Passivhaus Conference 2015

We are proud to have participated in the UK Passivhaus Conference 2015 at the Business Design Centre. Organized by Passivhaus Trust and BRE

Our stand as part of the 15-40 Collective in the exhibition hall

Our display featuring Akerman Road, a 15-40 collaboration

Fran Bradshaw talks about "Initial design challenges - Form factor, layout and system choices"

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!

ATA at the 17th International Passivhaus Conference

... And Fran will be talking about retrofit.
See you in Frankfurt 19-21 April 2013!

'The new building has so much potential to bring the community closer'

Some pics of the great celebration for International Women's Day held at the Eco Hub.

Thanks to the event organiser Lilly Labonte and Kaya (16) for the words (extract bellow).

Originally planned to be held on the outdoor Shell theatre, the performances for International Women's Day at Lordship Rec was moved to the newly built Eco Hub, due to the weather turning for the worst with snow and chilly winds. The purpose was to promote women in business and encourage those not already involved in business and enterprise to be inspired to do so. There were performances ranging from street dance to spoken word and music, all the performers were young women. There were workshops about how to set up your own businesses and one 2 one drop in advice sessions, from women speakers who currently organise business starter programmes, passing down their wisdom and experience to others. The atmosphere was open and friendly and as a local young person it was nice to feel embraced by my own community, as well get to know other local people. The new building has so much potential to bring the community closer, and offer a perfect place for performances, get together’s or just a coffee or lunch after a morning in the park. This was shown on International Women's Day as it opened the Eco Hub up for the first time, allowing everyone to see what a great space it is and can be. There are more events coming to the eco hub and park very soon.

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 

Women in Architecture

Tomorrow is International Women's Day and some of us at ATA will be going to the breakfast debate organised by Women in Architecture. Lots of interesting speakers and guests and a preview of 'The contemporary face of Women in Architecture', a digital display of portraits of women in the workplace, commissioned by WiA (spot us at the EcoHub!). If you want to find out more or join the discussion click here. 

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!

Fran delivers RIBA CPD on retrofit & building physics

Yesterday to Exeter for first of Robert Prewett and my joint RIBA CPD on retrofit and building physics - trying to cram the half day workshops we did for FLASH into a couple of hours!  It's really interesting to find out what architects are looking for; at Exeter some were focussed on cost of retrofit initiatives, while others on solutions to the difficult details of internal wall insulation. Airtightness was a good area to examine in more detail because it isn't really the money, but the detailing and communication with contractor which is the point - I hope they found some of it useful! Next dates below

Building physics and retrofit design
22-Jan	Exeter	2pm - 4.30pm
13-Feb	Manchester	1.30pm - 4pm
14-Feb	Liverpool	10am-12:30pm
21-Feb	Cambridge	2pm - 4.30pm
27-Mar	Birmingham	2pm - 4.30pm
23-May	Crawley	2pm - 4.30pm
11-Jul	Gateshead	2pm - 4.30pm
18-Jul	Bath	2pm - 4.30pm
12-Sep	Reading	2pm - 4.30pm
18-Sep	Leeds	2pm - 4.30pm
12-Nov	London	5.30pm - 8pm
27-Nov	Nottingham	2pm - 4.30pm
04-Dec	Cardiff	2pm - 4.30pm

UK Passivhaus Conference 2012 visits

The UK Passivhaus conference #UKPHC12
was full of tantalising glimpses into projects one wants to know much more about!

What did you think about our presentation of the EcoHub?

Conference exhaustion was followed by site visits - see people above - listening to the Headteacher at Architype's charming school. I found most interesting the stories about less use of athsma inhalers at the school, and at Interserve's office, they had just checked statistics and found significantly reduced sick leave. 

Also the cool (rather than warm)  boiler room at Oak Meadow school was impressive!

C404 raises money for garden planting

Funny and enjoyable Poetry and Music evening garden fundraiser at Centre 404, refurbished by ATA, in a delightfully sparkling hall on 10th November. We didn't win the raffle, but enjoyed ourselves. How much was raised? We are looking forward to the planting!

The Retro-Expo Awards 2012 report

Cath Jordan from Sanctuary Housing and Simon Thompson from Seddons, the contractors, joined Fran Bradshaw of ATA at the Retro-Expo awards on the 31st October, to celebrate 23 St Luke Street retrofit as a finalist for the Domestic Retrofit Project of the Year award.

This is the first year of the Expo Retro and the Awards, which were introduced by Birmingham City Councillor who reminded people what retrofit is doing in terms of making people's lives more comfortable as well as lowering energy bills.

Awards for innovation included a heat recovery Passivent system, and I was delighted that Penny Poysner - who introduced the AECB summer conference - and her partner Gill Sholom won the DECC pioneer award - for long term contribution to low carbon retrofit.

The AECB stall was buzzing as ever, and it was clearly the first ExpoRetro of many!

Don't forget this year's Passivhaus conference!

This year's Passivhaus conference, taking place on 7 - 9th November in Nottingham, will surely be another great event, possibly the best of the year for sharing experiences and learning from great minds about all things passivhaus. We look forward to the fantastic line-up of knowledgeable speakers and site visits. Fran will be there discussing the Ecohub project. More info and programme here. We hope to see you there!

Open House London 2012 Update

On the 22nd September, we will be at Centre 404 (Islington) and Eco-hub (site plan, Lordship Recreation Ground, Haringey) between 1-5 pm for Open House 2012. We are looking forward to seeing you.

We had expected the completion of the Eco-hub by now but Vinci Construction UK Ltd have been there for final touch. Therefore, the cafe has not been ready yet, but there will be our guided tour , presentation sheets and a lot of fun and food in the park by the Lordship Rec Festival.

See beautiful new river in the park! Also, the nearest Open House, which you may visit, is the Bruce Castle Museum along with a fantastic lion scaffolding sculpture, 'Park Art in Haringey' in the garden.

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

Open House London 2012

 ATA's entry this year - If you have the guide book already, see page 35 for the Environment Centre (now called Eco-Hub) and page 41 for Centre 404, both for Saturday afternoon 22nd September. 
See our blog on 7 August too!

The Guide is available at the Open House website.

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

AECB conference 2012

Detailed and wide ranging workshops featured at the annual AECB conference this year, as well as the best opportunity to meet up with the most knowledgable green people around. Having been involved in organising it, I still managed to enjoy it enormously - the only problem was wanting to go to workshops that were happening at the same time!

On the wide ranging, I heard Blanche Cameron from Resit talking about unusual partnerships for change, she had some great examples of action where one would least expect it - and Chris Baines also talked about working on the Elephant scheme to retain a huge mature tree canopy as a starting point for redevelopment while Neil May talked about an 'uncertainty principle' approach to retrofit.

On the detail, some great discussion of ventilation from Mark Siddall and WARM Associates, retrofit and dealing with moisture by Andy Simmons among others. It will all be on the website soon, so do go and have a look at those you missed.

Have a look at the AJ's Footptint blog on this year's conference.

The Passivhaus masterclass on saturday with Wolfgang Feist was also a great success.
Thanks to Nick for the picture!
Fran

Anne Thorne on ITV news

Anne talks about women in the building industry in the last 60 years: 'Change is happening, it's just a bit slow and it needs to speed up'.
The news crew visited ATA's projects Environment Centre and Granville Plus. Watch the full movie here.

London's public realm conference

On the first day of summer, that's what it felt like, I cycled down to Toynbee Hall to attend the 'Changing Spaces: Sustaining good design and creative intervention in London's public realm'. This is a familiar area as I and others have been doing small projects here with students on the London Met foundation in architecture course. It's easy to forget about this tucked away institution and I was glad to have an excuse to come back.

The conference was jointly organised by Open City (formerly known as Open House) who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year and the London Borough of Enfield. Lee Mallet from Urbik Limited and Greater London Publishing kicked off with tales of places that attract artists, mostly anecdotal tales of Shoreditch back in the day. He was followed by Suzie Zuber from Open City (I love their simple and evocative slogan: 'opening eyes, minds and doors') who went over their work with young people, advocacy & enabling and design reviews  - quite a bit more than just the September open house weekend.