HOUSING TECHNOLOGY – BHCC ENERGY STRATEGIES

15/02/2018

Improving BHCC’s energy strategies

Issue: Market Intelligence 2017/2018

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“Housing Technology has always believed in the fundamental importance of how the UK’s social housing providers can use technology to improve their tenants’ lives. Housing Technology is the UK’s No:1 leading IT, technology and telecoms news and information service for the UK social housing sector and related local government agencies.”

For many years we have been working with Brighton and Hove City Council to develop better energy strategies for their housing stock. The magazine “Housing Technology” have released a special issue entitled “The internet of things in housing” which features some of this work.

The full article can be found in the images below, if you would like to read the report in full click here to order your copy.

DUNCAN SPEAKS AT UAL’S GREEN WEEK

08/02/2018

/ BBM Architects

Central Saint Martins Green Week – PLURAL FUTURE #9 Up On The Roof

When: 14th February 2018 18:00 – 20:00

Location: Granary Building, 1 Granary Square, King’s Cross, N1C 4AA

Room: LVMH E003

To reserve your place email: g.j.campbell@csm.arts.ac.uk (UAL staff and students only)

Further details

“PLURAL FUTURES acknowledges the broad range of approaches to sustainability within the art and design practices of Central Saint Martins students and staff. The Green Week programme aims to showcase a snap shot of those approaches, find connections and provoke further discourse and action.”

Duncan will lead an architectural evening at The Central St Martins campus on Wednesday 14th February. The talk will focus on case studies from his book “The Re-Use Atlas” followed by a workshop/discussion into making better use of Central Saint Martin’s existing roof terrace.

The Re-Use Atlas: A Designer’s Guide to the Circular Economy

Since the Waste House was completed in June 2014, Duncan Baker-Brown has been working on a book that considers the challenges and opportunities presenting designers and clients who wish to ‘mine the anthropocene’, i.e.work with existing places, communities and stuff previously mined and processed.

This book is a highly illustrated ‘atlas’, taking the reader on a journey, via four distinct ‘steps’ (recycling, reuse, reduce, closed loop), from our current ‘linear economy’ towards a system emulating the natural world, i.e, a ‘circular economy’. Featuring over 25 detailed case studies describing design exemplars from the worlds of textile & fashion design, product design, interior architecture, architecture and urban design, its purpose is to show designers how they can successfully navigate and exploit the emerging field of resource management and the circular economy. Each step is supplemented with an in depth interview with an expert who is successfully tackling one or more of these challenges that present all designers today. This atlas has contributory essays from, among others, Prof. Walter Stahel of the Product-Life Institute, and Prof. Jonathan Chapman who wrote ‘Emotionally Durable Design’.

Optimistic take on the sustainable design
Includes illustrative, international projects at different scales
Shows designers and students how they can positively affect change in this area

Case study links:

Adidas training shoe, developed in partnership with Parley for the oceans

Hy-fi organic compostable tower, by The Living

Rotor and Rotor DC

BUILD IT NEWS SOUTH EAST

01/02/2018

/ BBM Architects

Priory Barn features in Build It News South East

Event: Build It Live South East

Dates: 3-4 February 2018

Location: Kent Event Centre

Featured Project: Priory Barn, Lewes, East Sussex
Our new build house Priory Barn in Lewes has been featured in the Build It News South East magazine. The magazine provides further information on this weekends show in Kent.

For further details on both the magazine and the show please click here.

This new 121m2 three-bedroom, two-storey dwelling replaced a single storey storage structure on an extremely tight and ancient site in Lewes, East Sussex with demanding technical and planning constraints. It was carried out for repeat clients but unlike their previous briefs, this project was carried out as a speculative development and so the financial parameters were also heavily constricted. The result is a very compact design with some innovative features to overcome the front and rear facing overlooking issues and excellent attention to detail. Despite its compactness, it has been complimented for the light and open feel and by making the new footprint smaller than the original, a discrete rear garden space was created. Thanks to the enlightened approach of the Clients, the integrated photovoltaic roof was kept in the build and along with a thermally efficient envelope this should help afford the future occupants something close to cost neutral energy bills and near carbon neutral performance.

Many locally believed a new house on this site was not possible, that something was built here which was remarkable.

BBM’s approach to the energy strategy was to exploit the ‘solar aperture’, which for a tight urban plot was surprisingly open. An early decision was to rotate the ridge line 90º to that of the original structure to suit a photovoltaic roof (rated 2.4kW peak). Unusually for a speculative residential project the PV BBM managed to retain an ‘integrated’ system which was far more suited to the visually sensitive setting off Southover High Street. Passive solar gains were also built-in by including generously sized glazing on the southern façade. To protect against overheating the first floor ribbon windows were set back within a deep reveal to catch the low angle winter sun but provide shade from the high angle summer sun. A pergola does a similar job for the ground floor windows.

Knowing that this was a speculative project, BBM had to work hard on the external envelope to deliver a thermally efficient solution for a commercially realistic build rate. The following u-values were achieved for the key elements: Ground bearing slab: 0.11 W/m2K, External walls: 0.15 W/m2K and Roof: 0.11 W/m2K.