HOW we'll COLLABORATE
LABC Awards
finalist
South Devon
... using ECOBUILDING TECHNOLOGY
Done the right way, EcoBuilding is not difficult, not costly and not a fringe oddity, as Little England still sees it.
Call it what you will - Green Building, Sustainable Building - what Eco Building Technology means to me is that it actually delivers on rigorous EcoPerformance targets.
EcoBuilding means unmatched comfort and health in use and minimises running costs, as well as supporting planetary ecologies.
I therefore offer Eco Building to you as my client and it's been a long time since we did anything else.
What EcoBuilding Technology doesn't mean is hi-tech fixes like ground-source or air-source heat pumps, biomass (wood chip) boilers etc (but solar panels are great).
Quite the reverse - I offer to design the building to heat and cool itself 'passively', to specifically save the money not spent on all that seductive profitable machinery. Or at least to approach much closer than 'normal' to that ideal.
The international-standard, research-backed German PassivHaus system for assessing designs for 'passive' EcoBuildings
Of course there's technically more to it and plenty more architectural possibilities than this simple diagram
My job is to do the technology so the builder doesn't need to but instead gets a great opportunity to contribute his/her experience, learn and understand deep Eco Building 'on the job'.
EcoBuilding can mean different things. Virtuous organic stuff like straw bales, sheep wool, grass roofs etc have some unique technical advantages and are fine by me -
but so are modern commodity materials from the Builders Merchant.
Renewable materials are preferred, especially locally-sourced timbers.
All materials and methods are judged on their researched 'cradle-to-grave' whole-lifecycle impact.
So Eco Building style can cover the range from earthy handmade to sharply modern.
Those both are chosen styles and there's all sorts of 'cultural' alternatives in between.
As my client, you and I will be collaborating to EcoBuild just the right 'look and feel'.