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Tag: Anne Thorne Architects

  • HPH335 : Designing an intentional community – with Anne Thorne

    HPH335 : Designing an intentional community – with Anne Thorne

    Anne Thorne talks through the architectural design process of Cannock Mill Cohousing community.

    Interview with Anne Thorne

    We first featured Cannock Mill Cohousing in a podcast with Phil McGeevor, the Chair of the group, who explained how the group formed and the process they followed. Another key member of that group, Anne Thorne, is not only the architect who designed the scheme but also a resident of their cohousing community. Anne became an architect at a time when only 5% in that profession were female, and felt that as well as a lack of representation in the studio, there was generally a lack of consultation with women in the design process. She emphasises the importance of consultation, really listening to and understanding people’s ideas and designing in an environmentally conscious way.

    Cohousing is an intentional community

    It is a community where people come to live together, but in their own independent homes. There is a common house where residents can meet, cook, watch TV together, party etc. It also has bedrooms where guests can stay. By sharing lots of facilities, the intention is that residents can have a smaller home of their own.

    Beyond the common house, they also grow produce together and have a travel club for car and lift-sharing.

    Discreet spaces are as important as shared ones

    Each house or flat owner has their own outdoor space, whether that’s a balcony or a small terraced garden. Discreet spaces have also been designed into the community areas, with seating in parts of the garden if people are looking for privacy.

    10 years of looking for a site will see people pull out!

    Searching for a suitable and mutually agreeable site can be a lengthy process, but the point at which they selected the site (10 years on) was actually the point at which several people decided to pull out. Reasons included location, risk and budget.

    “And in fact, eight of us bought the site, eight households that is, which cost 1.2 million. That was a really big step for everybody to put up that money. People got mortgages on their houses, did all sorts of things in order to make that happen, which was a fantastic leap of faith really, and one that lots of people couldn’t make.”

    A particular risk at that time was that only eight households paid for the site: a site which had planning for 23 homes, and would need to be developed with 23 homes.

    A series of sub-groups report to the main board

    These sub-groups included legal, finance and building. They would all report to the main board which was responsible for decision-making.

    Once Anne Thorne Architects had been appointed, Anne distanced herself entirely from the committees and groups that dealt with finance or decision-making around anything that might affect her tenure as the architect. Luckily for her, many people on the building sub-group, which acted as the client, had experience of being clients in big organisations and understood what her role was and the complexities of keeping that separate from her involvement as a member of the community. Both she and the building group for example, were very clear that she wouldn’t be involved in any of the voting around building matters.

    The building group were also insistent that if anyone wanted changes making to their houses, that they raise it with the group and Anne directly, rather than the builders on site. It would have been easy for a member to tell a builder that they didn’t like the flooring, and the builder then to assume that meant the flooring was changing for everyone!

    Developers will be competing to buy the same site

    One of the reasons that the search was protracted, was that as soon as they found a suitably flat and workable site, it would be snapped up by a developer. What held them back as a group was they couldn’t move fast enough with their finances. They also lost out on sites because developers and housing associations already had links with the local authorities.

    They didn’t want an isolated site

    The group’s main criteria for a site was that it should:

    • have planning for between 15 and 30 dwellings
    • be located within an hour and a half from London
    • be well located for local facilities without needing a car

    After 10 years of searching, they found the Cannock Mill site on Right Move. They knew it would have its challenges (it was steep and fairly waterlogged), but it also housed a lovely mill, was a 20 minute walk into Colchester, with countryside walks, village shops and a bus stop at the doorstep.

    The houses were designed to Lifetime Home Standards

    With the original eight households needing to decide what size and layout future members might want, they decided to design the houses to Lifetime Home Standards, and the minimum housing sizes of the Greater London Authority standards.

    This meant that they were more generously sized than developer homes, but perhaps not as generous as if a private client might build for themselves.

    Accessibility was a key consideration and all the three-storey houses have space for a lift to be installed. Bathrooms are large enough to be accessible, with the adaptability of being able to install a hoist if necessary in the future.

    Standardised finishes were used across all the houses

    This meant they all had bamboo flooring, were painted white, and had the same baths/showers, taps and basins. By all agreeing to have the same finishes, they understood it would be a lot cheaper and more sustainable. Members would be free to redecorate if they wanted to afterwards.

    Prices exceeded the contingency sum by 1%

    With such a long time between concept and delivery of the scheme, budgets inevitably changed considerably. Prices on site also went up, not least because building work overran by a year.

    There was also a very steep learning curve with builders and sub-contractors having never worked on a Passivhaus scheme before. In hindsight for example, Anne says that they should have insisted on the suppliers of the triple-glazed windows and doors doing the installation.

    The scheme is on piled foundations

    With spring water and a pond on the site, a lot of work has been undertaken to direct the water. Being so wet and with variable ground conditions, the scheme uses piled foundations over 25 metres deep in places. A concrete slab, insulation and screed sit on top of the foundations.

    The timber frame is faced on both sides with either wood fibre board or plywood. The inner face has an airtight layer of smart ply with newspaper insulation blown through. It is finished with a wood fibre panel and coloured render. With a colour palette to choose from, residents had to negotiate with their neighbour to make sure they didn’t have the same colour!

    The roof construction is designed to absorb almost as much water as the site did before the houses were built. This also means that they have a reduction in their water bills because no water goes into the surface drains from the houses.

    Upside-down living takes advantage of the daylight

    With a steep north-facing slope, everyone had concerns that the living rooms wouldn’t have enough daylight. So, the houses were designed with open plan kitchen / living rooms on the top floor. They all face the communal house too.

    Listed status on the mill prevented it from being a Passivhaus retrofit

    The conservation officer wouldn’t allow any changes of the windows. Instead, they’ve used secondary glazing. The larch timber boarding was removed and insulation fitted between the studs. An airtightness layer was added to allow the structure to breathe, before insulated board was put on top and the cladding returned. The wood burning stove they fitted has been largely redundant, because it’s so well insulated.

    People have invested in the community, not just the scheme

    Because people have been involved from the beginning, they have also been invested in their faith and understanding of each other. They have got to know and trust one another. They have had to develop ways of working together. Although Anne acknowledges, being such a consolidated community can make it slightly harder for newcomers.

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Anne Thorne Architects

    Get information about cohousing from the UK Cohousing Network

    One to check out from our archives: Can a straw bale house reach Passivhaus standard? – with Fran Bradshaw from Anne Thorne Architects

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Anne Thorne

    Other podcasts about cohousing

    The benefits of joining a cohousing development (Marmalade Lane Cohousing)

    How to make a cohousing scheme a reality (Cannock Mill Cohousing)

    Setting up a cohousing scheme (Marmalade Lane Cohousing)

    Low impact living affordable community (LILAC)

    How cohousing helps build a community (Lancaster Cohousing)

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  • HPH242 : How to make a cohousing scheme a reality – with Phil McGeevor from Cannock Mill Cohousing

    HPH242 : How to make a cohousing scheme a reality – with Phil McGeevor from Cannock Mill Cohousing

    Phil McGeevor, Chair of Cannock Mill Cohousing, describes the 12-year journey it’s taken to realise their cohousing community for older adults.

    Interview with Phil McGeevor

    In 2007, a small group who used to go on holiday together, discussed the idea of developing a cohousing scheme together. Phil McGeevor and his wife were amongst the first wave of people to join.

     

    Although Phil was unfamiliar with the concept, he soon became very enthusiastic and keen to take it forward.

    “I loved the idea of being able to build not just a house but a community. I liked the design ideas of our architect and we agreed right from the start it would be to Passivhaus standards, if that was at all possible.

    I liked some of the eco aspects of being able to share, not having twenty-three lawnmowers and the rest. It seemed a very sensible thing. And I liked the combination of the privacy of your own house but the connection to the common house, the mill in our case, and to your neighbours. And through making decisions together, I thought that was just a good way to live. “

    The scheme has largely been self financed

    This has mostly been through a variety of pensions and savings within the group, with the ability to use a developer’s loan of up to £4.5 million from Homes England. This was the first cohousing group they had helped, with a loan that is designed for developers to be able to buy a plot of land that might otherwise be uneconomical and not able to raise private finance on.

    There was a broad search area for a site

    Finding any suitable building plot can be a drawn out affair, but with cohousing it invariably takes considerably longer. The biggest challenge is usually in trying to compete with more conventional developers, so often the options that remain tend to be more challenging sites.

    What worked in their favour was having a good skill-set among the group, with Anne Thorne providing experience as their architect. And with many members of the group looking towards retirement and being flexible about location, they had a broad geographic search area encompassing everywhere that was within 90 minutes from London.

    It was 8 years before they bid on a plot

    Choosing the site was a balance of the factual side of things, such as the size, constraints, planning permissions, price and what could be built there, together with the emotional aspect of how they felt about it. Viewing the site on a wet and muddy day in November, they were still able to visualise how it could be beautiful.

    While they had spent some money carrying out due diligence on other plots, this was the first they had bid on. Taking a year to make the purchase, it had been around 9 years to get to the stage of owning their plot of land.

    In committing to the site in Colchester, Essex, and having to part with large sums of money, they invariably had a few members drop out at this stage, but still had enough to take it forward.

     

    The group demographic impacted on design

    At just over two acres, the focal point of the site is a 15th Century, three storey Victorian mill, with mill pond behind.

    The flats are connected to The Mill and follow an L shape around the pond. There are a further three blocks of terrace housing that also follow the line around the pond.

    Key to the design was making sure the units would be energy efficient and beautiful to live in.

    They have six one-and two-bedroom flats, a series of two-bedroom houses and some three-bedroom houses. Phil says that in retrospect, for the group’s demographic, that two-bedroom units would probably be ideal.

    They are built on piled foundations, with timber frames and a rendered exterior. They have living green roofs and face across the mill pond to The Mill itself.

    There are balconies at the rear which, because of the slope of the site, are on a similar level with the shared gardens. There is also a walkway between the balconies which adds to the sense of community.

    Extensive groundworks increased costs

    They used a tender process to select their contractor, carrying out due diligence on them before making their decision. Although they hadn’t built Passivhaus houses before, they had completed a Passivhaus school and seemed to have strengths that the other bidders didn’t have.

    The first contract they signed with them was for the groundworks. With water being a feature of the site, there was a serious amount of engineering in the background, behind the attractive aesthetic!

    “You have to find compromises. It’s been an absolute lesson in life”

    A member of the group spent time visiting and staying at many other cohousing schemes, to learn from them and advise the group as to what worked well and what they had difficulties with.

    “Every group thinks it’s invented the wheel and the right way of doing it, but you can pick and mix from the different groups, what you like and what you think will work for you. Because every group is slightly different. “

    Although the members formed different committee groups, such as for finding the land, overseeing the building work etc, the different groups would come together as an executive and decisions made as a whole.

    Phil explains that very rarely have they had to resort to voting to make a decision. Generally they are able to work through issues until they reach a consensus.

    “So, the trust in the group is essential and it’s something you do everything you can to preserve and develop because you know it’s going to be really important for the long-term success of how you live there. And I’m just amazed that a group of people who mostly didn’t know each other until they got involved with this, can develop such a high-level trust. And of course, it’s an incredibly efficient mechanism, trust, compared to trying to tie each other up in contracts or red tape. And it’s worked very well for us.”

    As time has gone on they’ve found that making decisions together has become easier. Often it’s because they know more about the expertise of the individual group members and who they should be listening to on which subjects.

    Groups have different responsibilities

    Originally many of the members of the group were from the London area but now the site has been purchased some have sold their properties and are renting closer by. They have also had new members join from the local area.

    Early on they would hold meetings in London but as the project has progressed they have moved to The Mill on the site, village halls, or wherever the particular group that is meeting chooses is convenient.

    Group committees have included building, finance, legal, communications and membership.

    As the project moved forward they had to establish a new series of groups to cover different aspects of living in The Mill. So now there is a gardening group, and also a group for each floor of The Mill, including a kitchen and utilities room group who look at the equipment they need to buy, cost it up and present it back to the board.

    Be realistic about finances

    With moving in just a few months away, Phil is conscious of just how much work still needs to be done.

    “I want us to be in there. I want that to be well-planned and go as smoothly as it can. I know there will be difficulties and obstacles to get through. But I’m confident from our past experience of how we’ve tackled those, that we will get through them.”

    Phil is keen to point out to any other cohousing groups that are planning their own scheme, to be realistic about the finances.

    “I think I would be rather robust in telling them that a tooth fairy isn’t going to come down and do it for them. Nobody is going to say, ‘I’d love to finance this for you, and it will be terribly cheap for you and it will all be wonderful.’
    You have control of it yourself, but you have to do it. You have to raise that money. It is a pretty hard-headed commercial thing, in the end. It wouldn’t get built otherwise. A contractor is going to look very seriously at you to see that you have the means to do it, certainly the finance, but also the skills. You need to get those things lined up.”

     

    Regen Media

    Here at Regen Media we produce videos for the construction industry, and ideally ecological construction. So if there’s a project you think we might be able to help on, do please get in touch. 

     

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Cannock Mill Cohousing

    Follow Cannock Mill Cohousing on Twitter

    Find out more about Anne Thorne Architects

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Phil McGeevor

     

    Please connect with me

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  • HPH042 : Can a Straw Bale House Reach Passivhaus Standard? – with Fran Bradshaw from Anne Thorne Architects

    HPH042 : Can a Straw Bale House Reach Passivhaus Standard? – with Fran Bradshaw from Anne Thorne Architects

    Fran Bradshaw from Anne Thorne Architects shares her experience of building an ultra low energy home using natural materials such as straw bales, lime render and clay plaster. The house is also aiming for the Passivhaus standard.

    Fran-Bradshaw

    Interview with Fran Bradshaw

    Fran Bradshaw was a builder before she became an architect but she’s still very much interested in the practical side of things. A lot of the work she does at Anne Thorne Architects has a focus on sustainability and community-based work.

    This episode is about a straw bale house that she’s building for herself in Norfolk, UK.

    Straw Bale Building Allows People to Get Involved

    Fran got inspired to build her own house with straw after working on a project for Haringey Council.

    Local people helped both design and construct the eco-hub, which Fran describes a wonderful experience: “It was really exciting being on site and just seeing how enthusiastic people were and what a great community benefit it was.”

    straw-bales-going-down

    Volunteers help construct an eco-hub in Lordship Park

    Natural Buildings Feel Different

    Upon completing the eco-hub, Fran noticed that lots of people commented on the quality of the environment.

    The acoustics, humidity and the colours are all very different in a building constructed of natural materials – people liked this.

    RaeParkinsonStrawworks

    The finished eco-hub (credit: Rae Parkinson, Straw Works)

    Getting the Details Right is the Biggest Challenge

    While there have been straw bale houses in mainland Europe that have reached Passivhaus standard, there is yet to be one in the UK. 

    The challenge is in turning what is a rather chaotic building material into something that is actually very precise, because to achieve the Passivhaus standard all the details on all the joints have to be very neat and carefully airtight. 

    frame-up

    The timber frame goes up on Fran’s house

    The Team Must be Led by Someone Experienced

    Although one of the reasons Fran chose to build her house with straw was to involve her friends, she leveraged the experience of Straw Works.

    So guided by one or two experts, the rest of the team members just need to be enthusiastic and prepared to do a little bit of physical work.

    Barbara-checks-straw

    Barbara Jones from Straw Works examines the quality of a bale 

    A Reed Thatch was Chosen for the Roof

    The site is very close to the Norfolk Broads and Fran discovered that reed thatch was being cut a mile away.

    She describes this as too tempting: “Yes, it’s just a very good roofing material. It’s very durable. It’s got a natural insulation value so there was no reason not to use it. I mean it’s more expensive going with thatch rather than clay tiles or something and that was my extravagance really.”

    Reed Consistency is Important

    In order to thatch well, the reeds need to be the same strength, the same length and have the same diameter.

    This is partly to do with how well and methodically the reeds are cut, which is why reed cutters are given long contracts to tend a certain patch.

    The Airtight Layer in the Roof is Below the Thatch

    The thatch is on fireboard which is moisture permeable but airtight. It’s taped at the joints so that the airtight layer is just underneath the thatch.

    Warmcel – recycled newspaper insulation – then goes in between the plasterboard and the underside of the fireboard.

    strawbale-corner

    The Floor is a Reinforced Raft

    Fran says the connections between the walls and the floor are always tricky to get right and, as this project is aiming for the Passivhaus standard, she opted for a reinforced raft.

    While there was a level of compromise here it is quite economical on concrete and it gave Fran the opportunity to employ a local contractor (whereas many parts of this build have needed specialists).

     

    Due to Timber Penetrations the Airtightness Layer is on the Outside of the Wall

    Normally the airtightness layer would be on the inside of the house to avoid warm, moist air from the room going into the wall fabric.

    As there’s timber inside and the straw is outside the timber frame, in this case it would have been very difficult to make the airtight barrier work well (because there are timber penetrations and quite big bits of timber).

    After discussing the best approach with their airtightness expert Paul Jennings, they decided to use the outside layer of render as the airtight layer.

    So the concrete slab is the airtight layer in the ground which connects to the lime render on the outside of the straw walls and then to the fireboard on the roof.

    floor-copy-of-straw-bale

    A Theoretical Risk has been Managed

    There is a theoretical risk to having the external lime render as the airtightness layer as Fran explains: “Inside you’ve got clay plaster and that effectively is airtight as well but for instance at the windows where it’s all taped it’s on the outside, so theoretically you could get moist air going at the junction between the internal plaster and the window and condensing within the straw.”

    They are pretty confident this won’t be a problem because all the materials are moisture permeable and hygroscopic as well, and the MVHR ventilation will be operating at the coldest times.

    Moisture monitors will also provide on-going data, so should any issues arise they can be addressed.

    The Clay Plaster and Lime Render Will Need to be Maintained Every So Often  

    As the lime render is the airtight layer, any cracks that appear could affect the airtightness and thus the energy efficiency of the house.

    However, this is just part of using these materials – these cracks will need to be repaired. Fran is expecting this at the end of the drying out process but is not sure how often the maintenance will be after that.

    straw-bale-passivhaus-from-westNearing completion!

    There’s a Role for an Airtightness Geek!

    Working with these kind of materials and trying to achieve high levels of airtightness, Fran can definitely see the need for a ‘very precise airtightness geek person’ who has a close eye on all the details as the build progresses.

    This could develop within building firms or be a role that is taken on by a broader group of people. 

    Prepare for the Key Moments

    There are certain key moments where you’ve got to be absolutely spot on, so find out where these are.

    Planning for those moments and making sure that there are the right people around at the time will stand you in good stead.

    You Can Always Do Things for Less BUT . . .

    While Fran knows that there are always ways to cut costs, she derived great pleasure on this project from being able to work with people who she knew were going to do a really lovely job.

    Although she may have paid a little bit more it’s been worth it and she still believes it’s been reasonably economical given the materials used.

    Invest in People

    Look carefully at what people have done in the past and trust your judgement about them. 

    For work like this Fran is not in favour of endless competitive tendering. On the whole she’s selected people who she enjoys working with and who charge a reasonable rate for what they do.

    Passivhaus is a Language We All Understand

    The first air test of Fran’s house recorded a figure of 0.9 air changes per hour.

    She still hopes to meet the Passivhaus standard: “I’d really like to certify it because it’s a language that we all understand. Either you’ve achieved it or you haven’t. If we don’t achieve it, that’s okay, we’ll have got very near it and the difference in the building performance between not quite achieving it and achieving it is really quite small. It’s just very exciting for me to have this house and this opportunity to live in it.”

    Find Out More

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Fran Bradshaw.

    Our Question for the Comments Section

    Have you managed to incorporate natural materials in your project? And if not, why?

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