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Author: Janice Gardiner

  • HPH378: Accessibility for all – with Guy Harris

    HPH378: Accessibility for all – with Guy Harris

    Guy Harris from AccessiblePRS explains why accessible housing is important, what the key considerations are and how to deliver it well. He also shares his experience of designing his own house as a wheelchair user.

    Interview with Guy Harris

    Guy Harris is the Director of AccessiblePRS, which he founded in 2020 to increase the supply of wheelchair accessible rental homes. He became a wheelchair user in 2003 after an accident and now works to promote good accessible design for all buildings.

    Accessibility is the ability to move around a home at all stages of life

    Quite often the terms accessibility and adaptability are used interchangeably, and people will even have their own understanding of what they mean. So Guy defines accessibility as the flow and space of a home, and the ability to move around it at all stages of life. This can be as parents with young kids, older people, wheelchair users, people who have dementia, and so on. Accessibility is understanding how we relate to our spaces and making them human centred.

    Accessible spaces can benefit everyone

    Guy believes that making accessibility about the person with a disability is fundamentally flawed, because it means we bring all our negative stereotypes and misconceptions to that approach. Instead of being a burden this can be playful, glorious or liberating for a whole range of people.

    “When I tell stories about where accessibility is in place, very often, I tell them about people who have no disability at all, and show them the advantages, so that we can understand that this really is not for some people, this is for all people.”

    Wheelchair users face constant frustrations from existing properties

    In 2003 Guy made a mistake when crossing the road and was struck by a lorry. From that point he became a wheelchair user.

    Like his, most disabilities are acquired and this made him realise that he had been part of the problem before his injury. He worked on property projects, and it was only after the accident that he understood the constant frustrations for wheelchair users around property, which also gave him an insight to the opportunities.

    Funnily enough, before his accident, Guy had bought a 1000 square feet shell apartment in London, which he made into an aspirational and indulgent space. It was only afterwards that he realised he’d actually designed a wheelchair accessible space. However, he admits he wasn’t in the wheelchair accessible mindset at the time. The Disability Discrimination Act had just come in, which meant that sockets and switches had to be at a specific height. He remembers clearly saying, “I don’t have a disability, I don’t want them at this height, I’m not doing it.” He sees a nice juxtaposition there, both wilfully not wanting to do anything around disability, whilst on the other hand designing the perfect space for it.

    Building for accessibility requires a mindset shift

    While we have made significant advances in gender equality, eliminating racial discrimination, and LGBTQ+ rights, Guys says that disability feels like the poor cousin.

    Until we get over our subconscious fear around what it means, what it looks like, and not wanting to believe that it can ever happen to us, we’re always going to have an issue with the idea of building accessibly.

    Guy feels we either need to change our relationship with disability, or perhaps with the language around accessibility. Accessibility is simply good design.

    No one will come into this home and go, “Wow look at that accessibility.” It really features disability in a wonderful way. You come in and you go, “Hey, wow, look at this home.”

    Key requirements for wheelchair users are more space, a level home, step-free access and a purpose designed bathroom

    As a wheelchair user Guy needs things to be designed in a certain way to be able to live autonomously and independently. He needs a bit of space, wider doors and consideration of how they’re positioned relative to things that come next to them, whether it’s cupboards or walls. Step-free access is also important, which might include lifts or ramps. Bathrooms are a critical room, often a wet room, and a hoist may be needed.

    By designing for a wheelchair user, you design for any eventuality in life.

    You don’t need a specialist architect for a house build

    Guy’s architect wasn’t a specialist in disability or accessibility but was amazing. He drew the brief out of them carefully, in the same way that he would for any other client, considering how they lived and wanted to live.

    One aspect that really helped Guy was a study trip, visiting existing properties and trying to absorb useful information.

    “People make decisions without actually seeing what they’re making decisions on, which is nuts, frankly. And so the more we got to see different things and understand the implications and the benefits and the costs, the more we naturally arrived at the decisions we made.”

    There will be opportunities in the design process

    The design process didn’t revolve around the wheelchair, but as they went along, they realised that there were opportunities coming from their discussions. For example, the spine wall down the middle of the property, has quite a few structural posts. These created alcoves and space to put furniture, but also were the perfect place for handholds.

    The house evolved into an ecological build through the design process

    Guy explains that they were starting with a blank sheet and ecological architecture or doing something green, was an obvious question to ask, although at that point he really didn’t know what it meant. He did some investigating but wasn’t getting anywhere until he heard a sustainability consultant talk at a show and he’d never heard anyone speak so much common sense about how to build. She then recommended the architect, who he eventually hired.

    “We arrived at straw, having said the only thing I know I don’t want is straw!”

    After two separate non tangible experiences they decided to build with straw. The first happened in Scotland when they visited a straw bale building. It was blowing a hoolie outside and because Guy is paralysed, he doesn’t feel his legs, but his legs started to tingle in a warm, cosy, enjoyable way. They then went to the property next door, which was a different build and a nice layout, but it just felt cold, without the same richness.

    This prompted them to visit another straw build, Haringey Community Centre in London. At the time Guy’s wife was pregnant and wasn’t really enjoying the pregnancy, nausea, low blood pressure, always moving from side to side. But inside the centre he noticed she was standing still and looked comfortable. As soon as they went back outside the nausea started again, but when they came back inside it stopped. There was no way of understanding what it was, but on two separate occasions they had both experienced this magical feeling, and so it became a no-brainer to build with straw.  

    Accessible homes don’t have to be ‘Grand Designs’ projects

    Guy is aware that his bespoke home might be considered a grand design style building, but accessibility can be achieved at most scales.

    Aspects Guy particularly enjoys is the volume of the internal space and how light is brought into the property from all directions. There’s a strong connection to the wooded area outside.

    Their choice bio-based materials has delivered on many levels

    Guy’s home is a load-bearing straw bale house, with bales almost being used like bricks. On the inside natural clay plaster is applied directly to the straw, whilst the outside is lime render.

    The house has an organic, natural feel whilst still being mainly straight lines with a few nice curves and subtle colours. For Guy the house feels grounded and is peaceful and calm inside. The design is largely open plan, which allows them to be doing things together in the same space, but also when doing things separately they somehow still feel connected.

    “I think one of the subtle things about the house is how when you’re in it, everything feels right.“

    Look at the value of what you build rather than the cost

    Guy wishes there was more consideration around value rather than looking purely at cost. Building the cheapest possible home is unlikely to deliver a good outcome. As someone who works in property, Guy understands that the budget could be spent in a million different ways. For example, they could have had more space for the money or built more quickly, or spent less, but that was not the priority.

    The materials they were using and how they were building was important, and he was taking a long-term view. Guy intends to stay in this house for the rest of his life, so the initial cost will balance out over that time. This is a quality-of-life investment.

    An accessible entrance

    Make sure you get good advice when building for accessibility

    Building and designing homes is an expensive business and it’s easy to make mistakes around accessibility, so Guy suggests getting external input when required.

    “If you want to design for more possibilities, take advice. If you want to, I don’t know, have specific sound or acoustic attributes or engineering attributes, you pay for advice.”

    He shares a couple of examples of how planning upfront can help you avoid problems further down the line.

    He stresses that it is important to consider how the walls, doors and windows relate to each other. How you create the ratios and the space, your floor surfaces and the furniture that you need. Bathrooms are an expensive room that need designing properly, because retrofitting a standard bathroom to accommodate grab rails or a ceiling track hoist, could mean starting again from scratch.

    Another scenario is with sliding patio doors, which may not open all the way, meaning the opening is then less than a wheelchair width. Or you put a ramp in but have forgotten that you need a level platform on both sides. These are simple things, but they matter and so paying for advice could help prevent costly mistakes.

    “In every design meeting, just ask the questions, what can I do? What if? What does it look like? What does that mean? Have we thought about? Do you know about? And take it from there, because even the simplest of questions will inform the design and make people think.”

    The regulations are helpful but provide minimum standards

    Guy says that, for the most part, the regulations are extremely helpful. However they are open to interpretation and deal with minimum standards. If you have a designer who doesn’t understand the intention behind the regulations, they can interpret them, sometimes in bizarre ways which mean the regulations have been met but are meaningless. And for Guy when we aim for minimum standards, we nearly always fail. Good design is about understanding what is actually needed and designing for that. If you go for best practice, then the regulations are almost guidelines. Experience and advice will steer you much further.

    There is a National Register of Accessibility Consultants, NRAC, and those are people who have experience of designing for accessibility. A consultant can come in at the beginning, at the design phase, be part of those conversations and reviews, and support your architect in optimising the design.

    We should be designing for an ageing population

    By 2040 there’ll be more people in the UK aged 65 or over than there will be of working age, which for Guy, begs two questions. One, where are they going to live? And two, who’s going to look after them? The only feasible answer at the moment is an end-of-life residential care setting, which he thinks is going to be quite grisly for a lot of people.

    It’s already common to find that newly injured people with disabilities get stuck in hospital, because there’s no accessible accommodation available.

    So if you have the opportunity to create your own home, it’s a good idea to consider future needs. Otherwise you may face a situation, an illness or a disability, and you won’t be able to cope and you’ll be forced to move out.

    Communities should be able to house us all

    Guy feels that in the UK we put accessibility in a silo like all the other housing issues, such as affordable homes and green homes, whereas accessibility could cut across all the silos. He suggests every design meeting should ask questions around accessibility to inform the design and make people think.

    He gives an example where his architect was working on a community project in Scotland, designing holiday lets in a woodland setting. Initially they were not thinking about accessibility, but when they embraced it several things happened.

    The first thing they realised was that by designing the bathroom for accessibility it helped with the modular design and made things flow. The second thing was by making the route from the car park to the homes suitable for wheelchairs they could get a small telehandler to the construction area. This saved time and money when moving materials and the process went more smoothly. The third thing was the community realised that if any of them had an accident or got injured and needed accessible accommodation they would now be able to stay in the community rather than having to move out.

    For Guy this is an important point to highlight. Traditionally we’ve always included everyone in a community. We really need to get back to that understanding of what community means.

    “One of the things I love to do is show beautiful, accessible design, because I think that’s where people suddenly start to get it and realise that it’s not clinical, institutional, ugly, it’s actually something that nourishes and enhances our lives.”

    Find out more

    AccessiblePRS

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  • Ten things we learnt about building a house

    Ten things we learnt about building a house

    Janice Gardiner reflects on her eco build and shares ten of the most significant lessons from the project.

    1. Spend time thinking about how you want to live in your house

    We knew from the start that we wanted to build an eco house so contacted architectural practices that specialised in eco builds and soon found Green Trace Architects. Our architect, Joshua Wood, then took us through a process to determine our values, how we wanted to live in the house, how we wanted the spaces to interact with each other and what we wanted it to feel like, before any designs were put on paper. For us sustainable materials, along with a social space for family and friends to gather was important. We also wanted to feel that the house was connected to the land around it. This informed Josh’s designs which included a large open plan living area, a wood panelled ceiling, clay plaster walls and large windows that connect us to the outside. The end result has lived up to our vision.

    2. Visit other self-builds of a similar style

    Whilst researching different building systems Josh came across EcoCocon and discovered the architect Juraj Mikurcik had built with this system just up the road from our site. Juraj kindly showed us round his house, Old Holloway, which was the first time we experienced what might be possible. It’s all very well talking about and seeing images of Passivhauses, but it’s only when you experience one that it really sinks in. There was a calmness and a feeling of peace that had quite an emotional effect on Colin and that was the moment when we could imagine how fantastic our build could be. Juraj was also able to pass on lots of useful advice and ideas, which we incorporated into our designs. This included getting rid of the wood burning stove and underfloor heating as in his words they operate as very expensive pair of slippers. The reality is that we only need minimal additional heating in the coldest months.

    We didn’t go for the EcoCocon straw system, because we were building in the winter and didn’t want to risk the straw panels getting wet. In the end, we had a very dry winter and EcoCocon may have been an easier material to apply the clay plaster to, but that is just how things go.

    3. Understand the planning process

    We bought the land with outline planning permission, but no design for the new dwelling, which left us free to submit our own designs. Permission had been granted based on replacing an old wooden building, with the condition that the new house could not be more than 100m2 internal floor area. This is relatively small, but by including the double height ceiling over the dining area, Josh was able to increase the house footprint and make the house feel more spacious. Upstairs the roof line slopes to the floor in places, and anywhere where the height is 1.5m or less is not included in the floorspace calculation. Again, this added to the house volume and these areas became useful storage with built in cupboards. These design features have made the house feel bigger without adding to the internal floor area, showing that you can be creative within the planning restrictions.

    Whilst we never wanted a large house, in hindsight we could have made an argument to make the building slightly bigger. Areas like the second bedroom and the plant room would have benefitted from a few extra square metres and the site itself could also take a larger property.

    4. Do your own research even if you have a project manager

    As novice builders we were not sure what we didn’t know and maybe relied too heavily on the professionals around us, who didn’t always realise what we didn’t understand. At times it may feel like you’re speaking different languages! For example, with the cost of the round window we just thought about the actual window, not how it would fit to the external tin and how to produce a curved frame. So even though everyone was saying this will be expensive, we didn’t really get the whole picture. Doing research into the different stages of the build and becoming familiar with the different processes would have helped us to ask better questions and make more informed decisions.  

    5. Know your own strengths and weaknesses

    Personality traits are important, as they will influence your decisions, so really think about what you are good at and when you may need extra help. We knew what we wanted, had dreams of a Passivhaus, had watched Grand Designs avidly for years, but never thought we would be in the position to do it. So, when faced with a simple design or a more architecturally interesting one, we were instantly tempted by the latter, which inevitably led to us spending more money!  Our original design also didn’t include solar panels or aim to be Passivhaus certified, although we did ideally want to do both. So, when we found out our builder was also a solar panel engineer, and the designs were actually achieving Passivhaus standards we went for both. Consequently, we really stretched our finances but have achieved a better outcome. In general, we are better at interior design than sticking to budgets!

    6. Work with people with similar values and trust them

    The desire for an eco-build influenced our choices from the start and what we hadn’t realised is that Herefordshire is a hot spot for Passivhaus builders. Serendipity brought us Dai Rees, The Passive House Builder, who lived just 8 miles away. Dai and his team were brilliant to work with, had wide ranging skills, including carpentry and tiling, and put so much thought into making the house as beautiful as possible. One example is the internal wooden ceiling. Juraj from Old Holloway shared a photograph of his ceiling, where with 3 widths of timber he created a pattern that appeared random. Dai and his team painstakingly replicated this and then added new edging to create a slightly different feel.

    Inevitably there is problem solving needed during the build and it probably would have been useful to have had Dai on board before Josh’s designs were complete. This would have allowed them to work through some of the technical aspects together, like how the roof met the main beam, before starting the build. The downstairs shower room was another conundrum, with the design only getting finalised late on in the build.

    7. Your builder will follow your architect’s plans

    That may sound obvious, but we did forget that the plans contained things we weren’t totally sure about. For example, Josh was aware that we were doubtful about the external low wall around the front of the patio, but Dai was not party to those discussions, so footings for the wall were in place before we realised. In the end we didn’t build the wall, so work had been done unnecessarily.

    8. Effective and timely communications are important

    We found we were quite redundant in the early stages of the build; Dai was following Josh’s plans and we weren’t really needed. But when it came to the fitting out, we suddenly found we had numerous decisions to make. The first thing was:

     “Where would you like all the electrics? The electrician starts next week!”

    These weren’t on the plans, so a few late nights were spent working out socket positions, lighting and light switches. We had been a little naïve about this aspect and maybe too laid-back. We then had to look at light fittings, toilets, bath, showers, tiles, kitchen design and fittings, staircase, interior doors, handles – everything that goes inside a house needed to be chosen and sourced. Sometimes these decisions are needed to be made before the structures/walls were even in place, so it was hard to visualise the end result. How do you choose the colour of bathroom tiles when you have no walls or green OSB board as your backdrop? Never mind that every space looks so small before the walls are in place!

    Good fun when you get your head around it and you will never have to make this many decisions so quickly ever again in your life… unless you build another house.

    9. Look at different financial models

    We went for a cost-plus approach, where we had a broad indication of the cost of the build at the start, but were open to any fluctuations in material costs during the build. In effect we held the risk for price increases but potentially could also make savings along the way. Timber prices increased during this period of time, but we also chose a more cost-effective roofing/cladding material. We trusted our builder to get us good prices, and it gave us lots of flexibility during the build, but it was harder for us to keep on top of costs. We would also agree to things without asking for the full costs, often not factoring in the labour costs of a particular item, such as a custom-made sink unit for the main bathroom.

    Basically, we were dealing with a changing budget rather than having things agreed up front through a fixed price build. In some ways this flexibility suited us and resulted in better finishes, but it did mean we spent more overall.

    10. Don’t aim for perfection

    Things will inevitably go wrong, hopefully minor and easily put right, but problem solving is part of building a house. Sometimes potential problems will be spotted early on and so can be avoided. For us, it was Dai realising we needed to make one of the walls in the plant room removable in case the boiler broke down. We were very glad he did this as the boiler was faulty on installation, so had to be taken out and replaced straightaway. Other times you will make decisions you end up having to live with. For us, not putting a hand basin in the downstairs shower room was one of them. Water pipes and wastewater points are put in with the foundations and at that point we hadn’t decided on the layout of the shower room. As it was small, and we didn’t know how the shower doors would open and we decided to do without a handbasin. The room was next to the utility, which has a sink and most of the time this is okay, but it’s not ideal for people staying over. We can now see there actually would have been plenty of space for a hand basin.

    Working with a good team certainly made the build an enjoyable process for us. It didn’t necessarily stop us worrying about the decisions we were making, but that’s part of building a house. We now have a beautiful calm home that sits lightly on the land and will look after us for many years to come. We still have lots of external landscaping and gardening to do, but luckily we like doing that!

  • HPH373: Using a willow bed to treat sewage – with Laila Dudhill

    HPH373: Using a willow bed to treat sewage – with Laila Dudhill

    Laila Dudhill explains some of the challenges she faced when planning her new build home at the bottom of a sloping field. Not only did she have to deal with drainage across the site, diverting the natural flow of water away from the house, but also come up with a foul drainage strategy that would off-set phosphate discharge into the local watercourses.

    Interview with Laila Dudhill

    Laila Dudhill has a 40-acre farm in Herefordshire, in one of the river catchment areas in the county that is sensitive to phosphate pollution. Her land is partly situated on heavy clay and on a gradient, so a lot of thought has had to go into dealing with all aspects of water run off and foul water treatment. In the early stages of planning her project she developed rheumatoid arthritis, which increased her determination to step away from the responsibilities of the farm and influenced her designs for the new house.

    The original barn and field

    ‘Class Q’ permitted development allows for a change of use

    Class Q planning permission allows for a change of use from agricultural buildings to residential dwellings. Laila’s barn was a 1990s steel frame structure and the Class Q permitted development allowed her to build to the same footprint, same envelope and same size. The steel frame was a problem for Laila as the steels would have created thermal bridging and heat loss. This meant she had to go back to the Local Authority after receiving Class Q permission and gain consent to replace the steels (in other words, build new). She also needed to alter the angle of the roof slightly so that it would be optimised for solar PV. This resulted in the pitch being slightly higher than the original barn.

    The old barn is dismantled

    Any new home must address phosphate pollution

    Herefordshire has a large number of intensive poultry units, which has resulted in high phosphate levels in the River Wye and the River Lugg. The Council is concerned about more phosphates coming from the foul drainage of new properties, so every planning application in this area must demonstrate what measures will offset the phosphates.

    There are ways to off-set phosphate discharge

    Laila explains that her foul drainage strategy will double the offset requirement. Her main system is a willow bed and a septic tank, rather than the more common biodigesters. A biodigester requires a large drainage field, which was a problem for Laila being on heavy clay soil. It also cleans the effluent much better than a septic tank, so wouldn’t provide enough nutrients for a willow bed. 

    The willow bed satisfied her planning requirements, but Laila has been able to continue to add to her phosphate off-setting in various ways. Taking agriculture off the land gives you a phosphate credit along with planting trees, particularly fruit and walnut trees.

    The contours of the land and the flow of water

    The natural water flow was straight past the barn

    The site’s drainage has been of particular concern

    Topographical surveys and drainage studies were carried out, including percolation tests to determine the speed water drained through the ground. The field in front of the house was clay, with very poor drainage, whilst the woodland at the back had extremely fast drainage. Neither situation is good for a drainage field. Either the water sits on top of the soil with potential run-off to the watercourse or it goes through the soils so fast that the nutrients aren’t retained in the soil. The septic tank and willow bed will retain all nutrients from her foul water system, with periodic de-sludging of the tank required.

    Having lived on the site since 2006, Laila had a good knowledge of how water flowed through the site to a pre-existing pond (that’s shown on Ordnance Survey maps). She tells us about springs that issue from within the woods, but that she had not experienced any flooding around the barn until last winter, which was then repeated this year. She is not in a flood zone and believes this is because she is on a slope, so water doesn’t rise around the property but flows past in extreme weather. A new flood alleviation pond has been created to hold excess surface water and the recent severe weather tested the system and showed that some adjustments were needed.

    A flood alleviation pond was dug

    Water is piped from the flood alleviation pond under Laila’s driveway, to the head of a brook that emanates at the edge of the woodland and also picks up the woodland springs. Water from the brook eventually feeds into the River Arrow within the Lugg catchment which is why the foul drainage from the house needs to be managed separately to the rest of the surface water run-off.  The rain water which falls on the house can simply be discharged into a free draining area of the woodland.

    Digging the giant willow bed

    Lining the willow bed

    Back-filling the willow bed

    The willow bed is an effective way to treat the sewage

    From the house, all the sewage goes into a septic tank, which links into a willow bed. This is lined so nothing can escape into the surrounding soil. The bed is backfilled with soil and planted with willow, which uses the water from the foul drainage in transpiration and uses the nutrients to grow. Laila is researching which varieties to grow, how close to plant them and how often they should be coppiced so that people will want to use the willow.

    The willow bed requires a lot of space

    Laila’s drainage consultant Alan Corner looked at a Danish study and an Irish study to work out how big the willow bed needed to be. The specification is based on the number of bedrooms in a house, as that generally determines occupancy. Strictly speaking, Laila’s is a four bedroom house, although she will usually be living there on her own. The specification for the willow bed has come out at 47 metres by 8 metres, about the size of an Olympic swimming pool!

    “I’ve coined a phrase, I’m going to grow a crop from my crap”

    Financially, it’s been expensive and probably it would not be an option for most people, but Laila says it was a really interesting process and a good test case.

    Get recommendations when building up your team

    Laila tells us that she has found the whole process positive, with one thing organically leading to another and people always happy to explain things and answer questions. Initially she had a recommendation for a planning consultant, who then guided her through the planning application process and put her in touch with a groundworker. She interviewed a few architects and selected one.

    Building a house can be stressful

    Even when people are fantastic and things are exciting, Laila points out there is still stress, which is not ideal for her rheumatoid arthritis. But she has support from her rheumatology team, who try to keep her condition tolerable.

    Dividing the farm has helped finance the new home

    Laila feels fortunate that her farm can be divided quite nicely into two (by the main road), so she can sell the farmhouse, land and outbuildings on one side, whilst keeping the rest for her new home. She is currently still living in the farmhouse, but will need the sale to go through in order to complete the build.

    Embracing simplicity makes it easier to build and achieve the Passivhaus standard

    Laila’s father was an engineer and her mother was a mathematician, and so Laila understands the benefits of keeping things simple. Passivhaus Consultant Nick Grant has been advising and she has been happy to implement all his recommendations. This ultimately leads to doing more with less.

    The foundations for the new home are dug

    The binding layer of the foundations

    The foundations are nearly complete

    The groundworks and Isoquick base are now complete

    Laila’s structural engineer was happy that the stony ground the original barn was sitting on was sound for an Isoquick insulated raft foundation. The site was excavated down to around 750mm below the finished floor level and then built up with a sub-base material, which was compacted, and a final 50mm fine drainage stone to create a flat surface. The Isoquick raft sits on top of this followed by a layer of concrete, so they are ready for the superstructure.

    We will revisit Laila later in her build to hear the next steps in her journey.

    Find out more

    The Passive House Builder

    Corner Water Consulting

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  • HPH371: What is wood fibre insulation? – with Chris Brookman

    HPH371: What is wood fibre insulation? – with Chris Brookman

    Chris Brookman from Back to Earth explains what wood fibre insulation is, how it could be used on a project and why careful specification is required.

    Interview with Chris Brookman

    Chris Brookman, founder and owner of Back to Earth explains how his chemistry degree has been put to good use within the construction industry. His experience ranges from working with natural cob to examining the properties of different building materials to create specifications for particular needs. He has built his own Passivhaus and here shares his technical understanding of wood fibre and the many properties it offers for buildings.

    Chris working on a cob building

    Traditional cob building is strenuous

    Straight from university Chris worked as a cob builder. He explains that traditionally cob was a combination of clay, sub soil and straw mixed together by cattle treading over it to make a plasticine kind of mix, that was stacked on top of a low stone wall. These days sands, grits or aggregates might be added to adjust the properties of the mixture. One of the reasons Chris eventually moved on from cob building was because the nature of the work was extremely physical.

    Traditional materials can play a part in modern construction

    Chris then came across wood fibre, which worked well with cob and that got him interested in learning more about different materials. He was particularly interested in finding materials which have the properties of traditional materials, but are in a modern format, so are easy to use by a modern builder. He eventually moved away from the building business to create Back to Earth, which deals with the specification and supply of materials.

    Wood fibre is not just about thermal insulation

    For Chris, thermal insulation is only one of the reasons for using wood fibre products. Alongside this it offers acoustic insulation, thermal mass to help reduce summer overheating, and good fire resistance. It is also locking up carbon for the duration of its lifetime, which is really important.

    Wood fibre products start with waste timber

    As a by-product of the timber industry, the production process for wood fibre starts by grinding up the waste timber to fiberise it, which is then treated in one of two ways.

    The wet process uses the natural lignin to bond the product

    The more traditional process is to mix it with water and detergents to create a slurry, which is then put on a conveyer belt to strain all the water out, before it is compressed and steamed. Through steaming, the natural lignin glues the fibres together, producing a board around 20mm thick.

    The dry process uses a small about of glue

    The more modern way is the dry process, which uses a polyurethane-based glue to stick the fibres together. You blow the fiberised wood with the glue, compress it to the right thickness and density before curing it with warm humid air. This creates an homogeneous product, from 20mm up to 200 mm thick.

    The dry process makes a lower density product, which is a bit more rigid and has a lower thermal conductivity. However, it massively reduces the amount of energy used to make the product and is slightly cheaper to make. As it only uses a small amount of glue, maybe 3-4%, it has a minimal effect on moisture retention. Most boards are made in this way now and whilst it can be better to use wet processed boards for internal wall insulation they can generally be used interchangeably.  

    Check out our live training with Chris Brookman on the roles of insulation.

    The density of wood fibre can be a benefit over other natural products

    Chris explains that he chooses materials based on their properties but, in most scenarios, natural fibre products tend to work better than synthetic materials. Common uses include insulating timber frames, roofs or internal walls.

    The density of wood fibre is also a useful characteristic when it comes to adding thermal mass to a building, which in turn absorbs the heat more slowly and can make a big difference to summer comfort. This is one key difference to most other natural fibres.

    Building new made it possible to create an accessible home

    Chris’ first son was born disabled and it quickly became apparent that the small rooms of their old cob house were not going to work. The house was over three floors with no circulation space for a wheelchair, so they started thinking about building a new house.

    A Passivhaus would provide a good environment for his disabled son to stay warm

    Chris recalls that John Williamson, in Wales, had just built one of the early Passivhaus projects. He was also aware that when you’re sitting in a wheelchair, your environment needs to be warm.

    Bricks from the bungalow are reused as hardcore for the new house

    A specialist architect provided input on the designs

    In 2011 they found a suitable site, with a 1950s bungalow they planned to demolish and use as hardcore for the new build. Chris explains that they hired a specialist architect to look at their designs and make suggestions about circulation space, door widths and accessibility over the whole site. The whole plot was levelled as a consequence, with just a slight fall to help water drain away, all the thresholds are level.

    The office was built before the main house

    The office was built first to test their approach

    Chris worked on the detailing for the build, but it was a friend who carried out the construction. The office was their test case, and they made a few minor mistakes which meant they were just over the 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 Pascals required to meet the Passivhaus standard. This meant that when it came to the main house they really focused on airtightness.

    They used a timber frame filled with wood fibre insulation, which was relatively quick way to build. An airtight OSB was used internally as the airtight layer.

    Clay boards were added to the internal walls to improve the acoustics

    In a Passivhaus you need to have a little gap under the internal doors to help the air flow, but that can cause issues with sound transfer. So Chris used clay boards on all the internal partitions to improve the acoustics.

    Where structural, the internal partitions have Fermacell on one side and clay board on the other. The non-structural partitions have clay board on both sides with flexible wood fibre in between.

    The clay boards have given the added benefit of increasing the thermal mass of the building, so help to reduce summertime overheating.

    All new builds have a few niggles

    Chris and his family are really happy with their home but there were few things aspects they were keen to address. The biggest mistake they made was with the front door, where they cut a metre wide opening into the frame, but hadn’t realised the thickness of an external Passivhaus door. So they ended up with an opening width of 740mm which made it difficult to get in and out with a wheelchair. This was, however, changed a few years ago so now they have a 1300mm wide opening.

    They also swapped two of their clerestory windows to ones with electric openers to make it easier to purge ventilate in the summer. Chris had initially thought the MVHR system would be able to deal with this but it wasn’t enough on its own.

    Something that couldn’t be changed without substantial work was the liquid screed floor finish. They had intended to use underfloor heating tiles, but they were too expensive, so they used liquid screed instead. Chris regrets this choice as this floor transmits sound right across the house.

    One other regret was connecting the house to the gas main. Not only was it expensive to install but at the time grid electricity was about 500 grams of CO2 per kilowatt while gas was 180 grams of CO2 per kilowatt, so using gas to heat the home seemed like a good option. Chris may well switch his heating source in the coming years.

    Back to Earth’s specifications ensure their materials will give the right results

    Chris sees the primary role of Back to Earth as creating specifications for materials to ensure they achieve the best results on each construction project. Most of their work is on retrofit projects and they use WUFI to model the specifications they are producing.

    A WUFI analysis of a specification

    Chris sees them as problem solvers, looking at specifications to provide the right material for a particular function. His own construction experience also means they can add in practical details alongside the specifications.

    The Fibres Academy training platform

    Chris believes a lot more people would use natural materials if they understood them better. To that end, Back to Earth have just revised and relaunched their Fibres Academy training platform. This is free to use and gives you access to courses, 3D model and installation guides to help you use the materials with confidence.

    Chris tells us that Europe is a long way ahead in the amount of natural fibre materials that they use. Figures from a few years ago showed Europe’s use of natural fibres at around 10%, whereas in the UK we’re struggling to reach 1% of the market share. There is a fundamental difference in perception and accessibility between the UK and Europe. Back to Earth’s training platform is trying to improve people’s understanding of the products to increase use and push forward this agenda.

    Generally as a share of the market, Europe is using about 10 times more natural fibre than we are.

    Natural fibres are generally a bit more expensive but worth it

    Natural fibre products may be slightly more expensive, but for Chris it is like comparing apples with rotten eggs. People might say why use wood fibre instead of PIR? But often the installation of PIR isn’t good. It may just be wedged between timbers, resulting in air gaps opening up later and reducing the performance.

    So often the perception is that modern materials are cheap, but this can be because the time is not taken to install them correctly. Back to Earth give detailed guides, going through all the airtightness layers and the whole build up. This ensures correct installation so the product works.

    It’s also important to recognise the value and added benefits that you get with these materials. It’s not just about cost, there’s the environmental impact, the health of the installers and the health of the occupants years down the line, along with the longevity of the building and the finishes.

    A change in attitude and better regulation is needed in the UK

    Chris feels we have a different attitude to our housing than the rest of Europe. We’ve commodified housing, so we buy and sell with the expectation that we will make money from our properties. If people actually proiritised comfort and health, they would probably steer clear of major developers and make different choices.

    The building regulations also have a role to play in increasing the use of natural materials and better legislation from the Government would have a big impact. Government should not be a passive overseer, but be there to guide people’s activities, which could make a big difference in the emissions from the construction industry. This could include an assessment of the embodied carbon of products and the biogenic stored carbon. The locked-up carbon in wood fibre, may only be for the lifetime of the product, but surely that’s better than it not being locked up now.

    Find out more

    Back to Earth

    The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products

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  • HPH370: Where your money goes on a home retrofit project – with Florence Collier

    HPH370: Where your money goes on a home retrofit project – with Florence Collier

    Florence Collier, founder of Humblebee, takes us step-by-step through the deep retrofit of her 1970s home. She explains the costs relating to each measure and the cumulative total as the project advances.

    Interview with Florence Collier

    Florence Collier, founder and owner of Humblebee is a chartered mechanical engineer and Passivhaus Designer. A large part of Humblebee’s work is around home retrofits, both modelling and carrying out retrofit assessments. Here Florence takes us through the retrofit of her 1970s house, giving us costs for each part of the project, talking through her decisions and showing us how the different aspects of the work fit together.

    Front of house (before the retrofit work)

    Reducing carbon emissions was the driver of the project

    For Florence reducing carbon emissions was at the forefront of what she wanted to do, but she also had a desire for more community-based living. Cohousing would have been ideal, but she was aware of how much work and time goes into getting a scheme off the ground. When a property came up with a simple footprint, in a good location, that was in need of updating, she thought this was a perfect opportunity to retrofit to the EnerPHit standard, and put into practice everything she had learnt from the Passivhaus training course.

    Back of house (before retrofit work)

    The simple shape of the building made the retrofit easier

    The house was a typical 1970s cavity wall brick construction with a ventilated suspended timber floor. Florence explains that it was basically a box, with a plastic portico stuck on at the front and a single glazed, brick porch at the back. It was clear that to do a proper retrofit both of these structures would need to be removed.

    If you have skills and time, you can save money

    As a professional in this field Florence was able to model the whole building, make decisions on materials and commission each piece of work as required. She did work with an architect on a few of the details and would advise anyone who doesn’t work in this industry to get a specialist on board to guide you through the process. The material and labour cost of the retrofit to date is just under £106,000, which doesn’t include Florence’s time and other items that could add an extra 10-15% to the total cost.

    The plans for the project

    All decisions tried to balance efficiency and embodied carbon

    The plan was to get as close as possible to the EnerPHit standard, which is the Passivhaus standard for retrofit. This essentially targets a space heating demand of 25 kilowatt hours per square metre per year. Florence knew they couldn’t reduce the embodied carbon already in the building, but they could keep any new features as low carbon as possible and reduce the operational carbon. Moving off fossil fuels was the goal alongside creating a healthy home, free of mould and condensation and with fresh filtered air.

    The first step is to get over any mental blocks that you’re having to starting this journey, because it’s so easy to say, well, I can’t do this unless I’ve done this.

    Florence took on this step herself

    Loft insulation was a small but important first step

    When Florence found herself stuck at home during lockdown, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to get started. So they ordered in the materials for the loft insulation and then installed it themselves. Florence explains that although the loft insulation was less than 3% of the total retrofit cost it was an important first step, as between 8 – 10% of their heat loss was through the roof. They chose to use wood fibre and hemp, which aren’t the cheapest insulation products, but sustainable and nice materials to work with. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Material costs for loft insulation £2,700 for 56.5m²

    The cavity wall was filled with EPS beads

    Cavity wall insulation can be added independently of other retrofit works

    Whilst waiting for other larger works to begin Florence was able to go ahead with the cavity wall insulation as it didn’t depend on other aspects of the retrofit. She found it was a straightforward step in terms of the material choice, not choosing a natural material in this instance because of the risk of drawing moisture from the ground. In a cavity wall, the cavity is there to conduct any trapped moisture away from the internal walls, so your insulation needs to be moisture repellent. They used EPS polystyrene beads, which have a decent thermal conductivity and contain some adhesive so the beads won’t pour out of your wall if you make a hole in the brickwork. Again, this was a relatively cheap step to take, and the effect was noticeable that winter. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Total cost of materials and installation £1,701 (approx. £15.50/ m²)

    The new triple-glazed windows go in

    Next came the replacement of the old PVC framed windows

    The house had double glazed PVC framed windows that were coming to the end of their life. Florence wanted to avoid using plastic in their replacement and opted for timber windows instead, which also looked good aesthetically. They chose triple-glazed windows from 21 Degrees, but from their slightly cheaper range that were not Passivhaus certified. From the PHPP model these windows would still allow them to achieve their energy targets. An external powder coat finish on the windows extended their warranty and protects them from the weather.

    Florence explains that a lot of the heat loss through windows is through the frame, so they simplified the number of panes and openable parts. Fixed windows have narrower frames, so it’s about trying to find the right balance between fixed and openable. Having fewer openable windows also helps with airtightness.

    The windows sit in a plywood box

    Florence was aware that installing their new windows was always going to be a challenge, as they needed to ensure both airtightness and insulation continuity to avoid thermal bridging. Installation ended up taking a day per room, with a plywood box built and fitted to each window before then lifting all of it into place. This was needed to bring the plane of the window in line with the planned external wall insulation. The box allowed the window to be pushed out into that layer, which could then be taped and sealed for airtightness. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Total cost of windows and installation £22,033

    Florence putting on some external wall insulation

    External insulation is like wrapping your house in a blanket

    Florence explains that heat gets conducted out of your house wherever there is a junction or fixing structure that is not made of an insulating material. Wrapping the house in external wall insulation (EWI) is therefore an easier approach compared to trying to insulate internally. Florence chose wood fibre as a natural material with low embodied carbon, which would also be good to work with from a general health perspective. The brick construction of the existing house was built to be vapour permeable and wood fibre would maintain this breathability. A lime render was used on most of the house to create a weatherproof layer, with some timber cladding on the ground floor frontage to provide variety and break up the box shape.

    Where the walls meet the floor can also create a thermal bridging issue, so Florence wanted to continue the wall insulation down to the sub floor. Wood fibre was used from the damp-proof course upwards and then below that they used a polystyrene plinth, that could be wrapped all the way round. A French drain type system with gravel was used to channel any water away from the building itself. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Total cost of materials and installation £26,100

    The MVHR unit is in the cold loft

    The siting of the MVHR unit was not ideal

    Florence explains that she designed everything in parallel, making sure she could see the route for the ductwork before choosing windows. They were clear from the start that the MVHR unit would need to go into the loft. This means the main ducts are running from the unit along the loft floor into a couple of rises, with branches off to minimise the amount of distribution within the house itself. They have a couple of bulkheads dotted around and one or two ducts on display as a bit of a talking point. As they don’t have particularly high ceilings they weren’t going to lower any ceilings to accommodate the ducts and also didn’t want to go through floor joists on the first floor.  

    In general Florence would not advise putting the MVHR in the loft, particularly if it is a cold loft. It’s fine if you’ve insulated at rafter level, but if you’re trying to hit targets like EnerPHit, all heat loss counts and the amount of ductwork outside the thermal envelope, even insulated does contribute to the overall efficiency of the MVHR. They tried to minimise this by insulating all the ducts with 50mm foil-backed duct wrap. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Total cost of MVHR system and installation £ 9,880

    Some external shading was built into the design

    Shutters could be used more as a simple shading solution

    Being half French, half Italian, Florence is used to shutters as a shading device. She sees them as an easy way to slash air conditioning loads in commercial buildings and to make domestic settings more comfortable. Florence was aware that her southwest facing bedrooms were going to overheat in the summer and the initial plan was for simple outward opening shutters, that you pull to and latch. Florence then realised that their windows were quite large with only a third of the window openable, so that type of shutter wouldn’t be possible. They quickly moved to the idea of sliding shutters, but it was still a challenge to find the right dimensions and the right sliders. The next issue was how to fit the solid wood frame to the external wall installation. The answer was to fit lintels above and below the windows made of a composite foam material, that would be less of a thermal bridge than timber.

    The wood fibre insulation on the outside of the building has a good thermal mass so this also helps to keep the building cool in the summer. The MVHR can be put in ‘summer bypass’ mode, so when it is cooler inside than out, it can reduce the temperature of the incoming air. But the shutters have increased the comfort level and provide privacy, a sound barrier and security if you want to have the window open. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Total cost of shutters and installation £5,547

    The suspended timber floor

    The finished earth floor

    Improving the thermal performance of their floor

    Florence tells us that when she first started planning the floor there just seemed to be two options, insulate their suspended timber floor or replace it with concrete. The floor joists could be insulated with an airtight and windtight membrane but would still need to be ventilated which would compromise on the thermal efficiency. She was not keen on concrete because of the embodied carbon and saw it as a cold and hard finish. After hearing Jeffrey Hart talking about earth floors she spoke to another retrofit assessor who’d had an earth floor put in with underfloor heating. They had a deep void, so room to build up the layers needed for an earth finished floor.

    They started with an insulating layer of recycled foam glass aggregate which is a lightweight, inert and hydrophobic material. This was put on a geotextile membrane to a depth of 450mm which gives you most of your insulation. Soil goes on top. Florence used MOT type one, which is compacted down to create a solid base. The earth floor finish is a clay, lime and sand mixture with added dust to give the pigment. This layer is only 20mm and is then oiled, waxed and buffed to create a smooth finish.

    The original estimate was around £20,000, with most of the material cost going on the glass aggregate. However, they experienced a few delays, initially because the amount of aggregate needed had been miscalculated and so more had to be brought in. The MOT soil was then very wet, so extra time and large fans were needed to dry it. Some miscommunications over how the floor joined the interior wall led to more delays and this work had to be done retrospectively once the earth floor was finished. This all led to extra costs. Check out Florence’s blog to go into more detail about this step.

    Total costs of materials and installation £30,318

    Want to go in-depth on retrofit? Check out the Kinver story in The Hub.

    Finally the electric hot water tank allows them to be independent of gas

    Florence explains that they always planned to get off gas and had been keeping their old boiler going until they could get their new cylinder installed.

    The hot water cylinder is a Mixergy tank, which Florence describes as an intelligent hot water tank. It has been installed in the loft and will have an insulated cupboard built around it. The tank heats from the top down, separating the cold from the hot, so you’ve always got an amount of hot water ready to use. It uses machine learning to heat water when needed and a PV diverter so any excess solar that is being generated goes to the immersion heater and gets stored as hot water.

    Total cost hot water tank and installation £6,859

    Extra heating will be from electric panel radiators when required

    As the work progressed, radiators were removed from the house and once the water tank was working there was no further need for their combi boiler. The plan is to use electric panel radiators where extra heat is required. More heat may be required at the moment as the floor is still drying out. Florence also realised after a cold winter that the MVHR system hadn’t been on the right setting for full heat recovery.

    Replacing plasterboard ceilings is one of the last things to do, but it’s a messy job

    One key task remains which is the airtightness of the ceiling on the upper floor. Although they’ve insulated the loft, they’ve still got cracks in the plasterboard ceilings, and a leak in the condensate from the MVHR means they now have a hole in the bathroom ceiling that is just covered up with a piece of ply. They plan to take the plasterboard ceilings down, which is going to be a messy job. That will be the final stage and should reduce their heat losses to EnerPHit levels.

    Are heat pumps enough or are fabric improvements needed first?

    Florence says there is a lot of talk about heat pumps and whether you should do fabric improvements first or just swap your boiler out for a heat pump and be net zero ready. Florence designs heat pump systems and thinks they’re an incredible technology but feels that reducing it to either this or that option means you’re not taking into account the benefits that come from a well-executed retrofit. You might be able to get the numbers to stack up, but for Florence it is about more than just reducing the carbon emissions. A really important part of her retrofit has been about health, comfort and the general quality of life that has been achieved through the fabric improvements. Even temperatures throughout the house, no draughts, moisture or condensation and constant fresh air all add to the comfort levels. The MVHR helps asthma sufferers and allows you to dry clothes inside as the moisture is constantly being removed. Together these aspects are incredibly desireable.

    Find out more

    Humblebee

    National Retrofit Hub

    Linesearch before you dig

    Transition Network

    Carbon Co-op

    People Powered Retrofit

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  • HPH368: Creating biodiverse natural landscapes – with Toby Diggens

    HPH368: Creating biodiverse natural landscapes – with Toby Diggens

    Toby Diggens, founder and co-director of Digg & Co. outlines how we can all contribute to creating ecologically diverse and resilient landscapes to combat climate change and biodiversity loss.

    Interview with Toby Diggens

    Toby Diggens is a landscape architect and conservationist, originally from Norfolk and now living on a farm in Devon. He shares his journey from studying ecology and marine biology to founding Digg & Co., which focuses on ecological restoration and advocates for decisions that consider the entire ecosystem when creating healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient homes. Along with designing biodiverse landscapes for clients he has been able to put regenerative farming principles into practise on his farm. He is clear that we can all contribute to supporting biodiversity, no matter the size of the land available to us.

    Marsh Fritillary butterfly

    Great Britain is one the most nature depleted countries in the world

    The headline is that Great Britain is one the most nature depleted countries in the world. We are a heavily populated country and have required, through the generations to grow our own food. As agriculture has grown and intensified it has eaten into more natural landscapes and how agriculture is delivered in the future is where biodiversity will be won or lost. There are excellent agriculture practices from both historic British farming, indigenous people and other cultures, which have had a neutral or even positive impact on biodiversity. Toby believes it is possible for us to create resilient and regenerative landscapes, which can be highly biodiverse, produce good quality food and provide the enjoyment and space that everybody needs to have a nice life. This can include our buildings and when we are making decisions about the places we live, we should be considering all of life that inhabits those spaces.

    River restoration

    A small farm in Devon has allowed Toby to put theory into practice

    Toby and his wife Bella were lucky that her parents had a small farm in Devon, where they were able to convert a barn and start to put into practice a lot of the theory that Toby had learnt as a landscape architect. Maximising productivity was not seen as the main goal, as they were also looking to restore habitats. As Toby built Digg and Co he moved from traditional landscape architecture into larger ecological restoration, master planning and design, and recognised that the farm allowed them to put these techniques into practice. They have used nature-based process and rewilding principles, but at a smaller scale, alongside traditional farming techniques. Toby explains how this brought them to the point last year, when they acquired their own herd of cattle. They are principally grown for beef, with some milking for their own consumption and to make cheese, but they are also essential to habitat restoration on the farm. Their journey over the last six years, has shown them the difficulties of traditional natural farming, but also the wonders that come from it. This is the seasonality and cyclical nature of life, which Toby believes is deeply embedded in us. They also now understand how hard people have to work to make surpluses of food for everybody to enjoy. Whilst their journey started with ecological restoration it’s ended up being a lot about food, how we could produce food in the future, with this ecological imperative being one of the key driving factors.

    “You have to commit really hard to doing this, because if you decide to go back to a mechanised way of farming four years into a project like this, you just you undo everything. And actually it’s about the length of time that is one of the great healers of landscapes.”

    Devon Reds at Mill Barton Farm

    We now spend less of our income on food and this has had a negative impact on the natural environment

    We now only spend around 6% of our income on buying the food we need to survive and when you look at what it takes to produce that food, whether it’s fruit and vegetables, or meat proteins, most people are disconnected from the process. He says the farmers and growers are not benefitting, as the system puts top-down pressure on the farmers, so that they’re getting pennies on the dollar of the total sale price of that food. This disincentivises people from being more sympathetic to their landscapes and they must produce more to make a living. The prevalence of food in the system has made us believe that it costs nothing to make, whereas it costs a lot to make. The hidden cost is not just people’s poor wages in farming, but also the overall ecological harm from the pressure for intensive production. When you look back to old farming practices, when there was less mechanisation and intensification, people didn’t have the time to work all their land. This left rich little corners for wildlife and created a patchwork quilt across the countryside. Because they didn’t have high inputs like fertilisers, they weren’t able to keep any field as arable for more than a couple of years before it had to transition back to grassland, which would restore the carbon in the soil. These things, whilst not done for biodiversity, were useful for the ecological health of our landscapes. With artificial fertilisers we are now able to hold land in production for longer and slowly but surely, the natural tapestry of life decreases. It’s a bit like the homogenisation of our diets, with the increase in ultra processed foods, the same has happened to our landscapes. Bringing back some messiness, wiggly, wobbly hedges and roughness along river edges would create diversity and go a huge way to restoring the natural balance.

    “We recognise that as you push for productivity as your sole goal, you tend to degrade habitats.”

    Farmers markets and farm gate purchase have a positive impact

    Toby is sure that farmers markets and farm gate purchase are making a positive difference for farmers. He feels it puts a lot of pride back into the people creating and growing food again. Their beef is a perfect example of this local system, we value it as a product, so we only sell directly from the farm. We want people to know about what we were doing on the land, how we sensitively manage the land for wildlife, with beef as the byproduct of well cared for grazing animals.

    Toby sees the farm shop revolution as a genuine movement, with people wanting to know where their food is coming from, how it’s grown and how the animals are cared for. There is a groundswell of farmers and growers who are taking the initiative and selling their produce directly. And whilst it may not have reached even 15 or 20% of the farming community yet, he believes it is going in the right direction.

    The added benefits of creating species-rich grassland

    Toby explains that Bella’s mum and dad had planted a huge amount of woodland when they first moved to the farm 21 years ago. This is maturing well and formed a good base for them to work from. When Toby and Bella took on the management of the grasslands they started to restore species-rich native grassland, with the help of the Wildlife Trust and local friends. This area of Devon has a particularly rare habitat, culm grassland, which sits over heavy clay. The Red Devon cattle are bred to feed on this type of old grassland, so having these cattle went hand in hand with restoring the grassland. An added benefit is that the quality of the beef has also improved. Research papers are indicating that animals fed all year round on native grasslands, have significantly higher levels of beneficial nutrients and antioxidants, than beef raised in more intensive systems. Toby’s ecological imperative to transition the farm to a more natural landscape, has also seen huge benefits in the food we produce and to their animals’ health. Biodiversity has also increased with huge profusions of butterflies in the species rich grasslands and garden warblers breeding again on the farm. Our long rotation hedgerow management and scrubby corners are creating great habitat for birds and other species and the overall cohesion of the farm has increased. The foraging variety for their animals has also increased as they now have a smorgasbord of things to eat on a daily basis. Rather than just eating grass, they also forage the herbs and the wildflowers in the grasslands and browse the willow and bramble in the hedges, all of which helps their overall physiology and health.

    Wendling Beck masterplan

    Do you need a grand plan for the regeneration of the landscape?

    Whilst Toby thinks it’s good to have a grand plan, with landscapes, it is all about treading the path. Time is one of the great healers of landscapes, so it can be about leaving things alone and accepting that it takes time to re-establish native grassland. It may take six years before you’re seeing the full ecological benefit of your work, with better soil and increased diversity. Toby sees grazing as the moderating tool for the landscape, with the amount, timing and intensity of grazing allowing them to influence the structure of the habitats. They’ve now planted trees out in the open to create a wood pasture landscape, encouraged scrub, dug ponds and re-meandered streams. Their grand plan is to have a biodiverse farm landscape managed by animals, which live outside on a varied diet. They will tweak things as needed, as they watch the ebb and flow of wildlife living in this landscape.

    Harold’s Park Masterplan

    As an architectural practice Digg and Co work towards ecological resilience in their designs

    Toby explains that creating ecological resilience is at the heart of their designs alongside function, long term use and flexibility. Digg and Co would normally come in at an early stage of the design process, often working with the architect when looking at a new build or barn conversion. After meeting with clients, they would survey the land and start to draw up a vision for the landscape. They are often reworking old existing buildings and farm courtyards into new use types, like business or farm shops, where they work with the client the whole way through the process. This follows the typical construction process; planning, design, detailing, planting plans and then installation. At the same time, they are always keeping an eye on the overall ecological resilience, putting forward ideas for say swift bricks and questioning the use of materials to enhance the sustainability of the project.

    “What we try and do as a studio is encapsulate all of life in our designs, rather than just human life, which we think makes our lives more exciting and enjoyable.”

    Can you have a positive ecological impact at a garden scale?

    Toby explains how you can do a huge amount of good for biodiversity on small areas of land. Naturalistic, wild gardens are beautiful places and havens for biodiversity. People who are pre-eminent in the world of landscape design, like James Hitchmough, have done research into the ecological diversity of cityscapes and gardenscapes. Great Dixter, in Kent is a wonderful example of a naturalistic garden, originally owned by Christopher Lloyd, an incredible gardener and friends with Beth Chatto. An audit of the garden revealed so much more biodiversity in the garden and meadow landscapes in the environs of the house compared to the farmland beyond. This is because it has been managed sensitively for decades, but also the quantity of flowers and structure within that garden is something that could never be achieved in a farmed landscape, alongside simplified food production operations. A garden is one of those magical places where you’re in control and given the right tools and the right kind of framework and vision, it can be full of life.

    Planting at Church Farm

    You need to consider how much time you have to maintain your garden

    Toby points out that with a garden of around half an acre, they will consider what maintenance can be comfortably achieved, and this may be reflected in the balance of hard and soft landscaping. Toby tells us about a project they did for a couple, who are a little bit further on in life, where they had to think about the possibility of disability access in the future. This meant that they designed the garden with ramps and the right kind of hard landscaping that would make it easy to get around in a wheelchairs or with a walking frame in the future. Looking at those constraints can usually drive the design in a better direction. For people with a garden and an additional area of land you can start to think more about landscape management, creating wildlife habitats such as wildflower meadow. As the scale gets bigger, you get to a point where you need to start thinking about having some livestock to put some grazing pressure on the landscape or to manage the land as a hay meadow.

    Camp Farm

    Digg and Co also consider the impact of materials used in hard landscaping

    There are various ways to reduce your environmental impact when choosing materials for hard landscaping. One is to use reclaimed materials, which is a fantastic way of getting out of the embodied carbon of new products. Toby says they use a lot of clay pavers from Europe for their projects, because from his research they contain recycled materials, clay is abundant and it’s not a traditionally very complex material to mine. This means that the embodied energy required to create those clay pavers is low. And similarly, materials from small scale local quarries can be good, but unfortunately, the price typically reflects the fact that it’s small scale. Toby would always try to find local stone or local materials, purely to reduce the travel distance and support local people in a very well-regulated quarrying industry. UK quarrying is nothing like quarrying in India or in China or in Mexico as we have quite a lot of ecological rigour and scrutiny, including long term post quarrying ecological management plans. There is a price issue, but those natural local stones can be seen as a lifetime investment, where the landscaping only needs to be done once. Whilst something thinner or less well made may end up having to be replaced relatively quickly. We have seen a lot of cases where people have tried to cut corners, for example, with badly put down car parks, which then need to be re-done in a few years’ time. A classic example is those plastic grid confinement systems, which are porous so often used as a sustainable car park solution. The plastic hexagonal grid is filled with a pea gravel and it drains quite well, but overtime, the pea gravel sinks, and then the plastic connection cells stand out and start to snap whenever tyres go over them. The result is an undulating surface of badly maintained gravel and plastic with loads of broken plastic everywhere. It would be far better to invest in doing it properly with a material that could be recycled when you’ve finished with it.  

    What are the other landscaping pitfalls to avoid?

    Plastic grass is a big no in landscaping terms and while it can be useful in a few situations Toby describes it as ‘just awful’. There will be a lot of UV degradation on the little plastic leaves, which will create a microplastics problem for any water that’s shedding through. It is essentially a polluting decision and while it might be a porous surface it’s not adding to the ecological system in any other way. Toby also warns to look out for landscaping ideas that are based on current trends, rather than long term resilience. It’s so much better to keep hard landscaping simple than get complicated with your product choice, because it’s a new thing that’s just come out. For example, there are a lot of small porcelain tiles being used at the moment and he thinks over time we may see a lot of them breaking. Toby doesn’t think they’re going to weather well in the UK, they probably worked well on a Greek island, but not necessarily in a muddy Great Britain. There’s a lovely long-term ruggedness to using relatively locally sourced, quite well used products, but maybe in novel ways, or within the bigger design. Another one to be careful of is concrete block walls, that are quick and cheap to build, and then rendered with a chalky colour. Where there’s a hard landscape junction next to it, there will be a lot of dirt splash against that render and seven to eight years down the line, it can look really weathered and very poor. If it’s been badly installed, water can get behind the render and it will crack off and you will need to do it again. Maybe it could have just been done in a nice stone or a brick.

    Digg and Co are stepping up to help reverse biodiversity loss and make landscapes more resilient. For Toby it is a powerful enjoyable job with a lot of meaning and purpose, which is also fun. His advice is that no matter what size of garden or project you have you can also make a difference.  

    Find out more

    Digg & Co. Studio

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  • HPH367: A furniture maker builds a timber eco home – with Lucinda Leech

    HPH367: A furniture maker builds a timber eco home – with Lucinda Leech

    Furniture maker Lucinda Leech shares her story of building a modest, but beautiful eco home.

    Interview with Lucinda Leech

    As a furniture maker Lucinda Leech has experience of working with many types of wood, has practical skills and attention to detail, all of which she has brought to building her own eco-house. Lucinda was at the forefront of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) movement in the 1990s and is aware of the complexity of issues around sustainably sourcing timber. Having “retired” from furniture making she was presented with the opportunity to build her own timber house. Acting as both project manager and worker it has become a labour of love.

    We’ve got better at understanding what ‘sustainable timber’ is

    In the early days, sustainability wasn’t even spoken about within the timber industry but by the 1990s it became a concern due to significant deforestation, particularly with regard to tropical timber. Lucinda did a lot of research and travelling to understand the reality on the ground. At the time people were saying, “mahogany is murder” and encouraging a boycott of tropical timber, but Lucinda believes that this just made the situation worse because the locals came to view tropical timber as worthless, something to get rid of as fast as possible, so that they could grow cocoa or coffee to make money. Lucinda and several friends worked with individual communities, rather than logging companies, to buy timber from them at a value that was closer to what would be paid for the final product. This cut out the middlemen and gave communities a reason to look after the forest, to treat it as a harvesting operation rather than clear felling like the large companies were doing.

    Tropical forests are much more varied than our forests in the UK. To put this into perspective the UK has around 26-28 native species of trees. In Ecuador, Lucinda carried out an inventory on less than a hectare of land and found 136 species. When they repeated the research in a different village they found another 136, but only about 20 of those species were found in both. So Lucinda’s role was to find out how people used the individual timbers, to give an indication of how they could be used in the UK.

    FSC and PEFC are two systems that identify sustainable timber

    The project continued the conversation around sustainable timber and better sourcing, and eventually led to creating the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This certification system and others like the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) provide trusted solutions to help protect the world’s forests and tackle deforestation, climate, and biodiversity challenges. So if you’re looking to use timber on your project, make sure it carries one of these certifications.

    Site plan – copyright Architype

    There was ‘a potential plot’ in her own garden

    Lucinda has just over an acre of land in rural Herefordshire, with her existing house set over in one corner, which left scope to fit in a new house without them being on top of each other. She never thought she would get planning permission, but she tried and was successful! The sloping site has a number of trees on it, and Lucinda was keen to protect as many as possible, so it took two or three years to work through how to do it before starting the build.

    A detailed brief is at the heart of the design process

    Sustainable architecture firm Architype‘s Herefordshire office is a stone’s throw from Lucinda’s site and although they don’t usually take on one-off dwellings, as neighbours, on this occasion they were able to help. Elly Deacon Smith was appointed for the project.

    Lucinda’s plan was always to retire to the new house, so she wanted a property that was small and easy to look after. It had to be big enough for her and occasional visitors, for it to be an eco-build, primarily made of wood, modest but beautiful.

    “I wanted it to be an eco-build… primarily wood, modest but beautiful.”

    Lucinda wrote a detailed brief before she started, broken down into different sections, what sort of space, the budget, what she wanted it to look and feel like. She believes that clarifying all those things before you begin is really useful.

    They also slightly shifted the location of the house further up the slope to give access to more light and better views.

    Lucinda says that she really enjoyed the design process, working with Elly, going to and fro with ideas, and refining everything. They were taking a Passivhaus approach which helped fix the orientation, the amount of glazing, the details of the structure and the amount insulation. In the end the house may not meet all of the Passivhaus performance criteria, as there were a few changes along the way, but it will be very close.

    Choosing your team is an important part of the process

    Lucinda didn’t want to work with a builder who was just going to take the whole thing off her hands, with her just visiting once a month to check on the progress. She admits that the company she used were remarkably long suffering, coping with the amount of time she spent on site and her input. They hadn’t built a Passivhaus before but were really keen to learn. They developed the design from the pictures that were drawn for planning into something that could be built efficiently and in quite an interesting way.

    Challenges can always be overcome

    Lucinda was in the builder’s office finalising the details, when the COVID lockdown was announced, so that delayed the start date. However, it also meant that her son and daughter came back home and were available to help with the project in their free time. Several of their friends also returned to the area, and whilst they weren’t allowed to meet socially, Lucinda could employ them all to work together on the building site. She feels that she benefited a lot from help during COVID, as well as it causing delays. Brexit was also around this time and the I-beams had been ordered from Germany which caused delays and fear that they may never turn up. By the time they arrived, it was mid-winter, so they couldn’t start work until the following spring. There was a lot of stopping and starting, and then the actual structure went up quite fast. But then there was a lot of waiting around for other things to happen and she hasn’t been pushing it. For Lucinda enjoying the process is key, she likes having builders around and has no particular need for the house to be finished quickly.

    Sometimes the most sustainable approach requires a bit more thought and effort

    Access was a key constraint when considering how to build the house. Not only do they have the slope to contend with but there isn’t vehicle access to the top of the site where the new house is situated, so the last 20-25 metres is a footpath. Part of this is about preserving the trees on site. This meant that using big machinery, such as a crane, was not going to be possible. Some elements of the house have been pre-fabricated off site, including panels and all components for the roof.

    The foundations minimise the use of concrete

    Rather than having to excavate and put a concrete slab down for the foundations Lucinda used concrete canvas. It’s a fabric impregnated with cement which is about 8mm thick, and you roll it out like a carpet and spray it with water. It sets hard and then the building is suspended above it. Lucinda tells us there is only a small amount of concrete in the building, about three and a half cubic metres altogether. The building sits on concrete columns, octagonal shaped as that was the easiest thing to build with a shuttering ply. The columns are different depths, according to what they found as they dug the holes. They are reinforced and then there are two steels, after that, everything is timber, at between 200mm and 800mm off the ground, as the sub level follows the slope.

    Timber is used in an efficient way

    The structure of the house is timber portal frames, with a rigid frame made of timber columns and beams that support the roof and walls. The frame transfers the structure’s weight to the foundations, which allows for large spans without internal ties, giving an open space within. The individual frames are fixed together with plywood gussets which are connected by the racking board, which is OSB on the outside and Smartply on the inside. The Smartply gives it a continuous airtightness layer on the inside, which makes for a simple structure. Lots of taping is needed, but it is a relatively straightforward way of creating robust airtightness layer, rather than a loose membrane which could get damaged.

    Check out another timber project in The Hub. This Buckinghamshire Passivhaus, a PH15 build.

    Lucinda saved money by doing a lot herself

    The builders delivered an airtight shell for Lucinda to fit-out herself. At the point of the handover they had battened externally, ready for the cedar shingles to go on. Lucinda had always envisaged putting on the shingles by herself, but hadn’t thought there would be 10,500 of them and how awkward the job would be. So she got her builders back to help with some sections.

    As she didn’t have scaffolding she was extremely fortunate to enlist the help of a relative, who is not only an architect but a rock climber! Lucinda explains how he rigged up ropes and dangled off a harness for a month putting the shingles on the upper rows.

    As project manager Lucinda has worked closely with her plumbers and electricians to understand how everything works and to make sure she is doing things in the most logical and efficient way.

    The timing of the build didn’t help her budget

    Lucinda began with a rough ‘pounds per square metre’ cost and looked at the cost of other people’s builds so she could pitch where she wanted to be. However, she was not fortunate in her timing as timber prices pretty much doubled over the first year of construction. That made a huge difference and required her to make some modifications. For example, the price for standard Canadian tapered shingles was about £60- £65 a bundle when she started. She needed around 120 bundles and by the time she came to the order them, they had gone up to £155 pounds a bundle, so they had nearly tripled. This just wasn’t going to be possible within the budget, so she ended up using UK grown shingles, which in fact were grown a few miles from her site and then processed in Shropshire. She hadn’t even thought of doing it that way but it fitted with the ethos of the build much better. They may not be quite as long lasting and look different to what she had expected, but Lucinda is still pleased with her decision.

    Don’t be afraid to work in your own way

    Asked about what she’s learnt through the process Lucinda confesses that she knew you shouldn’t alter the designs once the build has started. However, as the project progressed she realised she wanted more double height space area internally. Of course there were ramifications but it was still something she wanted to do.

    Similarly when project managing, she feels she could have lined up the tradespeople further in advance. For example she tended to wait until she was ready for an electrician before finding one, and then had to wait because they are all booked up. While this would move things along more quickly she feels more in control doing one step at a time rather than trying to manage five trades at once.

    Determination will see her complete the project

    Whilst the house may look near completion, Lucinda is still working through a list of tasks. Last month it was getting ready for the airtightness test, making sure that the taping was complete and protected where necessary. She’s also been working out details for the staircase and designing the kitchen, which she reckons she is overcomplicating, but she can’t help herself!

    On the construction side, she’s putting in extra batons before the plasterboard goes on, ready for fixing things later. She’s also waiting for people to do various tasks, the plumber to move a couple of pipes, the electrician to bring in the last cables, etc. She needs a little bit more wood chip to finish the paths in the garden and for the drainage system. The next big thing is plasterboarding and plastering.

    Using an ‘eco plasterboard’ could lower emissions from the fit out

    When it comes to the most carbon intense areas internally plasterboard and plastering are significant. Lucinda had hoped to use a low carbon alternative plasterboard from Adaptavate, but it is not yet available commercially. The company already make a lime-based plaster Breathaplasta which can be applied on top in much the same way as a gypsum plaster.

    A house build can be a labour of love

    Lucinda just does a little bit each day. Perhaps more is achieved on some days than others but it’s an enjoyable process, even if a little exhausting at times.

    Ideally, she doesn’t want to move in until it’s completely finished, because she thinks that gives her the drive to keep going. Once you’ve moved in you never finish things!

    As for when she might move in, her children think it’s not about living there at all, but about making it and she will keep going for as long as possible.

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Architype

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  • HPH366: Could a home energy transformation pay for itself?

    HPH366: Could a home energy transformation pay for itself?

    Howard Johns, founder of One Zero, outlines their home energy transformation service which includes topping up insulation and adding solar PV, battery storage and a heat pump.

    Interview with Howard Johns

    Howard shares his extensive knowledge of renewable energy, and how he has moved from managing a large portfolio of solar and wind farms to enabling people to generate their own energy. Over the years it has become apparent to Howard that the real sticking point with the large scale projects is the National Grid, which is currently struggling to take new connections. His new company One Zero energy, is focusing on how we retrofit homes in an efficient and light way that can enable them to become part of a new, flexible, distributed grid.

    The UK grid is no longer fit for purpose

    Electricity companies began as regional entities, with one power station supplying each local area, which worked until there was a problem with that station or too much demand. With no back up in the system, some areas of supply would have to be shut down to enable other areas to keep going. Our current grid system was a national project to join all these power stations together with transmission lines so that it had more inherent flexibility. But essentially, it was built as a one-way system, with power being generated in a small number of locations and then flowing to a large number of supply locations.

    With the advent of renewables, particularly wind and solar, distributed generation emerged. So generation is happening in all sorts of locations and Howard explains how we are rewiring the grid backwards to allow this, which has caused a lot of issues. In fact, in many areas it is just not possible to connect any more large-scale renewable generation because the infrastructure cannot take it. If we can’t do that and need energy transformation now to tackle climate change we need to look at other options.

    The current energy system is extremely inefficient

    Howard explains that for every 100 units of gas used only 40 of those turn into useful units of electricity. During transmission to our homes another 10% is lost and then we might lose more through inefficient appliances. The usable energy you’re getting in your home from that primary energy is around 30%. So if you start to generate energy where you need it you can massively reduce the wastage.

    With heat pumps we can be getting 400% more energy out of it than we put in, compared to maybe 90% efficiency with a gas boiler. It is similar with transport, a standard fossil fuel car is about 30% efficient, whereas you can double or treble the efficiency for an electric vehicle. In other words the new electric based technologies that are emerging are the future.

    A resilient energy system has more back-up options

    Howard outlines how we already have at least five interconnectors into this country to build resilience in the system. A European wide grid allows excess energy, say from Denmark, to be supplied to other European countries.

    Behind the scenes at the National Grid (NESO) people are looking at live demand, and turning on things like peaker plants and gas plants, and using batteries in some cases to meet that demand.

    A resilient system must get past intermittency

    As the amount of renewable generation increases, there’s a new challenge – intermittency. So there will be a correlation between the weather conditions and how much is generated. For example, on a sunny day we might generate 20% of our power from solar, but there will be nothing at night. At times we will get really high levels of grid energy powered by the wind, but on a still day, we may get very little. This is one of the key features of the new system and it is causing problems.

    Better storage capacity will help solve the problem

    As the cost of energy continually changes if we have the access to battery storage then we can benefit. So it makes sense to use energy at key moments, when it’s abundant and cheap, and avoid using it at six o’clock in the evening when the demand is highest and it’s expensive.

    It’s always preferable to use energy as it’s being generated

    Howard tells us that it is preferable to use energy as it’s being generated because there will always be losses associated with storage. With batteries you lose around 10% of the energy you put in, just in charging and discharging. However if you haven’t got demand for that power, it’s still a sensible thing to do.

    Part of One Zero’s strategy is to install a solar PV array in combination with battery storage. This would mean that for eight months of the year you could be virtually self-sufficient for power. With a decent control system you can effectively run your battery as a micro power station profiting from arbitrage and engaging in the flexibility markets.

    Import and export to the grid when it makes financial sense

    With many big batteries being built across the UK there may be times when power is cheap or even free! So, in addition to your own generation, in these moments it may make financial sense to import from the grid to charge your home battery or discharge power back to the grid.

    Innovative companies, like Octopus and Ovo, already have flexible tariffs that will give you different power prices at different times of day.

    Howard thinks the next step would be managed services that take into account wholesale prices, which change every half an hour. Again these have periods where energy is very cheap or even negative, and other times when it’s expensive. With an agile tariff you could see prices change from -2p to 50p a kilowatt hour over a 24-hour period. Software is needed for this management, however, and this is a service that One Zero are working on.

    “Generating and storing power at your home is probably the most cost effective way of getting power right now. Not many people realise that.”

    Heat pumps will work without a deep retrofit

    Using heat pumps is another part of the One Zero energy transformation strategy. People may be under the impression that a deep retrofit – improving the thermal performance, and the health and comfort of the building – is required to make these systems work but that is not the case. So at One Zero they suggest a light touch retrofit, topping up insulation levels and doing the easy wins.

    Howard points out that putting a heat pump on a really leaky house is going to be inefficient, but heating it with a gas boiler is also inefficient, so on one level there’s no difference. At the same time, if you use a heat pump, you may also knock four or five tons off your CO2 emissions every year.

    However, it still makes sense to do as much as you can to reduce heat loss. When One Zero assess a property, they’ll make recommendations around deeper measures, which could be done first or incrementally over the following years to improve efficiency.

    Considering payback has been a big part of this approach

    One Zero are looking at measures that could start to pay back in 5 years rather than 40 years or more for deeper retrofits. Howard believes there are millions of homes that need to be improved in the next decade or two, so it’s important that this really appeals to people and offers a clear win. By starting with solar PV and a battery people can achieve a cash flow that they then might reinvest in the next steps. One Zero are also looking at finance packages so you don’t need all the capital upfront to get started on this home energy transformation.

    One Zero plan is for people not looking to do a deep retrofit

    Howard explains that One Zero is aiming to reach people that will not undertake a deep retrofit of their property, either for financial reasons or lack of engagement with this approach. Their approach is to provide a top up for cavity wall and loft insulation and then solar PV, a battery and a heat pump all for around £21,000. You could have a home energy transformation that would drop your bills by around 50-60% and your carbon emissions by 70%, all delivered within two weeks with minimum disruption. They think this is achievable for homes built after the 1930s, which already have some cavity wall insulation, double glazing and some loft insulation.

    What is a deep retrofit? Check out the Kinver story in The Hub.

    Every technology has an impact, but this should be weighed up against the alternative

    Howard has put a great deal of research into the One Zero home energy transformation package. He believes that if we reached 100% renewable generation our rates of extraction of raw materials from the earth would drop to about a 30th of current levels. The backdrop is that we live in a highly extractive society, where 40% of global shipping relates to fossil fuels.

    Everything we do has an impact, so with solar panels, there’s polysilicon production and issues around the supply chain, particularly with indentured slavery in some provinces of China, which can be hard to get around. This is also the case with many other products we are using. A solar panel can liberate the energy that went into making it within nine months of it being in use and the panels then have a 25-year warranty and possibly up to a 40-year lifespan. Most modern solar panels don’t contain any rare earths, they are just copper, an aluminium frame, silver for the conductors and glass. Effectively, polysilicon is a form of refined sand, and so all the parts are recyclable. There isn’t a huge recycling market yet, because most of the panels that have been installed are still in use.

    People are also concerned about the huge amount of lithium being produced for home and car batteries. Howard explains that there are two ways in which lithium is produced. One is from mining, generally in Australia, whilst in the rest of the world lithium production is from liquid deposits. These exist as brines under the surface of the earth that can be extracted through a bore hole. The lithium is then taken out and the remaining liquid is pumped back down. So there is an impact but it should be smaller than for mining. Also lithium is a recyclable material, which is abundant in the UK.

    Many manufacturers are now redesigning batteries so that they don’t contain cobalt, so as we move forward there should be fewer issues around rare minerals.

    Heat pumps are generally made from copper and steel, both of which are abundant in a recycled form across the world. There’s a refrigerant involved, with two possible types, one of which has a lot less global warming potential.

    All of these technologies will have a lower impact when compared to the extraction of fossil fuels and the resultant CO2 emissions from using them.

    A repowered house – taken off the gas network

    Your home can help you reduce your carbon footprint

    For a typical dwelling One Zero’s home energy transformation could save between 3-6 tons of carbon over the course of a year, which is equivalent to 20 or 30 flights to Spain. For Howard this is incredibly impactful.

    Your electric car battery could support your home energy use

    It’s still early days but trials in vehicle to grid energy transfer could support our home energy use. An electric car could have a 30-100 kilowatt battery in it, while your home battery may only be 10 kilowatts, so if you could plug your car into your home and use your car battery to support your home that would be valuable.

    It’s also a lot of lithium sitting around that could be used more effectively. Nissan is currently the only car manufacturer that allows this but that could change. The challenge is that most car manufacturers want their batteries used solely for powering their cars and consequently you will invalidate the warranty if it is used for other purposes.

    However, these batteries have huge potential to increase storage capacity and help with the intermittency challenge in power generation. And Howard suggests that even accessing 10% of these batteries could have a meaningful impact.

    One Zero has a community focus to support people on their renewable energy journey

    People can be cautious, so One Zero is working to give people the confidence to act and then supporting them to share their experience with others. Currently they are geographically focused, working in communities where they can sign up more than one house at a time, maybe 5-10 houses across two or three streets. So they are reaching out to people who may not have thought they could be part of this journey into renewables, to help them change the way they think about it.

    One Zero is operating in Sussex at the moment and has plans to launch in more areas over the course of the coming year. The next steps could be looking at managing a micro grid behind a distribution transformer that serves a street, so there would be enough generation and storage to provide the community with power for a large part of the year.  

    “It’s turning it from, that me and my castle thing, into us and our street.”

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  • HPH365: Becoming a housing activist – with Cypren Edmunds

    HPH365: Becoming a housing activist – with Cypren Edmunds

    Cypren Edmunds, a housing activist and advocate for bio-based building materials, describes the challenges he has faced living in social housing in London, and the health benefits and energy efficiency that can be achieved through building with straw.

    Interview with Cypren Edmunds

    Cypren is the Chairperson of Strawbale Building UK and the President of the European Strawbuilding Association, and is working to increase the use of straw and other bio-based products within the construction industry.

    Cypren has first-hand experience of living in UK housing that is not fit for purpose and the affect this has on family life and the wider fabric of society. He believes we need much more education within the construction industry and society at large to enable us to build healthier and more energy-efficient homes.

    Activism begins with a burning desire to make a difference

    Cypren describes how living with his family in a property that had damp and condensation became distressing, and drove him to become a housing activist and ultimately to change his career. He started by re-igniting the Residents Association for his housing estate, but quickly realised that collectively they didn’t really have the knowledge of the built environment, planning and housing regulations to get to the core of the problems they were all facing. Cypren, a qualified carpenter, was working in fitness training at the time, but decided to change direction and see what he could do.

    Activism requires upskilling and plenty of time

    Cypren knocked on doors to find out just how bad the situation was for residents. In one of the worst cases, water was dripping from the light bulb above the resident’s head and as you walked through his flat, every single wall was dripping with condensation and mould. The resident had complained to both the Housing Association and Local Authority, but nothing had happened.

    A wall riddled with damp and mould

    The fabric of the buildings is concrete and steel (with fan heating) with no apparent strategy for dealing with ventilation, so moisture becomes trapped. The Housing Association didn’t have any solutions, apart from leaving windows open or putting in noisy dehumidifiers, neither of which worked well for residents.

    Keep communicating and stay engaged with all parties

    Rather than getting aggressive the Residents Association genuinely wanted to stay positive and work with the Housing Association and the Local Authority to identify solutions. As the Housing Association had already carried out surveys of the building, they too realised how bad the situation was and that it needed addressing. However they admitted they didn’t have the money for a full retrofit, so after much consultation tenants voted for regeneration.

    Cypren outlines the role of the Residents Association in explaining the wider picture to residents and wading through the multitude of facts and information provided by the authorities. Many people didn’t understand the bigger picture, only how things related to them, and this is a political problem that needs to be addressed.

    “We don’t have enough skilled professionals, at all levels, in the construction sector to undertake the kind of retrofit work necessary for these types of properties.”

    Council houses in North Kesteven

    Low carbon bio-based materials have many benefits

    Whilst straw was rejected as a material for the regeneration of Cypren’s housing estate it is being used widely across Europe in the construction of a variety of public and private buildings.

    As President for the European Straw Building Association and chair the Strawbale UK, Cypren is working to get the message across politically and digging into policy and regulations to increase use of bio-based materials in construction.

    A firestation in Colombey Les Belles, France

    Meliana day care centre in Valencia, Spain

    Countries like Lithuania and France are way ahead of the UK in recognising the value of straw and other bio-based materials. The French have entrenched this methodology into their regulations. For example policy RE 2020 is an environmental regulation that came into effect in 2022 with the goal of improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Cypren points out that we just don’t have this in the UK, and whilst groups like ACAN are doing a great job of delivering that message we need much more.

    STBA and SPAB hold a joint conference

    We need more education around the use of straw

    Cypren is clear that in the UK we need a significant drive to enable people to understand the value of using straw and other bio-based materials within the construction industry and that this drive should come from Government. There is a lack of education within the construction industry itself and many myths around straw that make the public wary of its use.

    Get input from experienced natural builders

    As with any material or methodology it’s essential to understand how you work with bio-based materials and how it differs to other approaches so make sure you’re learning or engaging with experienced natural builders. The good news is that straw is not a difficult material with which to work, particularly if you’re already a plasterer or carpenter, etc. The skills necessary are just the same as you would need if you were going to build a timber framed house. And now with prefabricated straw panel systems it is even easier, with construction on site taking just a few weeks.

    Highly engineered straw panels at Old Holloway

    Cypren believes we need to be building more with straw panels and developing factories to produce them. This would be good for the economy and generate jobs. We’re told the construction sector is struggling, so let’s train young people to work with materials that are helping us to move forward in life. It’s up to the government to give the appropriate incentives to those large housing developers to incentivise them to build in that way. We should take inspiration from France. Cypren tells us of a conference last year, where the French were saying they’d just built over 10,000 homes with straw. He couldn’t say how many we have built in this country.

    Intelligent activism could help create better homes and communities

    Cypren feels that if we are not happy with the situation within our community, we need to work together to create change. For him it’s not about going on marches or rallies it’s about engaging with the authorities, commenting on consultations, and making sure your voice is heard. He believes we have a tendency in England to sit back and expect others to sort things out. Instead, he suggests we find like-minded individuals, share ideas, speak to experts to get the information needed and become active with our community.

    For us to have a healthier society, we need to be thinking of everyone. There is a knock-on effect for example for young people living in poor housing, who are ashamed to take friends home, with no youth centre to go to, and so they hang around outside and potentially become involved in anti-social behaviour. If homes are comfortable and inviting people will want to be there instead.

    Keep an open mind to bio-based materials

    Cypren’s overriding message is to keep an open mind to bio-based materials. He says there is massive potential to scale up and that it would enhance all of our lives.

    From all of the data and all of the reports Cypren has seen, people who live in straw buildings or own bio-based buildings tend to be happier and healthier.

    Querbeet Housing Project in Lüneburg, Germany

    Find out more

    Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance

    European Straw Building Association

    Straw Bale Building UK

    The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

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  • HPH364: The power of community led housing – with Kareem Dayes from RUSS

    HPH364: The power of community led housing – with Kareem Dayes from RUSS

    Kareem Dayes, co-founder of RUSS in Lewisham, explains why setting up a Community Land Trust was a route to deliver genuinely affordable housing and create a better neighbourhood.

    Interview with Kareem Dayes

    Kareem Dayes is a one of the founders of the Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS) a members-led Community Land Trust based in South London. Kareem grew up at Walters Way in Lewisham, an innovative self-build housing project developed by Lewisham Council and led by architect Walter Segal in the 1980s.

    It was only upon making his own way in life that he realised how special Walters Way was and after living in a housing co-operative he explored the Community Land Trust approach and wondered if a project could create a modern version of Walters Way to meet the challenges people were still facing for affordable housing.

    RUSS was founded in 2009 with their 36 new homes completed in 2024. Kareem takes us through the process, their community led approach and the highs and lows along the way.

    A Community Land Trust manages community assets for the benefit of local people

    A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a charitable organisation set up to steward communal assets for the benefit of the community. It could be a piece of land, a shop, a pub or any community asset managed to create wider community value.

    In the context of housing, a piece of land may be gifted or bought, for the creation of affordable houses. The Community Land Trust is the steward of that land and develops it on a non-profit basis to achieve houses for local people at an affordable level. Kareem points out that what makes a Community Land Trust different to a co-operative is that it’s about affordability in perpetuity. There’s a mechanism in place that means the houses don’t go onto the private market, so the people who come in after the first-time buyers still benefit from the original principles.

    At RUSS, if you have bought a property, when you sell it you get your money back plus inflation. So no-one is going to profit from any uplift in the market from when they moved in, but they moved in at a price way under the market value for similar houses at that time.

    By doing this you are treating housing as a need, an essential part of life, not a commodity that will be an investment. RUSS demonstrates that you can provide affordable housing today and long into the future.

    Growing the membership was the starting point

    When RUSS was set up in 2009 it was a blue-sky idea, between Kareem’s family and friends. Several of them were musicians so they raised money for RUSS through music gigs and promoted the idea of self-build, sustainable, affordable housing to local people through events and workshops. Kareem explains that the CLT model allows you to issue non-profit shares, which have a ‘one vote per member’ principle. This allowed RUSS to build up their membership to a few hundred people in the early days. It also gave them around £20,000 in the bank as a starting budget.

    The next step came when architect Jon Broome got in touch regarding a vacant piece of land that was owned by the council. Jon lived locally and had been instrumental in the development of Walters Way so had the experience and expertise to help RUSS take their ideas forward.

    Don’t underestimate how long this process could take

    Kareem describes the timeline and process involved in achieving their dream for affordable and sustainable housing. RUSS first approached Lewisham Council about the site in 2012. At that point it had been vacant for 10 years, earmarked for a travellers’ site, but restricted access made that unviable.  

    The only access road to RUSS

    RUSS received a grant from the Community Land Trust Network to carry out a viability study for the site. With Jon’s input, they put together a proposal for 33 homes, for a mixed community, including social rents, affordable rents, shared ownership and shared equity. Community workshops allowed them to gather ideas, and Kareem explains that they were good at turning those into something coherent and organised. Every time RUSS met the Council, they were a bit further along. Eventually they received a grant of £187,000 from the GLA for the community Right to Build, and at that point, Kareem thinks Lewisham Council started taking them seriously. RUSS were bringing grant money to the table that the Council couldn’t access themselves, which helped to create a good collaborative partnership.

    Kareem explains how they still had to go through a long and costly process to become the preferred bidder for the site. This took until 2015, with planning permission then achieved in 2017. They also had to raise the money to build the properties, which became a mix of social investors, grant money, loans and advances. Triodos bank became the main lender, with CAF Venturesome, Big Issue Invest and the Tudor Trust just some of the organisations that have supported the development.

    Architype carried out the initial design work

    A co-design process and compromises were needed along the way

    Kareem outlines how they did co-design sessions with residents and the architects Architype to create the Passivhaus development proposal that was submitted for planning permission. Even though Architype had been working with a quantity surveyor to check costs, when RUSS went out to the market for that design it came in way over budget. The timber frame was just too expensive and Kareem explains that there also started to be concerns over anything flammable being used as a cladding. They came to a fork in the road, and the decision was made to part ways with Architype and appoint SEH. They then went through a whole exercise to get the costs down, with some big changes, the main one being from timber to concrete construction.  

    “Ultimately the choice comes down to, do you want to hold on to your perfect ideals and not do it, or are you willing to compromise and do it?”

    At that point, so much had been committed in terms of time, energy, resource, money, that it didn’t feel like it was much of a choice. You compromise, because you’re not willing to say we’ve wasted X number of years and hundreds of £1000s. Kareem also feels that there is a value in this building, which is beyond the materiality and is going to have a big impact on people in the long term.

    SEH took over the project

    The communal aspect was a key feature from the start

    RUSS were clear from the beginning that they wanted to have a community hub where people could come together and communal, open gardens for everyone to share. The communal walkways came about as a way of creating more outdoor space, with people putting plants outside their doors or tables and chairs to sit for coffee. The idea is for the development to feel like a floating garden with plants everywhere. All this creates opportunities for casual interactions with your neighbours and provides a safe space for children to play. The planners asked RUSS to maintain a view through the site, which has become a focal point with a Silver Birch tree in the middle. The bike and bin storage are made of timber with green roofs. Kareem explains that when they had to switch from wood, they had the cladding designed to look like a natural wood material and a combination of six different colours for the facade on each home. People chose the colour for their house and often use the colours as a reference point for their house rather than a number, which is similar to Walters Way.

    Photo by Ella Stoneham-Bull

    Floor plan of a unit

    There was a lot of personal choice during the build process

    Of the 36 homes built, only five people elected to do the full self-build, with everyone else able to choose certain features and the level of self-finishing. There was a good amount of flexibility for everyone, for example, people were able to choose their kitchens and flooring, with some electing to fit their own kitchens, so each home does look different inside. There was a lot of conversation around how much could be self-build and it ended up with the main contractor building the shells for each property. When the self-builders got on site, the shell was watertight and fireproof, the windows were in, all the external walls were done, and the services had come to one point. They took over from there, putting in the internal walls, all the wiring, the plumbing, the ceilings and everything else. This allowed for flexibility on layout, decisions on false ceilings and MVHR, more choice in terms of the fixings, the lighting, etc. Kareem points out that having done all of that, he knows where everything is and if he wants to make changes he’ll know what he’s working with.

    “I would say I was a good labourer, who’s happy using power tools, I think that would be my category.”

    Amalia Syeda-Aguirre on site

    Photo by Ella Stoneham-Bull

    The supply and extract vents for an MVHR unit

    Kareem relates that building work finally started on site at the end of 2019, 10 years after RUSS was conceived. The self-builders got on site around January 2023 with an initial target for completion by May 2023. This was a very stressful time, with delay after delay and pressure from RUSS for the completion date to be met. The self-build elements were finally completed in May 2024.

    The process did take a personal toll but was ultimately rewarding

    Kareem explains that after many years it got to a point where he had to step back, because the pressure was too much. The structure of RUSS made this possible as he was never doing it on his own. His life completely changed within the 15 years of the project, from being a single man looking to rent a property to a husband and father of two, undertaking a four bed self-build. Kareem says he learnt so much along the way, communicating with people, learning every stage of the development process. Ultimately, he has gained a career working in community engagement within the built environment.

    RUSS was always about more than just housing

    Kareem explains that RUSS was always bigger than just housing, with big picture ideas around community, climate change, equality and where we’re going as a society. His biggest takeaway from RUSS is demonstrating that we can work collaboratively to build alternative systems and use different ways to create value that is shared fairly.

    Kareem believes there is a different way of building housing, living together, sharing resources and providing safe places for our kids to grow up healthy and happy. We will need to redesign lots of our institutions and our systems to reflect this, because at the minute, we’re inheriting systems which are ultimately designed to extract value for a few and keep that value amongst a few. Kareem feels if we approach the problems we’re facing with an open mind, ready to work collaboratively, we’ll find that a lot of people want to be involved.

    “Ultimately, we’re living in a world that we’ve inherited, which was built by people who are long gone, but what are we going to leave behind for the people come after us?”

    Find out more

    Visit the Rural Urban Synthesis Society website

    Follow RUSS on Instagram

    Transcript

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