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  • HPH270 : What is the WELL Building Standard? – with Olga Turner Baker from Ekkist

    HPH270 : What is the WELL Building Standard? – with Olga Turner Baker from Ekkist

    Olga Turner Baker describes the WELL Building Standard and explains how the principles can be applied to improve health and well-being on individual projects.

    Interview with Olga Turner Baker

    Olga is a chartered surveyor by training. She first came across the WELL Building Standard back in 2016, and was surprised to find it wasn’t being adopted more widely in the UK. She quickly became passionate about it and started her own business, Ekkist, to specialise in design-led buildings, with a specific focus on health and well-being within.

    Ori House

    The WELL Building Standard is based on medical research

    Launching in the United States in 2014, the WELL Building Standard took all the medical research that had taken place around the world that looked at how buildings impact our health, collated it over a seven year period and turned it into a building code.

    Olga explains it as being a review of all the best practice and best guidance, of all the different components of building design. It covers the best guidance on air quality, water filtration, the safe use of building materials, and even through to management of buildings and how to operate them. It also touches on things like mental health and sense of community.

    While there are criteria that must be met in order to achieve the minimum certification, there are also optimisations which are points that can be earned to get to a higher level.

    Olga describes it as a very technical standard, where you submit documentation and are also tested in practice through performance verification testing. It is a robust procedure which assesses the building in use as well as in design.

    There are ten core areas of buildings that the standard covers:

    Air

    This looks at air filtration and ventilation, keeping the worst of the chemicals and particulate matter and dust out of the buildings, so as not to exacerbate things like allergens or asthma.

    Water

    In much the same way as air filtration, this is to keep out anything that could be harmful, such as coliforms, public water additives, agricultural contaminants, and by-products of disinfectants. It’s about ensuring that the water has been filtered to a high quality, which can be through a carbon filtration system or reverse osmosis.

    Nourishment

    Probably more relevant to buildings that have an operator providing food on site, but also adaptable to our own homes, this looks at the kind of food that is provided within a building. It considers portion sizes, allergen labelling, and reduction of added and refined sugars and any kinds of additives. It encourages healthy food messaging by promoting ethical sourcing of products and eating as much fruit and vegetables as possible.

    Light

    Ensuring we have the right light in buildings helps keep the circadian rhythm and body clock functioning as well as possible. The standard has guidance on sufficient distances from windows, making sure rooms aren’t too deep for the windows provided, and that the right colour quality is being used in relation to the time of day or night.

    Movement

    This thinks about how we encourage activity in the building to improve health. It can be about connection with the outdoors to make it easy for children to play, or in larger buildings it may be about ways of encouraging staircase use rather than lifts.

    Outside of the WELL Standard, but another idea that Olga suggests, is making outdoor space that is usable throughout the seasons, which will naturally encourage more outdoor activity for longer periods of the year.

    Thermal comfort

    Keeping buildings within comfortable thermal parameters is important for not aggravating conditions like asthma, eczema and stress, and making sure that our skin, eyes and organs function properly. Achieving this might be through shading and natural ventilation or mechanical cooling and ventilation systems.

    Sound

    Although not a mandatory part of the WELL Standard, acoustics make up an optimisation which far exceed UK building regulations.

    It looks at both transference of noise between rooms and also transference within a room. Olga says there are plenty of products on the market which can help absorb noise, and materials she particularly likes using for this are cork and clay plaster.

    Materials

    Firstly this looks to avoid materials that we know to be toxic, such as asbestos, mercury, lead and PCBs. In the optimisations of the standard it also considers VOCs and how they can be released from furniture, varnishes, paints and glues. When you’re designing a home you should be trying to reduce these levels by looking at natural sealants and products like sheep’s wool as a furnishing fabric and natural oils.

    As well as reading the specifications on the products, Olga suggests looking for external accreditation that any product you are using has been tested for a health component. Examples of these include Cradle to Cradle and Oeko-Tex.

    Mind

    This looks at how buildings impact our mental health, and what can be done to encourage better mental health through building design.

    Much of this can be down to access to nature, whether that be views across to green spaces or incorporating greenery in and around your rooms.

    Ori House

    And even using wood and other natural materials has been found to have calming effects.

    Community

    The WELL Standard looks at access to community services, community programmes, and how you’re incorporating the wider community as part of your building and initiative.

    Olga also recommends looking at the new NHS Social Prescribing Guidelines, which emphasise how our personal health can really gain from spending time with others, whether that be in group activities, gardening, etc.

    Innovation

    Olga describes innovation as being the most fun part of the WELL Standard. It is where you can be awarded points for coming up with new ideas that help increase health and wellbeing within buildings, that aren’t already covered by the standard. This could be anything like different lighting or having pets on site, as long as there is medical research to support the benefits.

    WELL Standard principles can be applied to individual projects

    While it is not possible to certify a single building, (there must be a minimum of five units and they have to have a common structural element) the principles and good design practice can be applied to individual projects.

    While some designers might be doing these things intuitively anyway as good design practice, for others the standard can just push them a bit further and support them with the scientific research.

    Ori House applies the principles

    Ekkist have worked on a conceptual standalone dwelling, Ori House, where they have applied the principles and taken on the parts that really resonate to homeowners, such as the daylight, air quality, water filtration, and using space better for social interaction but also to encourage privacy within the home.

    “We’ve tried to really think about that and create our own version of what it means to be a community but on an individual building level.”

    Ekkist are currently looking for sites to build this on, and are also working on an urban version, which Olga sees as being important as cities become ever more urbanised.

    “We want the quality and the health benefits of a rural home delivered in an urban environment. That’s our next big goal.”

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Ekkist

    Follow Ekkist on Twitter

    Find out more about the WELL Building Standard

    Check out our episode with Elinor Elisa about how she created a healthy home for her family.

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Olga Turner Baker

    Please connect with me

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  • HPH188 : What are Paragraph 80 builds and how do they work? – with Richard Hawkes from Hawkes Architecture

    HPH188 : What are Paragraph 80 builds and how do they work? – with Richard Hawkes from Hawkes Architecture

    Richard Hawkes from Hawkes Architecture tells us about the exceptional circumstances in which planning for rural new builds may be granted.

    *Since recording this podcast, the government has updated the National Planning Policy Framework. ‘Paragraph 55’ (or ‘Para 55’) policy changed in name to ‘Paragraph 79’ and then ‘Paragraph 80′, although the content remains largely unchanged. * 

    We have amended the show notes but the interview will still talk about Paragraph 55.

    Interview with Richard Hawkes

    Richard Hawkes’ self-build, Crossway, helped launch his own practice Hawkes Architecture nine years ago. Before that he worked at a large commercial practice in London.

    As planning is rarely granted for new rural homes, Richard had to learn what circumstances were considered exceptions. His expertise then led to work gaining planning consent for others in similar circumstances. Nowadays Richard even sits on a Design Review Panel, made up of professionals including landscape architects and engineers, that advises planners whether or not a proposal is meeting policy.

    Crossway

    Planning policy allows rural development in exceptional circumstances

    Paragraph 79 has four special circumstances that can permit a new dwelling in the countryside:

    1. An agricultural worker’s dwelling. It’s quite difficult to create a business case for these so they don’t happen very often.
    2. Re-use of a heritage asset, e.g. saving a listed building.
    3. Re-use of redundant farm buildings. Relaxation of permitted development legislation has made this moot for now.
    4. If the dwelling is of exceptional quality or innovative in its nature of design. All of Richard’s Paragraph 79 projects fall into this last category.

    Four tests determine if a design is sufficiently exceptional

    For a dwelling to be of exceptional quality or innovative in its nature of design, it has to pass all of these tests:

    • Help to raise the standards of design more generally in rural areas
    • Be of the highest standards in architecture
    • Significantly enhance the immediate setting
    • Be sensitive to the defining characteristics of the local area

    Hawkhurst

    Paragraph 79 is an important design-led policy

    Since Planning’s introduction in 1946, there has been a reluctance to approve new homes in the countryside. Green Belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Heritage Coast and other designations evidence this. Even Paragraph 79, which Richard describes as a piece of national policy originally introduced in 1997 to enable landowners to get permission for their “English country house”, states that planning authorities should generally seek to resist new dwellings.

    In 2003 the Labour government sought to get rid of (then) Paragraph 55 which they felt was an elitist policy, but were lobbied by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) who argued the policy would move forward dwelling design. As a result, the policy evolved into PPS 7, Paragraph 11 and actually used the term ‘contemporary architecture’.

    The policy recognises the mediocrity of typical dwelling design, and has a practical significance in terms of architects’ professional development. It encourages them to learn how to respond to a setting and produce amazing buildings. Richard explains that the principles of good design can be looked at entirely objectively, even if people’s responses to design are inherently subjective.

    Sustainability must be factored into the design

    A beautiful house isn’t enough. A house of the highest standards in architecture will incorporate lots of insulation, heat recovery ventilation, triple-glazing, and passive solar gain. Richard describes these Passivhaus principles as just sensible design and something planners would expect to see in a Paragraph 79 scheme, not reasons why they would grant consent.

    The nature of the site and its management will often tie in to the energy strategy they develop for each individual building.

    West Pearroc

    There are different types of Paragraph 79 house

    Some locations suit a contrasting building, like an English country house. Richard describes this as unapologetically “dominating its landscape. Enhancing it but very much in contrast to it.”

    Conversely, one of his own Paragraph 79 houses on a Green Belt / AONB site needed to show sensitivity to the defining characteristics of the local area and significantly enhance the immediate setting. His architecture enhanced the farmstead by reinforcing the positive qualities of stable buildings on the site while removing other buildings that were “detractors”.

    Likelihood of planning consent must first be weighed up

    Richard’s team must first establish whether the site has the right ingredients to get a planning consent. He uses the analogy of a set of weighing scales, and there are several factors weighing down the ‘wrong side’:

    • You’re not allowed to build a house in the open countryside.
    • In Green Belt, there is the principle of openness. If the site has other buildings on it, you can potentially look at “consolidating building form” as a strategy. If there are no buildings there at all, it becomes very difficult.
    • AONB are protected by National Policy. It is possible, but more complex as these are highly protected pieces of land.
    • If it’s a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) or on top of a hill, any development is likely to have a big visual impact.

    No one can guarantee planning consent, so Richard tries to manage that risk. To “balance the scales” he carries out a rigorous analysis of local and national policy to find benefits that could come with a scheme.

    The landscape and architecture have to work together

    Assuming there’s a robust enough case to proceed, Paragraph 79 applications are not for the faint-hearted; they represent a big investment on the client’s part and are about the land as much as the house. It takes months before Richard will even know what they’re designing.

    Time is spent with landscape architects and commissioning reports and surveys to adequately understand the ecology, biodiversity and resources of the site. This long process uncovers minute details about animals, sun, prevailing wind direction, climate and geology.

    Richard explains that involving a landscape architect right at the start helps them to lay down some rules about the site: sensitivities to avoid and opportunities to embrace. The ‘master plan’ is holistic and everything included in the plan can be justified.

    Examples of ways to enhance the landscape might include:

    • Binding the site together with areas of woodland
    • Linking habitats
    • Bolstering woodland edge
    • Introducing wildflower areas and a proper mowing regime to increase biodiversity
    • Putting management plans in place

    Flight Farm

    Designs reflect a rigorous understanding of the site and client

    The practice’s design framework originates from Richard’s self-build experience. He developed the design for Crossway using two distinct, parallel processes. Firstly, responding to the client (his wife) meant considering the “mechanics of a plan”. These are things like securing the best views, ensuring low running costs, opening up the house to the south, etc. A client lifestyle analysis is done, including everything from what time they wake up to how often they entertain.

    The other process is analysing how the landscape changes as you approach the plot from different directions, to determine what the house needs to do sculpturally to respond to each of the views. This was something Richard did intuitively with his piece of land: “For me, the context of any site has got rich things for you to respond to. You’ve just got to find them.”

    The design then emerges from these two processes. Crossway’s distinctive arch grew from a desire for the house to sit in amongst the ecology and the biodiversity of the land. And the design for one client project interpreted the qualities of the local flint to respond to the “defining characteristics of the local area”; the building is sharp and crisp outside, like the inside of flint but the white, soft-flowing curves of the courtyard evoke the outside of the stone.

    Crossway

    We need to keep pushing house design forward

    As well as acting as a good training mechanism for architects, Richard has a philosophical argument for protecting Paragraph 79. “If the policy weren’t there, I’d find that quite a sad reflection on where we are with design, where we are as a country with architecture. Look at all these houses going up with no aspirational policy there. I’d find that quite a sad place to be and quite short-sighted.”

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Hawkes Architecture

    Follow Hawkes Architecture on Twitter

    Follow Hawkes Architecture on Facebook

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Richard Hawkes

    Please connect with me