 more in the pipeline. Their slogan is 'passivhaus rechnet sich', (passivhaus pays).

The equivalent to the Head of Building Control - from Heidelberg City, describing how they are building 1700 new passivhaus flats/houses with mixed use development for 5000 jobs on an old goods yard site. All buildings are required to be developed to Passivhaus standard, PHPP is required with details as building control drawings are submitted, with follow up and site inspections. True it did look from the images as if white render/cladding was obligatory, but my prejudice!

Never mind the stalls, it's the people that matter

Overdue Ecobuild reviews by Kate and Fran

Last week's Ecobuild was an interesting few days. Fran's discussion of the use of natural materials in retrofit demonstrated that a more thoughtful choice of material and method creates a tailored approach which is far more successful. Fran was joined by Mark Elton of ECD Architects whose Wilmcote House is a nice example of resident inclusive retrofit design. However he also showed some worrying photos revealing the implications of rushed retrofits and ignorant funding schemes. Also of note was Francine Houben of Mecanoo Architecten with her inspiring account of their approach to sustainable public spaces, a culturally challenging debate on retirement co-housing, and some well attended PassivHaus seminars.
Kate, Part I at ATA


Ecobuild its usual self, in that the pleasure is all in the people - those I hoped to see, and the unexpected and joyful meetings. Star of the show for me was Sabine Leribaux, of Architectes Associés who designed Aeropolis, 'the largest operational passive energy building in Brussels' who spoke at the Passivhaus evening celebration. She talked about 'freedom and human rights'  arguing for our responsibility for global sustainability and the ethical choice we make as building professionals. This was a world away from techno discussions about thermal bridging and air tightness, and a wonderfully sane and lucid talk.

Of course I think thermal bridging and airtightness detailing are are both essential -  and gripping subject matter, and was talikng about them myself at the seminar on 'What can we afford to spend on our existing buildings'.  Mark Elton make a powerful case 'can we afford NOT to'.  Seminars were lively, and discussions varied - never mind the stalls, it's the people that matter!

Fran 

Ecobuild, again!

Fran will be discussing retrofit using natural materials tomorrow, Thursday 7th March, at 14:15 part of the Refurnishing Britain seminar in Room 4. The session is titled 'Existing Dwellings: what should the retrofit standard be?' and it'll be chaired by Mark Elton. We hope you can come and join the discussion!

Women in Sustainable Architecture

Good to see Anne Thorne Architects mentioned alongside Fionn Stevenson, Sofie Pelsmakers, Sarah Whigglesworth and others as the AJ's pick of the women who are influencing sustainable architecture today. Read the article by Laura Mark here.

58 Thermal Images at Eco Hub

Many many thanks go to our AECB friend, Andrew Pratt at RETANE Thermal Images. He has come over to the Eco Hub with his thermal image camera. The thermal images can identify inconsistency on the thermal envelop. 

The contrast could be because of the construction geometry, which nothing is wrong to have, moisture content, emissivity, reflected temperature, atmospheric temperature, distance, heat loss at air/moisture leaks, or missing insulation. The building was not heated for a long enough period (just 8 hours almost for the first time. A heavier structure had not had time to heat up yet) so that it will be very useful to take images again soon at the same positions, well, at 58 locations! The room temperature was just 18.5 degrees. Outside was 9.9 degrees.
Thank you for your detailed advice too, Andrew!
- Junko

21st century homes event by the Highgate Society

On saturday I spoke about 'deep retrofit' at the 21st Century Homes event organised by the Highgate Society. A series of talks by experts included advice on all aspects of sustainable retrofit, the ones I heard were about boilers and solar hot water, about windows, about understanding the whole performance of the house, and they were extremely good and to the point. There were also stalls so that you could really look at insulation products, or different types of windows. When I arrived at midday on saturday the place was seething with people and humming with a busy exchange of ideas.

Apparently more than 200 visitors signed in at the event, and the following day, about 75 visits were made to local houses. Many of the visitors said they were about to embark on house projects and were actively seeking ideas and information, and that the event had been really useful to them.

This could be a great model for local areas, and it is inspiring that this organisiation, which is concerned about the quality of the historic buildings and environment is thinking so creatively about the future.

Fran

Eco-hub shortlisted for sustainability award

The Eco-hub at Lordship Park has been been shortlisted in the category of 'Sustainable Project of the Year' by the Builder and Engineer Awards 2012! Good choice!

Lordship Rec Festival

To cerebrate the completion of the Environment Centre (now called Eco-Hub) and the park, the Lordship Rec Users Forum are launching a big festival on 22nd September 1-5 pm.

Besides the Open-House London at the Eco-Hub, there will be sports activities, cycling, games, dance, music, children's arts and play, and refreshment at the Eco-Hub cafe!

Festival Flyer and map are downloadable from their website.

Come and join!  And see you at the Eco-Hub.
Junko

Gearing up for Open House London

This year ATA will have two buildings open to the public during the Open House London weekend taking place on 22nd-23rd September.

Eco-hub -  the centrepiece of the regeneration and transformation of the historic Lordship Recreation Grounds, which has been designed to exemplary sustainable standards, including community-built straw bale walls, timber foundations, green roof, MVHR and natural materials and finishes.

Centre 404 (pictured) - a newly refurbished and extended Victorian villa with a non-institutional feel, taking consideration of environmental factors and energy efficiency.The centre on Camden Road is home to a charity supporting people with learning difficulties and their families.

Watch this space, more details closer to the event!
Rute

Fabric First day at the sparkling new CoRE building in Longton, Stoke. It has a roof packed with pv panels, and a great view of the pottery factory with bottle kilns being refurbished for the conference centre. Not sure of their future use, I asked if they were going to be seminar pods?The place feels jumping with proposals, including a report from Stoke Council on their plans for an electricity generating and low energy Stoke - proposals include using waste heat from ceramics factories.  Andrew Ainsworth of Room 4 consulting, presented the report, 'Fabric First and Refurbishment Excellence: Up-skilling to Deliver the Green Deal and Beyond', follows months of research into the skills and training needs of the construction industry, which you can download from their website. Neil May spoke about the lack of proper research into how to work with traditional buildings, Lynne Sullivan on retrofitting to scale - a tower block in London using PHPP as guide, which neatly followed my talk on St Luke St in Stoke, the Retrofit for the Future house, which was designed with phpp.
Fran

site visit

Last week I have been busy taking part in the AECB Certified Passivhaus Designer Course - and inevitably kept thinking about our Passivhaus Environment Centre. During last week the site made remarkable progress as ever - amongst other things, the cellulose fibre insulation has been injected into the roof and floor voids. Straw Works and the volunteers, who have been looking after every layer and corner of the render and plaster, were giving a final touch before they leave the site for two weeks at the end of today. Next week, the floor will be cleared to receive the air-tightness membrane. 

As many migrant birds fly over, I wonder whether they will recognise a new land mark in the reborn Lordship Recreation Ground!
Junko

London 2012 sustainable design by Hattie Hartman

Went to Hattie's book launch last night - it's a great guide to what is really interesting about the olympics. For those who are looking for good design and longterm sustainability she highlights how targeting, one planet 2012, and carbon footprinting have helped to keep a sustainable design in people's minds.

John Lyall spoke about his thoughtful and charming pumping station and other sewage related projects - one of which we can only see from the train, and Chris Bannister from Hopkins about the Velodrome. These might be the best of the buildings for the long term.
Fran

the future of part L

Good Homes Alliance ran a useful afternoon on 26th April, focussing on part L future changes. We wait to hear the outcome of the consultation but if 2013 is only 8% improvement on present, the jump to 2016 becomes unlikely - lets hope they go for the proposed 25%. Everyone is rather tired of Government inability to just get on with it! Great to hear about Rowntree and Orbit case studies.

climate change at the heart of planning

I went to the TCPA/FoE parliamentary launch of the planning for climate change - guidance and approaches for local authorities today. Planning and Climate Change Coalition is a cross sector non-political grouping of over 50 organisations, led by the TCPA (Town and Country Planning Association) and Friends of the Earth (FoE), the Guide is to provide comprehensible guidance to local authorities on planning for climate change.

Hugh Ellis for the TCPA introduced it saying that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) empowers the Climate Act into planning strategies for the first time, and as the Climate Act incorporates fixed targets, these have become the responsibility of planning policy. This seems impressive, but Bob Neil, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government in response to a later question said that he thought targets were a mistake, and this does seem to represent Government thinking - it seems Government might not mind missing the Climate Act targets.