The Hub

House Planning Help

Eco Homes, Energy Efficient Homes, Build a Better Home : House Planning Help

HPH198 : Creating an interior that works perfectly with the exterior – with Emily Bizley

HPH198 : Creating an interior that works perfectly with the exterior – with Emily Bizley

by Leave a Comment

Interior designer Emily Bizley explains how she and her husband, an architect, co-designed their RIBA shortlisted self-build home.

Interview with Emily Bizley

Emily wanted to be an interior designer since she was very small, but ended up studying French and Psychology at university before deciding to go to Chelsea Art College to pursue her childhood dream. After gaining more qualifications, Emily worked for architects to get some experience. From there she went to work for an interior designer in London, and now has her own practice based in Somerset.

The interior shouldn’t be an afterthought

If design decisions aren’t guided by “a bigger idea about what the building is supposed to be”, there’s a risk that the interior and exterior won’t be coherent. Emily explains they wanted to build a timber house that was sympathetic to and connected with the surrounding countryside and nearby agricultural buildings.

She says she’s visited a lot of timber clad houses that look fabulous on the outside but whose interiors are “a crashing disappointment because it’s all white plasterboard with twinkly down lighters and absolutely no atmosphere.” She finds it surprising these houses aren’t made of wood both inside and out, like those she and her husband visited in Switzerland.

Ask yourself how you want each room to feel

Emily and her husband both did a lot of sketching for their self-build. They focused much more on how they wanted a room to feel, rather than how it would look. Sketches of room scenes helped them imagine their lives in the new house and captured the desired atmosphere.

Design the interior and exterior in partnership with one another

Focusing on how they wanted the kitchen to feel took them through a series of questions; the answers defined the design inside and out. For example, thinking about what they wanted to look at while eating breakfast, and where the sun would be coming in, suggested the size and position of the windows. But then they had to consider how this would affect the elevation outside, and the design needed tweaking to get to the point where it worked inside and out.

Emily says they decided to have their sitting room separate to (but adjoining) the open plan kitchen dining area. They designed this room to be a half level up with the ceiling following the roofline down, making it a cosy snug. She explains the materials they used are the same, it’s just that the space has been slightly manipulated to create a different atmosphere.

Think about how natural light will reach all the spaces

Emily’s house has light from all sides. She says it is really important to ensure that the darkest parts of the house still get natural light. They incorporated skylights into the design for their self-build, to avoid any “dark dingy corners”.

Create interesting relationships between spaces, inside and out

The sloping site presented challenges. Emily explains, “A developer house would just be plonked on stilts at the front to make the site flat, but then you lose the relationship to the garden”, adding, “We didn’t want that feeling of being on the upper floor and feeling really disconnected from the garden.” Instead, they dug down to enable the house to sit back in the hillside and decided to go for an upside down layout, taking care to create access to the garden from different places.

Their self-build uses internal glazing to create interesting relationships within the house – the rooms aren’t “a series of boxes with doors”. Emily says that internal glazing was something she and her husband had always liked about French houses and had been on their list of things they’d wanted to incorporate into their designs.

Be generous with some spaces to create the right atmosphere

Sometimes it’s worth sacrificing a bit of space to be generous elsewhere. In the case of Emily’s self-build, the design for the lower floor incorporated a wider hallway. She doesn’t see this as wasted space as it avoids the feeling of going downstairs into a rabbit warren of bedrooms.

Restrict the palette to avoid a “mishmash of everything”

There are a lot of options when it comes to interior finishes. Emily says they were quite disciplined in having just a few ideas for their interior and carrying those through with some rigour. She describes the house as having “two quite distinct overall sorts of atmosphere”. The rooms are either lined with oak or painted plywood; no walls are just plastered. And some of the ceilings are crafted from rough-sawn softwood and painted.

A joiner made their bespoke kitchen and he sourced the wood from the same supplier used for oak lining the walls. Emily comments, “The kitchen is intended to look like the walls, and blend in.”

Think about furniture early on as it impacts the design

Although Emily believes it’s good to let ideas develop and to be able to respond in an organic way, it’s also important to have an overall idea when it comes to furniture. She uses their veranda as an example, explaining that it is pretty much square in plan, but as the house is not a square box the corner of the deck intentionally gets wider to accommodate the table and chairs.

It also helps to know what you’re planning to do furniture-wise to produce electrical plans. For example, do you want to sit in a particular well-lit corner and read? The position of an extractor fan in the kitchen is another important consideration – what type of cooking do you tend to do, and does that require extraction directly above the hob?

Factor in storage during the design stage

Emily comments, “If we did decide to put everything away, there would be a space for everything.” The big store at the back houses the plant, store and utility rooms. They also incorporated really big wardrobes into the kids’ bedrooms and Emily and her husband have a lot of storage space in their dressing room.

Other tips for self-builders

  • Collate images of anything you really like into a folder
  • Have some clear ideas and follow them through – don’t get distracted
  • Think about how materials and texture can achieve the atmosphere you want 

Watch a 2-minute video about their home

Find out more

Visit the website of Emily Bizley Interior Design

Follow Emily Bizley on Instagram

Visit the website of Prewitt Bizley Architects

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Emily Bizley

Please connect with me

HPH196 : Why communication is central to self build success – with Lucy Pedler

by Leave a Comment

Lucy Pedler, architect and founder of The Green Register, talks about the importance of good communication throughout a self-build project.

Interview with Lucy Pedler

As a child, Lucy was interested in the worlds of science and arts and wanted a profession that could combine the two. She qualified 35 years ago, and has worked as an architect in the UK and US.

Influenced by her father, an environmentalist, Lucy wanted her career to encompass both architectural and environmental work. In the early ‘90s, she worked as a Product Specialist at Construction Resources (the UK’s first Ecological Building Centre) for five years; this involved researching the environmental impact of building materials and systems, and training other construction professionals in green building.

In 2000, Lucy launched The Green Register, a not-for-profit organisation providing independent training and promoting sustainable building practices across the construction industry.

Poor communication is the cause of many problems

Lucy believes we spend quite a lot of time as human beings not saying what we think! If you can communicate effectively – using a bit of tact and choosing words carefully – people know where they stand. Lucy says some people think she’s quite direct but at least there’s no grey area.

Making the importance of communication clear from the start helps to create an environment where everybody’s comfortable talking about the build.

A robust brief ensures everyone’s on the same page

Good communication is key to making the project a success and this begins with a detailed brief. To produce one, the architect or designer must first thoroughly understand what the client wants.

This document should then be referred to throughout the build process as things inevitably change. For example, there may be planning issues, unexpected problems on site, or design alterations. A detailed brief aids important discussions about the time, cost and design implications of changes.

It’s worth spending time setting the green agenda

When people tell Lucy they want a ‘low energy house’ she needs to clarify exactly what that means. Clients may just want low energy bills, or they may have concerns about the bigger picture: the way the house is built, materials used, internal environment, wellbeing, etc. It’s a lot of work that has to be done at the beginning, but Lucy says you’ll reap the benefits throughout the process.

Be realistic about the budget from the outset

A fabric first approach is much better in terms of environmental issues and impact. But Lucy understands that the majority of people don’t have the money to do 100% sustainable buildings, commenting, “Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t got the perfect house because whatever you do is going to be better than the average house in the UK, which is very, very mediocre.”

Lucy advises people to be honest about access to funds and what you have upfront. Then everybody involved knows what you can afford. You don’t want to run out of money and work to suddenly stop onsite.

The project lead should manage expectations about cost

During a career spanning more than 30 years, Lucy can’t remember a project where the cost didn't change, usually in an upward direction. Managing clients’ expectations won’t make the problem go away, but lessens their disappointment.

The architect (or lead) should explain the process and set expectations that the project will probably go over cost and time. If unexpected costs arise, they’ll refer back to the brief so the client can decide whether to increase the budget or save costs elsewhere. Lucy says self-builders often see the long-term benefits of increasing the budget.

There’s huge value in face-to-face communication

Modern communication technology sets expectations that everything can be done immediately. While some decisions are quick to make, Lucy thinks we’ve lost something in not being given the time to consider things.

Projects can be discussed remotely using phone, Skype and email, but Lucy gives reasons why talking to clients in person can be advantageous:

  • You can sketch over plans while talking through concepts.
  • It's easier to compare room sizes on plans with the room you’re all sitting in.
  • Some decisions take a bit of time and are best explained face-to-face.
  • You can observe non-verbal reactions, e.g. facial expressions.

3D modelling makes it easier to convey concepts

Many clients can’t understand 2D drawings and Lucy comments, “Why should they? It took us seven years of training to get where we are.” She recommends a programme called SketchUp, which is very simple and can quickly produce a 3D walkthrough to use with clients, helping them to experience light and height and changes in space, etc.

It’s important that concepts aren’t presented as a fait accompli, and Lucy says clients should feel able to give feedback. Reviewing conceptual designs is a key stage for communication, when you’ll work out basics such as the position of the living room or the size of the kitchen.

Design iterations take time and can be costly

Lucy recalls a client who requested ten different designs for a 2m x 2m bathroom and chose the original one in the end! A helpful approach is for the architect or designer to state upfront the number of design options included in their price, and make it clear they’ll have to start charging extra for any additional major changes.

A collaborative design and build approach is worth considering

While in the States, Lucy worked with contractors from the conceptual stage onwards and the contractor would inform some of the technical decisions. This approach required a high level of trust, but meant shared ownership of the project. And when it came to pricing the job, the cost was quite realistic.

Lucy says when you go out to competitive tender, contractors may not have understood the drawings or might not be pricing accurately. She cautions, “Although it might appear initially to be the lowest cost, at the end they’re clawing back what they need in order to make a profit.”

A neutral third person can mediate between client and contractor

Lucy says if clients can afford to appoint someone to oversee the project that’s a real plus. The architect or project manager can tell them early on what’s likely to happen during the construction stage and clarify what their fee will cover.

Self-builders often get much more involved, but Lucy suggests clients don’t take on the project management role themselves as they’re too close to the project and usually don’t have the experience needed.

Agree a schedule of meetings for the build

When the construction stage begins, you’re introducing a lot more people, so communication can be challenging. And clients often perceive progress to be slow and see costs increase and timescales slip during this stage.

It’s helpful to plan a schedule of meetings and clarify to the whole project team where they’ll be held, who does/doesn’t need to attend, what’s going to be covered, etc.

Lucy says the one group of people they find very difficult to get into Green Register seminars are builders. She recommends ‘toolbox talks’ if you’re trying to achieve a low energy building, as spending just a few hours explaining the concepts is money well spent.

3 more tips for a successful self-build

  1. The amount of information and decision-making can be overwhelming. Decide how involved you want to be, e.g. technical decisions may be best left to professionals trained to deal with them.
  2. It’s important no one in the team holds back. The client, architect or contractor needs to share their concerns or say if there’s something they have doubts about.
  3. The Green Register encourages post-occupancy monitoring (e.g. of airtightness, fuel costs, etc.). This can reassure you that you’ve got what you set out to achieve.

 

Find out more

Visit the website of The Green Register

Follow The Green Register on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Lucy Pedler

Please connect with me

HPH172 : The impact of setting your energy target – with John Palmer from Enhabit

by Leave a Comment

John Palmer from Enhabit explains what happens if you choose not to go all the way to Passivhaus standard, including how this impacts on cost, energy efficiency and comfort. He also outlines a best practice approach if you are going to build with Passivhaus principles.

Interview with John Palmer

John is the Managing Director of Enhabit, a company that helps to improve building performance, efficiency and comfort levels. John is a qualified Passivhaus consultant, SAP and BRE Assessor, systems engineer and experienced project manager. Prior to joining Enhabit, he ran his own low energy design consultancy.

First understand the implications of Passivhaus for your project

If you are trying to set an energy target, John’s advice is to start by reviewing your plans in line with Passivhaus standards. This will allow you to fully appreciate what it might take to achieve Passivhaus. Once the implications are understood, you may take the necessary steps or make a conscious decision to compromise and aim slightly lower.

Invest in professional advice at the design stage

John says that Passivhaus is not so much more complicated than a normal build, it just requires more thought at the beginning. One of the key thermal bridges to eliminate or mitigate is where the ground floor meets external walls, which will require careful detailing and potentially some specialist materials. Paying for some extra time with your architect or Passivhaus consultant is a worthwhile investment.

When clients commission a design review with Enhabit, they are shown a Passivhaus model of their design and given graduated options to see what’s possible with their house and how close they can get to Passivhaus, with indicative costs for extra requirements.

Focus on a fabric first approach, not eco technology

John says it’s easy to get bamboozled by all the technology available. Ground source heat pumps, solar panels, boilers, etc. all have a design life of around 20-25 years and will need to be replaced. However the walls of your building will be there for 80-100 years, so the extra investment you put into them at the start will repay itself time and time again.

Architectural aspirations may make Passivhaus harder to achieve

John explains that in Passivhaus terms, the shape of your house is the ratio of your liveable area to outside heat loss area. So you may need to compromise on an ambitious design if you want to target Passivhaus.

If your plans have already incorporated professional advice, and you intend to follow a very high-performing fabric first approach, it may be you just need to add in a MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) system.

Alternatively you may find you haven’t gone far enough with the fabric of the building and need to change the specification of insulation, glazing, etc. This is typical of retrofits, where John says it’s quite hard to achieve the levels required for Passivhaus with the existing fabric.

Heating a Passivhaus costs a very small amount

The annual space heating demand in a Passivhaus should be no more than 15 kilowatt hours per metre squared per year. John comments that this is a very specific number and you may decide this is unachievable.

The key is to understand what number you can get down to, and what that means. For example, a target of 30 kWh will cost you twice as much to heat your property in any given year than it would have done if it were a Passivhaus. But heating a Passivhaus costs very little, so doubling very little isn’t that much and is likely to be better than other new build properties in the UK.

Every design decision will impact on comfort levels

Doubling your space heating demand to 30 kWh will impact on comfort but the nature of this impact will depend on why you haven’t achieved the Passivhaus target of 15 kWh. John gives a few examples:

IssueImplicationsImpact On Comfort
Insufficient insulation in wallsHeat loss from wallsFeeling cold off the walls
Poor detailing where walls meet ground floorThermal bridgingIf bad, noticeable cold spots and possible condensation/mould
Window specification isn’t triple/ high-quality double glazingCold will radiate off the glazingFeeling cold in rooms at certain times of year

Thermal comfort is all about constant temperatures

Many homes, especially Victorian buildings, tend to have rooms that are hot near the ceilings but cold at lower levels due to drafts and a lack of insulation below the ground floor. John explains that although the average air temperature in the room might be ok, having cold feet and a hot head will feel uncomfortable! Paying attention to thermal bridges and insulation will help to achieve what John calls good temperature stratification.

Building regulations rely on people opening windows for required ventilation

Although our awareness of temperature is quite good, it’s harder to detect poor air quality. We may notice smells and detect when rooms are a bit stuffy, but that’s about it.

Humidity, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), odours and nitrogen oxide levels are all examples of pollutants within buildings. John advises we need about 30 cubic metres of fresh air per person per hour moving through a property to deal with pollutants, but this isn’t achievable with trickle vents and extractor fans unless you start opening windows.

An MVHR system will deliver the required level of ventilation, but there are other mechanisms out there superior to extractor fans that will give extra ventilation but perhaps not cost as much.

Insulation, glazing and ventilation will cost more, but not much more

These three aspects are typically more expensive than a normal new build, as a Passivhaus requires:

  • More insulation – but you’ll only be paying more for materials (approx. 0.5% increase on overall cost); the labour costs are the same
  • Triple glazing, for thermal performance and to avoid condensation and mould – the gap is closing between triple and double glazing prices
  • An MVHR system – for an average sized house this may cost £9-10k for supply and installation

Of these, the greatest return on investment will be insulation.

Some builders are willing to learn

Hiring the right people to build a Passivhaus is another factor to consider. Although it’s still relatively new to the UK, John has found that builders relish the challenge of doing something that requires more detail and thought; they appreciate the ability to measure how well they’ve done, and revel in achieving the standard. He adds, “You have big, hairy builders hugging each other on site when they get their final air test and they’ve got down to the right levels.”

Five helpful tips from John

1) Visit a Passivhaus or speak to someone who lives in one, to see what it can deliver from a living experience

2) Find out what would be involved in achieving Passivhaus for your project

3) Understand how each decision affects the final design, floor space, efficiency and comfort

4) Put an MVHR system in, regardless of your airtightness target; ventilation and air quality are worth doing as standalone

5) Have some form of quality control in place, even if you’re not targeting Passivhaus, to get the results you’re expecting

 

Find out more

Visit the website of Enhabit

Follow Enhabit on Twitter

 

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with John Palmer

Please connect with me

HPH171 : An eco interior designer in the home – with Elina Grigoriou

by Leave a Comment

Elina Grigoriou from Grigoriou Interiors talks about design, wellbeing and sustainability, and the role of interior designers.

Interview with Elina

Elina and her sister founded Grigoriou Interiors in 2010. Their vision is “to create interior spaces of beauty and function that look after people and our planet”. A strong theme of sustainability is used in their branding and website, to educate people on the concept of sustainable interiors and to attract like-minded clients.

Interior design is about understanding how space affects you

Interior design involves looking specifically at the spaces that fall within the floor slab, ceiling slab and external walls. Elina explains: “From the moment you step into a building until you come back out of it, everything you touch, everywhere you interact within that space is forming the interior and the way that has been intentionally designed to support your life.”

Design can influence how well you sleep or eat

Wellbeing is a big issue right now, and Elina finds that a lot of people don’t understand the effect their space has on them. It is often only when they start talking about how they behave in an interior that they slowly start to realise how the space is informing some of their behaviours, or may be stopping them from behaving in a certain way.

For example, the shape of a table will affect how people communicate. Are you sitting opposite each other at a square or rectangular table, or around one with no sides? Elina suggests that dinner with your in-laws might be nicer at a round table!

And patterns tend to help people to relax. Elina explains that we find them reassuring because we trust things that are repeated. Movement is associated with asymmetry, whereas a balanced style promotes calmness.

An interior designer can help create a living environment

There are different motivations for hiring an interior designer. Elina says some people feel they should hire one because they’re ‘supposed to’ or to ‘keep up with the Joneses’, adding the image-conscious association often linked with interior design is not helpful.

A better reason would be someone wanting to create a home that feels like a home, where they can entertain guests, work, and allow the space to affect them in a positive way.

Elina guides clients through a decision-making process to make choices they will be happy with. Interiors contribute to the relationships people have in their homes, and she wants that contribution to be a positive one.

We can better understand and re-use existing buildings

One step is to establish whether the original architecture assumed a particular ‘user journey’ from the moment you walk through the door. What kind of volumes and spatial proportions did the designer envisage for the interior spaces? If this hasn’t been considered, you can get quite structural: reforming spaces and opening or closing up floors.

Self-builds can get it right from the beginning

Unlike commercial and residential developments, which tend to be quite ‘vanilla’, the self-build ethos creates an opportunity to engage in the design process and make a home fit for purpose.

With new builds, Elina would recommend involving an interior designer at the earlier stages, when forming the architecture and considering what kind of lifestyle you want to enjoy in the building. That’s the time to start discussing the internal spaces, views, etc.

A detailed brief gives a clear basis to start from        

Elina recalls a previous project where the husband wanted to have lovely conversations with his daughter in the living room. She comments that this is the kind of brief they can respond to and believes this is the right kind of objective for a home.

Grigoriou Interiors create what they call a user profile. Every question they ask of each client in the design process goes back to this profile, gradually informing how the space needs to be and documenting where they started from and why. Typical questions might include:

  • What’s the geographical location like?
  • What’s the typical climate?
  • Is it an existing or new building?
  • How many bedrooms do you want?
  • Do you entertain at home?
  • Do you work out at home?
  • Do you like lots of fresh air in your interior?
  • Do you like a lot of natural daylight coming in?
  • How are you going to clean it?
  • How long do you want to live there?
  • Will you be there throughout the year?
  • Do you want to rent it out?

Shorter purchasing cycles mean greater impact on the environment

Architects consider lifespans of 20-30 years or more, and these timeframes inform product and material decisions. However the average interior lifecycle is just five to ten years.

Elina says it falls to designers to ensure that what they specify is sustainable in the first place. Grigoriou Interiors talk with their clients to understand where the environmental impacts are going to happen from the client’s own behaviour in a space. For example, working from home may mean longer periods of heating and lighting. Establishing this in the brief, at the start, allows them to create a sustainable interior and suggest certain materials and layouts based on how the space will be used.

Beauty is very important when it comes to interiors

Elina explains that the perception of beauty is personal to everyone’s individual conditions at a point in time. So she has to work with clients to understand what they consider beautiful and what kind of look they want. Something minimalist? Or a bit of texture? Do they have some lovely crafts, perhaps from their travels?

Existing furniture may not be suitable for your new home

If you are moving to a different sized house, Elina suggests that some of the furniture you currently own – such as the dining table or soft seating – may be too big or small for the new interiors. Similar spaces may allow you to re-use existing furniture but it’s worth questioning which pieces may need to be recycled.

A new build, especially a passivhaus, presents an opportunity to minimise or even eliminate the introduction of pollutants. Emissions from materials and furniture will affect the quality of air inside the house so, for example, an existing sofa will likely have chemical foams. Elina is excited to see alternatives such as coconut fillers becoming available.

Deciding not to re-use doesn’t mean throwing away

If you can’t use some or all of your existing furniture, there are plenty of quick and easy ways to pass it on before moving. Freecycle and Preloved are just two websites and Elina says more options are emerging all the time.

Interior design advice doesn’t have to cost the earth

Even with a limited budget, it’s still possible to engage the services of an interior designer. The key is bringing them in at the right time to get their feedback on architectural proposals. Elina describes it as having them dip in for a day or two to review the proposals, give you some feedback and possibly pose some questions.

 

Find out more

Visit the website of Elina Grigoriou

Follow Grigoriou Interiors on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Elina Grigoriou

Please connect with me

Finding Land

If you want to build a house then the first thing you need to do is find land. Suitable parcels might be few and far between. And when you do find one, you could face fierce competition. Not only from other self builders, but also developers with deep pockets and bags of knowhow. Our free course will lead you through how you find your dream plot.

Get instant free access to this course

ECO DESIGN 101

So your heart is set on building an eco home but you don’t know where to start. Well, that’s why we’ve developed a 10-part e-course to help you understand some of the important decisions you are going to have to make. Can you have a comfortable, healthy home with low running costs . . . that’s also good for the planet?

Join our free course now