Eco-friendly and a good design?
February 11, 2009
BY Kevin Sexton
Ok, so you want to ‘go green’ with the design of your new house. But you also want to build the house of your dreams? The question is, can you have your cake and eat it? Pinetrees, currently run as a bed and breakfast business and set in 6.25 acres of the peaceful Waveney valley at Beccles in Suffolk, is a timber framed, and timber clad house, built on the site of an existing bungalow and is an excellent example of how you can do just that.
Given that so many of us find just the idea of building a house using sustainable technology such a daunting task the owners of this property are not shy in their assertion that it takes a little more work, simply because your unlikely to find everything you need at the local builders merchants. By using a wealth of eco-friendly websites offering advice and access to the right kind of labour and materials, designing an eco-friendly home is so much easier than just a few years ago. The key, it seems, is forward planning.
One of the factors that can contribute to the success of a project is the design statement at the planning application stage. Not only does it give an opportunity for the architect and the clients to convey what everyone would like to achieve, but it also allows the planners to see beyond a set of drawings that, on their own, may undermine your true 'good intentions'. It is also possible to see what type of people will be living in, and caring for, a building that will ultimately become a home.
I spoke to Paul Lucas, the director of architects Lucas Hickman Smith who were the architects responsible for the design and planning for this project, and asked how important he felt the design statement was in the planning process, and also in establishing the client’s needs. “It was a new requirement at the time”, he said, “but now it is a mandatory part of the planning process. Client needs had been established prior to this during the briefing stage of the project. This was more a statement of intent”.
I also asked Paul what response he received from the planning authorities. He said, “The planning application was a bit of a battle, more to do with the nature of the site than the scheme design. The planners were pushing for a smaller, more mundane scheme and didn’t seem to appreciate the greater environmental benefits”.
What the statement really allowed for is the communication of the owners desire that their project should show a harmony with the surrounding environment and a respect for the landscape. They also asked that the design should be ‘appropriate for its time and location. The design gallery does show that this has been admirably achieved. What a set of drawings did not explain was the ambition to develop the site as an example of environmentally sensitive, sustainable design, and on completion, to work with the council to allow schools to use the site and visitors to view the property.
By utilising a timber framed system of construction the house is a relatively lightweight and efficient example of structure and sustainable Larch timber has also been used on the external cladding and joinery. What has made this viable is that timber is viewed as an established environmental material if it has come from a sustainable source, and where possible, has been obtained locally. Other materials of note include the insulation material which is cellulose fibre made from recycled newspaper. Any paints stains or bonding agents used are, where possible, also organic.
The house was built over the site of a previous bungalow, and strip foundations with posts were used to support the raised ground floor. By reducing the foundation footprint, and minimising the overall disruption to the site by removing larger excavations, less materials are being removed from the site and the carbon footprint of the building as a whole is removed dramatically.
Several new technologies have been used, along with tried and tested systems, including Solar panels for heating water, rainwater (greywater) recycling systems, as well as high levels of insulation within the building envelope. Again I asked Paul Lucas how much of a challenge was it to design the house using sustainable building techniques and systems. “At the time”, he said, ““it was cutting edge as there were few examples around”. He also added, “We were familiar with the building techniques through our work with EcoTech, however, there was a steep learning curve for the builders and some unique features which required research”.
With regard to the form of the building, this has been heavily influenced by environmental considerations, particularly with regard to the aspect of the site. The L-shaped plan has been angled to the north with the intention of providing shelter from the cool northerly winds and to make the building more open to the south, in order to take advantage of this aspect for the solar panels and a greater amount of passive solar gain through the windows and roof lights.
Although the principles of the building are based on a single storey design the architects were also able to utilize the roof space to provide additional accommodation, making this a very compact and efficient use of space.
As much as the project is sparing on its use of materials on the outside, a similar ethos of design is held for the interior. The model used for the most part is open plan with a ground floor punctuated with mezzanine spaces and divided by a clear glass bridge which connects the wings of the house and allows natural light to flood into the spaces between. This series of interconnected spaces also help in the ventilation and distribution of heat around the house.
Achieving a successful balance within the design and implementation of a residential project is not simply about what is seen with the eye, but perhaps by what is felt in the use of materials. The way in which the project has been constructed by blending the house both within its immediate environment and the extra effort that went into sourcing and designing for the wider environment, are what makes this project such an Eco achievement.
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