HPH311 : Should we celebrate architecture that performs poorly?

February 9, 2022 by Ben Leave a Comment

Richard Hawkes from Hawkes Architecture reviews the Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) of the RIBA House of the Year longlist and asks why we are showcasing poorly performing architecture.

Interview with Richard Hawkes

Richard Hawkes is the founder of Hawkes Architecture, which has developed a speciality for designing outstanding houses that are built in open countryside. There’s a clause in the National Planning Policy Framework that makes this possible in exceptional circumstances (and Richard has been on the podcast before to explain how it works).

However, in this podcast he's going to be reviewing the EPCs of projects that have featured in the RIBA House of the Year competition.

Measuring performance is an important check

When Richard built his house Crossway he received funding from Cambridge University to monitor various aspects of its performance. The research wanted to explore building physics and lifestyle.

So sensors were placed in various parts of the construction, including on the breather membrane layer, within the insulation and inside the thermal envelope.

The temperature was measured at these various points as well as relative humidity.

In terms of lifestyle, early versions of OWL Monitor and Current Cost Monitor were used to measure wattage and time.

Richard gives an example of finding out how much his iPhone cost to charge over the course of a year. It was just 35 pence! In other words we have very little sense of which appliances are using the most energy.

Building performance evaluation should be commonplace

Some people are measuring apples on one house, some people are measuring pears on another house and somebody else's measuring oranges, and each one of them might say, “Oh my house is doing really well.” But it's difficult to find the data to compare one with another. EPCs are trying to do that, but it's not the best tool ever.

An EPC is a rough guide to how a building performs

An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a document that tries to reflect the energy efficiency of a building on a scale of A-G. Thus an A-rated property should perform the best and have the lowest bills. Although it records many useful aspects of the building, such as insulation values and airtightness, it makes a lot of assumptions in the Standard Energy Procedure calculation (SAP). Therefore it has plenty of critics who conclude it is inaccurate.

It is a legal requirement that all buildings have an EPC and therefore if you build a new house you will need one before Building Control will sign off.

In order to get an EPC, an energy assessment will be carried out by an accredited energy assessor. The certificate will then be valid for 10 years.

You can look up a building's EPC using a government database – England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Energy Performance Certificate for Crossway

EPCs are calculated differently for older buildings

As there is less information available for older buildings they use a slightly different system called RdSAP or Reduced Data SAP.

Crossway has recently been reassessed with RdSAP

With EPCs introduced in 2007, Richard's self build ‘Crossway' was one of the first houses to need to renew its EPC. Despite having used the original SAP for the first certificate the reassessment had to use RdSAP!

“As I understand it, Reduced Data SAP doesn't have any allowance in it for MVHR. You go what?! What other things did it not have?”

Even the assessor added to the list of failings saying there was no way to account for solar gain and no way to add airtightness results.

***Fortunately since recording this podcast Richard has found out that the SAP accredited body, Stroma, have agreed that Crossway can still be assessed under SAP, but there will need to be a new airtightness test.***

RIBA House of the Year 2021 – longlist data

Celebrated projects often do not perform well

Richard keeps a log of all his practice's projects and he was intrigued to see how their EPCs compared to projects given the top accolades.

So he obtained the EPCs for all the latest RIBA House of the Year projects.

“I know that in these awards there is a requirement to submit details about energy performance, but the fact that the house that won doesn't actually have an up-to-date EPC certificate, doesn't have an EPC certificate that represents the building with that development, I find that problematic.”

Only one of the houses on the longlist of 15 projects was an A-rated house, the Devon Passivhaus by McLean Quinlan.

Richard then extended the research to cover all years of the competition.

In the duration of the competition there have only been two A-rated houses that have won.

Across all the longlisted projects (roughly 250 houses) the average airtightness is 4.1!

“We know how good heat recovery ventilation is at helping to reduce the heat requirement for a building, in maintaining air health and CO₂ levels, relative humidity. But for the average, across all of those buildings built just in the last decade to be that high I think it's really quite shocking.”

Conversely Richard's own practice Hawkes Architecture has 17 projects to date and every single one is an A-rated house. The average SAP score of his projects is 102 compared to the average of the House of the Year projects being just 81.

Better building regulations drives up standards

Richard points out that improving building regulations is one way of changing the status quo.

He also mentions that RIBA even has the 2030 Climate Challenge, which is a much more stringent benchmark.

However, the House of the Year competition demonstrates that RIBA do not consider performance essential.

Architectural excellence ought to have a technical requirement

“It's really important that our buildings are responsible with the way they consume resources. And I don't believe that they are judged in that way, either in what they used in their operational life, in energy terms, or the energy that goes into making them, disposing of them.”

Find out more

Hawkes Architecture

RIBA House of the Year competition

Interview with Nigel Dutt about Devon Passivhaus

Follow Hawkes Architecture on Twitter

Download a transcript of this episode

Please connect with us

Subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts

Rate and review the podcast on Stitcher

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HPH301 : Energy | People | Buildings – with Hattie Hartman

April 21, 2021 by Lucy Cowell Leave a Comment

Hattie Hartman, Sustainability Editor at the Architects' Journal, shares insights from her new book Energy, People, Buildings.

Interview with Hattie Hartman

Hattie is an architect and sustainability editor at the Architects' Journal, but by her own admission didn't have a conventional route into the profession. She attended university in the 1970s wanting to change the world and thinking that working in politics or studying law was the way to go about it. However, a course on renaissance architectural history, and some inspirational teachers, changed her thinking and set her off on a path into architecture and journalism.

Together with Judit Kimpian and Sofie Pelsmakers, Hattie is co-author of Energy | People | Buildings – Making Sustainable Architecture Work. She also hosts the Climate Champions podcast.

Architecture is fundamentally about people

Hattie admits it is incredibly challenging to design a really good building and says that ultimately it is about understanding how buildings really work, to make them comfortable and good for the people occupying them.

She says that sustainable architecture has typically had a reputation for “doing with less”, but it doesn't have to be about doing without, rather doing things differently in a lean way. Hedonistic sustainability is one such idea that promotes sustainability which actively improves the quality of life and human enjoyment.

The book is based on the collection of feedback

Judit Kimpian approached Hattie to collaborate with her on their book, Energy | People | Buildings – Making Sustainable Architecture Work, before also inviting Sofie Pelsmakers to work with them. It is a RIBA Publishing book that Hattie says is aimed at design professionals, engineers, students, and people that operate buildings.

Hattie says that Judit knows everything that there is that can and does go wrong with how buildings operate, based on Innovate UK building performance studies that she worked on, and this work formed the basis for the book.

An important takeaway from the book is that feedback isn't something that you just do at the end. It has to be built into the whole process right from the beginning.

“When you keep track of all the things that are going to impact a building's performance from the beginning, and you have buy-in, not only from the whole design team and the client, but from the contractor, and the real critical point is you write that into the procurement. You can actually track these things and make sure that buildings perform, and you can troubleshoot, and you can find problems and solve them quickly before they become huge, expensive things to sort out or lawsuits.

Cost of monitoring is not a barrier if planned for from the outset

If left to the end then it can incur additional time and expenditure to find and collate the data, but when it's been planned from the outset it can be a minute cost in terms of the overall budget for the building. An example Hattie gives is if the energy meters are part of the contractor's responsibility, then the right meters will be installed and any problems will be sorted out immediately. This scenario is preferable to the alternative which could be the wrong meters being installed, they're not properly commissioned and you can't get the right data from them.

Architype are leading the way at making building performance standard practice

Architype has spent several years developing their work processes, training their staff, carrying out research projects, and working with a PhD student to bring the expertise in-house. This investment and dedication mean clients are now approaching them, asking for a building that will perform.

A case study from the book is the Enterprise Centre in East Anglia, which Ben himself has visited and describes being asked for details when signing-in on arrival about how far he had travelled, what vehicle he was driving etc, in order to be added to the data about the carbon footprint of the building. Hattie credits the Enterprise Centre for being a visionary client and explains that none of this is hard, it just needs to be made a priority.

Learn more about thatching in our podcast with Stephen Letch

©DennisGilbert/VIEW
Enterprise Centre at UEA

The operational performance gap needs to be reduced

Hattie points to ACAN's recent report about the role of embodied carbon in buildings as being an excellent resource in explaining what needs to be done to regulate that, which is an important part of getting to net-zero. And she says equally important is the operational performance gap which still needs a lot of improvement. Their book sets out a demystifying process of how to get to grips with the operational emissions of buildings,

Integrated design is crucial

Hattie stresses the importance of getting all the expertise around the table right at the start, before anything has even been sketched, to think about the passive design and the fabric of the building. Even for a small project like a house extension, having that expertise can reduce the embodied carbon by perhaps opting for timber solutions over steel or concrete. That expertise can also be continually revisiting and challenging the design decisions along the way.

Carrowbreck Meadow features in Energy | People | Buildings

You can't know where you are unless you have targets

The book has a section about targets, and while Hattie agrees that targets will change and perhaps become out of date, it is important to have them and be measuring to get an idea for how you're doing.

Technology in buildings needs to be tested and understood

There are benefits to keeping things simple and, with added technology, there can be more things to go wrong. For example, Architype used to use lots of actuators on windows, but now try to keep them to a strict minimum. The more that can be done manually the better!

There is a learning curve for everyone!

One of Hattie's podcast guests is Sarah Wigglesworth, an architect committed to sustainable design for many years and who built her straw bale house 20 years ago. At that time sustainable design was more about a “loose fit” and the building wasn't designed with airtightness or thermal bridges in mind. When it came to retrofitting she worked with an environmental consultancy and spent many months measuring and collating data to come up with a prioritised checklist of things that they could do to improve the building.

With so many buildings in the country that need retrofitting, it shows that if you don't measure then you don't know what the priorities are.

Feedback is important for future improvements

Hattie says that quite often architects don't want to know how well their buildings are performing (or under-performing!) or indeed make their clients aware because there can be a question of liability. She was pleased however to have case studies in the book where people were willing to share what hadn't gone to plan and where things could have been done differently. She says this is the only way to be able to make future improvements.

The podcast and book aim to make a technical subject accessible

Hattie hosts the Architects' Journal's new Climate Champions Podcast. And while she says she's pretty sure that it's mostly people who are already interested in the subject that are listening, she's hopeful that the influence of people like Greta Thunberg and groups such as Architects Declare and the Architects Climate Action Network are helping to spread the message further and drive a real thirst for change.

Find out more

Check out the Climate Champions podcast

Follow Hattie Hartman on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Hattie Hartman.

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Subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes

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HPH286 : What is the Living Building Challenge? – with Martin Brown

August 12, 2020 by Lucy Cowell Leave a Comment

Martin Brown from Fairsnape explains how the Living Building Challenge is a holistic standard that benefits health and the environment.

Interview with Martin Brown

Martin has been working in the construction industry since the 1970s, initially in site engineering and project management, before moving into business improvement. Since 2000 he has been working as a business improvement and sustainability consultant, with the job title of Sustainability Provocateur.

He helped bring the Living Building Challenge to the UK

Around 11 years ago, Martin came across the International Living Future Institute, based in Seattle, who were having the kinds of discussions around sustainability that he had an interest in. He and a few friends pledged to bring their Living Building Challenge (LBC) to the UK, so formed the UK Living Building Challenge Collaborative, hosted by Leeds Beckett University.

Desert Rain – photos copyright Chandler Photography

International Living Future Institute case study – Desert Rain

It takes a lot of its messages from nature

Martin felt that 10 years or so ago sustainability was getting a little stale, and tended to be focused on energy and waste. The Living Building Challenge however had a different, regenerative, way of thinking: about doing more good than just striving to reduce impact.

It uses flowers as a metaphor and has seven elements, or ‘petals' as they're known by, to describe a regenerative building:

Place – how a building is aligned to its place, such as where it exists in terms of bioclimatic and ground conditions
Energy – with the requirement for a building to generate 105% of its own energy on a net energy basis without using any combustion
Water – the building should be independent, taking only what it needs and cleaning what it puts back into the ground – much like how a tree would function
Health & Happiness – having a civilised, healthy, just environment
Materials – ensuring no toxic materials go into the building
Equity – seeking for buildings and those working on them to be ‘just' in their approach
Beauty and Spirit – the concept of biophilia, inspiring and educating the next project and the next generation.

International Living Future Institute – Living Building Challenge Petals

There are quantifiable elements that can be monitored

There is a requirement to complete 12 months of continuous post-occupancy monitoring. This can check on the quantifiable elements such as demonstrating that the building is generating more energy than it uses by 105%, and that it is meeting its responsible approach to water.

Despite the rigorous elements of the standard, there is no saying how they must be achieved. Instead, it enables teams to come up with their own innovative approaches and solutions.

It uses biophilic design

Biophilia is based on the theories that we have an innate love of nature, and the more we shut ourselves away from it the more detrimental it is for our physical, mental and social health. Biophilic design is a way of bringing nature back into buildings, not just with plants and greenery but also in terms of wind and light.

That discussion is now moving towards how to make it not only beneficial for us as humans, but also for nature in terms of conservation, rewilding and improving our local environments.

Biophilia is something that Martin thinks should be more widely adopted.

“Not just going through the elements of biophilia but getting people into that right mindset when you start to design. Not necessarily bringing all the baggage from other buildings which haven’t worked so well. Just taking a fresh approach of, how can we get this build more related to the local environment and in doing so improve the health of the occupants.”

The red list identifies things that should not be used in the building

The list originated from the Institute of Living Futures but is now also used by many other standards, such as the WELL building standard.

It incorporates 21 products, elements and chemicals that have an impact on our health and should not be used in a building, whether that impact is in the production or extraction of the material, in the manufacture of the product, or in its installation through the building process and then through the life of the building.

Martin says that it's important to be pedantic about what gets used in the building, which can also lead to interesting debates and innovative thinking about what alternatives there could be.

The Cuerden Valley Visitor Centre is the first UK LBC project

Opened in 2018, the Cuerden Valley Visitor Centre has increased footfall in the park by around fourfold.

Barbara Jones' Straw Works team worked with the trust and specialist consultants to meet the Living Building Challenge imperatives.

The building is based on Barbara's innovative approach not to use any cement or concrete. Instead, the foundations are made from discarded rubber tyres, there is a timber frame construction and a strawbale wall infill.

The roof was constructed first to make a dry interior space on which to construct the strawbale walls. Once they were in place, the roof was lowered onto the walls to make a semi load bearing strawbale construction. A lime render was then applied to the walls.

The building will be zero waste on demolition

In terms of the circular economy, when the building reaches its end of life Martin says that around 50% of the materials are natural and could be composted, if they couldn't be reused. The remainder are very modular components that could be reused on other projects.

The declare labels provides helpful product information

In terms of planning future projects, Martin thinks it's important to remember to question the health aspects of materials that are being put into buildings. He says it can be easy to just use things that are readily available, but one of the LBC guiding remits on materials is known as the precautionary principle. That means that if there's any issue of impact on health then the precautionary route should be taken and that material should not necessarily be used.

The LBC's declare label is a way of helping to understand the impact of a product. It doesn't specify whether something is good or bad, but just gives the information and guidance about where the product comes from, what it is made from, and where it goes at the end of its life.

International Living Future Institute – Declare Label

Meeting the RIBA Sustainable outcomes

The RIBA has set out its 2020 plan of work for sustainable outcomes, with a challenge for the targets to be met by 2030. When comparing the current building standards, Martin says that the Living Building Challenge is the one that best meets their criteria.

“I veer away from making that direct comparison between all of the standards because they’re all different for different purposes. But I think the Living Building Challenge and its associated programmes really is the regenerative solution for addressing the climate and ecological emergency that we’ve all made declarations on.”

Find out more

Visit the website of Fairsnape

Follow Martin Brown on Twitter

Find out more on the Living Building Challenge in UK and Europe

Find out more about the ILFI's Living Building Challenge

Check out the RIBA's Sustainable Outcomes Guide

Read about Terrapin Bright Green's 14 Patterns of Biophilic Design

Listen to our podcast with Straw Work's Barbara Jones

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Martin Brown.

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Subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes

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HPH267 : Self build tips, eco design and the climate emergency – with Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs

October 16, 2019 by Lucy Cowell Leave a Comment

Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs shares practical advice on how to approach an ecological build, and comments on how architecture needs to change to address the climate emergency.

Interview with Kevin McCloud

Kevin McCloud has been synonymous with self build for the last 20 years. No doubt anyone planning their own project has had conversations with friends, family and colleagues about Grand Designs, as the programme has inspired a generation of people to dream about building their own home and, for some of those, to make it a reality. As well as being integral to the success of the TV show, Kevin is also the founder of HAB custom build houses.

Grand Designs has diversified

The busiest period of filming for Grand Designs is between May and October when Kevin can be filming up to fifteen hours a day, for three days a week. Because it's impossible to know whether a project is going to take several months or several years they're never quite sure what is going to end up in each series.

Kevin attributes the show's longevity to being able to find interesting stories that they haven't covered before, whether that might be about a Passivhaus construction, a new technology or building for a disability.

The Grand Designs brand has expanded to include ‘Grand Designs: House of the Year‘ in association with RIBA, and in 2019 also brought us ‘Grand Designs: The Street‘. This followed a number of self build projects taking place on a single street on the Graven Hill development in Bicester, with plans to return and film another series.

Kevin says one of the most significant films he made was in series one, which was a community housing project in Brighton called The Hedgehog Housing Co-op, that used a Walter Segal construction method. In the future he would be keen to follow another community self build co-housing scheme, but says that they're sadly very hard to find.

There have been some stand-out eco projects

Some of Kevin's favourite projects have been ones with a focus on sustainability. One he particularly enjoyed was Ben Law, who in 2003 built his house out of his own coppiced wood. He describes it as being a beautiful story where nothing went wrong to create a fabulously beautiful house.

“It was a film in which the word sustainability was mentioned once by Ben and I thought that was great. It elegantly told the story without hammering it on people’s heads.”

Another memorable one was the Lammas Project, which followed a couple building in Wales. He says it was a beautiful film about super low-impact living that was as much about the lifestyle as it was about the architecture.

“It’s rather like ecological cars. They don’t exist. There’s no such thing as an ecological car. It doesn’t matter whether it’s full of batteries or it runs on dog poo. The point is, it’s all about our consumption and use of vehicles that determines whether their use has an impact on the planet. That’s where fundamentally the largest amount of environmental impact happens, in use.
“And it’s the same with dwellings. So, you can build yourself an eco-house but if you continue to drive fifty miles to work every day and continue to live an exorbitant lifestyle, it doesn’t really achieve very much.”

Being asthmatic himself, Kevin had a keen interest in Elinor Olisa's healthy home that featured in the last series. With two children that suffered from life-threatening allergies, Elinor researched every product coming into the home to check for VOC levels and potential triggers. She has worked with the University of York to monitor the environmental performance and the results have been staggering.

“A fabric first approach is glorious”

A theme of the recent series and also in his own work, is a leaning towards a fabric first method of building, rather than bolting things on to make them seem more sustainable. Invariably the latter is an expensive and unnecessary way of working, but choosing the right materials and using them in an intelligent way is a far better approach.

“It’s like the argument about the Americans and the Russians in their Space Race. The Americans spent tens of thousands of pounds developing a ballpoint pen that would write upside down in space, and the Russians used pencils. I don’t think that’s true but I just love the story.”

A sense of responsibility

Kevin believes the responsibility as architects and builders should be to build buildings which are super-efficient in terms of how they use energy and their resources, but they should also ‘deliver a quality of life that makes their arguments utterly compelling.'

Achieving this takes a combination of good design where homes cost very little to run, where the experience of being in the buildings is uplifting and where people want to stay and build a community.

“It’s the idea of how you use the spaces in between buildings to create social sustainability which has in itself a collective reduction in demand on the planet’s resources. In other words, if you share an allotment and you grow your own food; if you join a car club because you know your neighbours and you want to do it; if between you, you buy a bicycle for the street; or buy one trampoline for five households for the kids; or one shed; or one lawnmower between five homes; what you’re doing is actually, you’re sharing cost, you’re saving yourselves loads of money, and you’re also saving resources and making your collective imprint on the planet lighter.”

People often think of self build as a collection of ideas at the start

These ideas might be around what sort of bathrooms, kitchens, taps, sofas, lights etc that people like, and they assemble the home based on aspects which are more associated with the interior design than the architecture.

Kevin sees architecture as being:

“a process of design which is very good at resolving all kinds of issues to do with how buildings, places respond to where they are, to site, to the environment, to their location, to the passage of the sun, to how they function in engineering terms, but also how they provide uplifting and exciting spaces for their occupants that lift the spirits.”

For him architecture is about creating a connection with the outdoors, while also problem solving things like storage space, and a lot less about the taps!

Grand Designs ‘The Street' (copyright gravenhill.co.uk)

Enable more people to self build, as it can be truly empowering

Kevin says that it's pretty much established that the middle classes can go out and build for themselves, and he would like those opportunities open to more people. He believes that through community you get a far greater sense of attachment to a place and an accompanying sense of empowerment from building your own home. It's a combination that could be life-changing for many people.

To do this, self build needs to be:

More widespread
Facilitated by local authorities
Have dedicated sites, with communities of self-builders working together
Truly affordable
Have more co-housing community schemes
Have housing associations working with groups of their residents as clients to build accommodation

Kevin would like to see people being empowered in as many ways as possible, and yet the system in the UK is set up to favour the large developers controlling the market. While he wouldn't suggest a future entirely dominated by self build or community self build, he would like to see a diversity of offerings which would create a healthier market.

Large numbers of people wanting to build together within a community can put pressure on the authorities to deal with their land assets in a different way. There is even a question of whether land in public ownership should have a financial value attached to it, because of the net social capital that can be created by building together, and which is very evident in schemes across Europe. And if that community can be further enhanced with car share, improved cycle routes and better public transport and sharing generally, then that social capital has been increased even more.

Development is a dysfunctional industry

In considering what it would take to solve the housing crisis in the UK, Kevin says he would need to be the Prime Minister as the industry is so dysfunctional!

“I would empower small and medium enterprises; I would mitigate against the large housebuilders; I would mandate every single local authority to allocate land. I’d use the Right to Build Act in fact.
“The trouble is, everything I’m describing has already been tried. And that’s the difficulty. It’s not one problem. We have a crisis in numbers; we have a crisis of quality; we have a crisis in affordability; we have a crisis in planning. We have only half of the number of planners that we need. And we don’t have within central government a statement of faith. And what I would personally like to see, if I could do one thing, I would announce a national statement of faith in social housing.
“We need to move back to a world where we integrate, where tenure is blind, where you can’t tell who owns and who rents, where housing is considered a basic human right, and we need to create the mechanisms to make that affordable not just to own but to rent, to share, and to occupy by whatever means. There are plenty of tenure models around the world which work.
“So, what we have is a binary system in the UK which is hilariously out-of-date and a market delivery mechanism which is dysfunctional and broken. So, we’ve got lots to mend, lots to do, but by just saying, ‘we believe in council housing’ or ‘we believe in providing high quality housing for all and we will do everything we can to achieve that’ would be a wonderful thing.”

Grand Designs Live

The Grand Designs Live exhibitions take place in the UK twice a year. Kevin is proud that they offer tangible opportunities for people to touch and feel products and experience their quality. As part of the exhibition there is also an exchange of ideas where you can get help and advice from experts.

With his passion for innovation, Kevin is excited by the new technology being showcased, with exhibitors now selling products on their stands that only a couple of years ago were in the ‘Green Heroes' section.

Find out more

Catch up with previous episodes of Grand Designs

Follow Kevin McCloud on Twitter

Visit the websites of:

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Kevin McCloud

Please connect with me

Subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes

Rate and review the podcast on Stitcher

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HPH213 : Do I need a contract with my builder? – with Steven Thompson from RICS

April 10, 2018 by Lucy Cowell Leave a Comment

Steven Thompson, from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, explains why it can be sensible to have a contract, and what type you might need for a self build project.

Interview with Steven Thompson

Steven Thompson is a Chartered Surveyor and has worked in the construction industry his whole career. He advises professional clients about their projects, particularly when it comes to the financial management, but also the contractual arrangements that apply.

There is no legal requirement to have a contract

Although you don't need to have one, it's certainly a nice to have. A contract can even be verbal although the absence of anything on paper could run the risk of either side denying that something has been agreed. Having this scenario may or may not work in your favour.

Some contractors might be scared off by having a contract as it might be perceived to be to their advantage if they're able to leave things as undefined as possible. Steven suggests approaching them with “I intend to use a contract – you're still on board aren't you?”, instead of simply asking whether they are happy to use a contract.

On balance, for security and clarity, it is probably better to have a formal contract which lets everyone know where they stand, and forms ‘the intentions of the parties'. In a dispute situation a Judge would form a decision based on what they think was likely that the parties had intended.

Steven explains that it's also good to cover the “what ifs” in a contract. So as well as detailing the relationship between the parties and what the building comprises, it could include “if I change my mind as a client, this is what happens next,” and also circumstances that might be forced on a client such as ground conditions, weather and insolvency. The contract can state “this is what's going to happen if these future events happen.”

In some situations, such as a self-builder who is doing all of the work themselves, then these contracts won't be appropriate and will be totally over the top for what is required. Steven uses the example of buying supplies in a hardware store where the receipt forms the agreement between the parties.

The type of contract may depend on the size of the project

The larger the project, the more sensible it would be to have formal contract terms in place. The chosen contract will also depend on the type of contractor you're dealing with and the nature of the contractual relationship. One overall project contract might be appropriate if you're handing everything over to the contractor to deal with, whereas something else would be required if you're project managing yourself and employing trade contractors.

Types of construction contract might include:

Trade contract – a small construction contract between you and the contractor. It is similar to one you might have with a main builder, but instead you could have several of these with all the different trades being used. The downside of this is you're coordinating it all yourself, managing each of them independently and are responsible for sorting out any scheduling or other problems that may arise.

‘Labour-only' trade contract – an example could be where the client provides the timber that they have sourced themselves but requires a contract with a carpenter to provide labour at the right time to put it up. Labour-only craftspeople may not want wish to have a formal contract but instead be paid a set amount for each day's work.

‘Supply-only' trade contract – Steven uses the example of a ready-mix concrete company. They will supply the concrete under their terms and conditions, so there's not a lot of room for negotiation. You do need to be aware that it is still a contract and you do still have certain obligations.

Material purchase – this covers items sourced, ordered and paid for by the client direct and delivered to site and off-loaded, for example the pieces of timber that will make up the frame or the roof tiles or the kitchen fittings. Again these will be on terms which the self builder has no control over and will be the merchant's standard T's & C's.

One-off payments – this might be something like a fee payable to the Local Authority for Building Regulations approval. The contract in this case is governed by statute rather than by a contract that you write.

Consultant appointments – a contract set out with your architect for example.

If you're project managing the build yourself then you are likely to be coordinating all these different contracts in terms of timings and finances. An alternative would be to pay a consultant to look after it all for you.

The contracts have three common aspects

To be valid, appropriate and safe, any of the above contracts will have the same three key attributes. They are:

Price – clarity is needed as to whether the price is fixed, an estimate or budget, or a day rate. As Steven puts it, “there’s an element of needing to be smart and cautious about the use of terminology from builders, irrespective of what you ask for.” The contract will provide provisions in this section for how to value change, ie if a delay occurs which means the builder will be on site for longer.

The price section of the contract will also need to cover when payment is made, ie in one payment at the end or in stages throughout.

Programme – a defined start and finished date is required, not just a block of time. Without dates the contractor is only obliged under contract theory to finish whenever they can. In the contract you provide for the opportunity to make amendments to take account of delays and decide how they are dealt with, ie what happens if the contractor is late, whose fault it is, and when the package of works is deemed to be finished.

Scope/Quality of Work – clarity is needed as to the exact extent of the work that is covered by that package of work, and the quality standard that is required, such that a pre-agreed benchmark quality standard is set out. At the end of the package of work, the contractor needs to be able to defend themselves if the self-builder says, ‘that quality of work is not good enough’. Somewhere, there needs to be a reference standard – ‘what does good look like?’ This would normally be a national (or international) published standard. In the UK there is the National Building Specification which is a model set of clauses which can be built into a contract as a reference point.

The contract can also determine how defects should be dealt with.

Further areas a contract should cover include: client changes, termination, suspension, insolvency, dispute resolution matters, insurance, warranties, retention amounts, damages, and the legalities related to how the contract is signed and the period of time that the self-builder has to take action.

Template contracts are available to purchase

If you are employing a contractor to carry out all the work for you then a JCT (Joint Contracts Tribunal) contract might be suitable. They provide a whole range to suit different types of jobs, and a Minor Works contract might be suitable for a fairly standard scale of build. You can buy a pre-printed contract from them and fill in the gaps with your name, price, etc. JCT also produce a Homeowner contract which might be suitable for a renovation, refurbishment or extension of a property, rather than a new build.

Professional bodies such as RIBA and RICS publish contracts covering consultant appointments.

Supply-only and labour-only contracts which have been legally tested can also be found online.

Contracts will have a provision for dispute resolution

Ideally you will be able to solve any issues directly with your contractor, but if this is not possible then in the UK there is an obligation under statute to go to adjudication. Steven explains that “in the self-build environment, the issue at large shouldn’t be that large, complex and costly as to warrant anything more than a simple adjudication.” This would need to be paid for and should take around a month with an independent adjudicator deciding the case on its merits.

If adjudication failed then the case would need to be settled in court.

Find out more

Visit the RICS website

Follow RICS on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Steven Thompson.

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

August 24, 2017 by Robin Goldberg Leave a Comment

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:

An agricultural worker’s dwelling. It’s quite difficult to create a business case for these so they don’t happen very often.
Re-use of a heritage asset, e.g. saving a listed building.
Re-use of redundant farm buildings. Relaxation of permitted development legislation has made this moot for now.
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

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HPH118 : How to find a good architect – with Adrian Dobson from RIBA

March 2, 2016 by Lucy Cowell Leave a Comment

Adrian Dobson, Executive Director Members at the RIBA, explains how to find the right architect for your project.

Interview with Adrian Dobson

Adrian was a practising architect, mostly working in the education and social services sector, before joining the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) around 10 years ago. He is currently the RIBA's Executive Director Members and is also author of 21 Things You Won't Learn in Architecture School. Adrian lectures at schools of architecture to trainee architects, and also gives seminars for architects in practice.

An architect “helps you to navigate the whole complexity of the build process”

Adrian defines an architect as being someone that can help a client through the complex issues of designing and constructing a building to meet their needs. It is someone who is a trusted adviser and facilitator, and while the core skill of design is at the heart, they are able to contribute much more than that to the architectural process.

Training to be an architect takes at least 7 years

It is a rigorous process which predominantly takes place in a university setting for the academic training, followed by supervised professional experience.

The use of the title ‘Architect' is protected by statute, meaning that only someone that has completed the training is permitted to use the title.

Architects are continuously trained throughout their career. By undertaking compulsory Continuing Professional Development, they keep up to date with changes in legislation, building design technologies, etc.

Additionally, some architects will specialise by sector or by type of service they provide. For example, if you wanted to do a conservation project, you would need to look for an architect with that further specialism who is going to understand the intricacies of listed buildings.

Most planning applications are not architect designed

With so many planning applications being small alteration works, often there will not be an architect involved. Adrian's view is that even in small projects an architect can often release value in terms of imaginative use of space or making the best of a constrained site, but appreciates there is a level at which you've got to make that judgement.

Adrian acknowledges that there are extremely talented designers who operate in the industry, and that architects don't have a unique right to be the only designers in the built environment. He does however believe that employing an architect gives you peace of mind and reassurance. It offers you:

certain guarantees about the training they've received
assurances that they are undergoing Continuing Professional Development
core design skills
an understanding of the legislative framework in which buildings are constructed
an adherence to the code of conduct
standards of professionalism / a degree of quality, by way of them being registered and the accreditation that bodies like the RIBA offer around practices

An architect can add most value during the early stages of a project

Adrian believes that if you're going to employ an architect, to delay their engagement is actually a false economy. By having an architect at the earliest part of the process they can help to appraise a site, to assist you with defining and understanding what your brief is, and show how you can maximise the value to give you the kind of space and lifestyle that you aspire to.

There is no fixed basis for setting an architect's fee. It might be that employing an architect in these early stages you pay an hourly rate for the site appraisal, feasibility study and brief writing, but then move to a fixed sum arrangement after that.

The fixed fee is divided over the RIBA Plan of Works Stages. It’s a number of stages, 0-7, that splits the design, development and construction process up. It starts with the brief, moving through concept design, developed design, technical design, and on to construction.

“Satisfy yourself that the architect you choose is someone you can get along with over a long period of time”

The RIBA has a service called Find an Architect which can help a client filter through categories and arrive at a shortlist.

When selecting an architect, Adrian feels it's important to remember that this is going to be a relationship that needs to be maintained over months and perhaps years, so getting a personal and cultural fit is wise.

Other considerations when deciding which architect to choose, are:

Fees
The reputation of the practice
Look at previous projects and speak to previous clients
Consider their area of expertise. Do they have the required accreditation if you're wanting to build to the Passivhaus standard, for example?
Does their design approach match your way of thinking, i.e. traditional or modern?
Think about the range of services you want and whether the architect has experience in delivering those

Adrian explains that it's about “product and process”. You should satisfy yourself that your chosen architect can produce a product of the type you want, and that it is someone that understands the process and can explain that process to you in terms that you can understand.

You should ask about the performance and feedback from previous projects. Adrian feels that, not just architects but the whole construction industry, have historically been weak in this area of seeing whether buildings have actually delivered the performance that was promised. With around 45% of business for architects being from repeat clients, it's an area where it makes sense for them to be far more customer focused.

Understand the scope of services that are being provided

Regulations impose that there must be an appointment agreement in writing. The client must be told what the architect has committed to deliver and what their obligations are in return. As part of this documentation it is important that a client understands and has a realistic expectation of the scope of services that the architect is going to provide. This could entail establishing how far along the route you wish to employ the architect, i.e. only as far as planning, include building regulations, the tender of the building contract, inspection of works on site and administration of the contract. It could also be as simple as deciding how many options might be shown in the feasibility stage.

An architect provides a level of quality control over the build

One of the advantages of employing an architect to cover the contract administration is that they provide the quality control over the build, without which a client would need to provide themselves. Contract administration is about time, cost and quality requirements, and an architect will have experience to ensure that things happen on time, that the building is completed on budget and to the right quality.

Adrian says however that a client may feel confident that an experienced contractor on a small project may be able to deliver that for them. This will come down to personal preference and about how actively engaged the client wants to be in the design and build process.

Clear and honest communication is key to maintaining a good working relationship

When projects do go wrong, poor communication and a lack of honesty are often to blame. Adrian always tells architects that if anything occurs during any stage of the project that is going to affect the brief, (what’s going to be delivered in terms of the spaces and accommodation, or something that is going to affect the cost, timescale or quality) they must inform their client as soon as possible.

Adrian thinks what a client can do to help the relationship is to be decisive and make the right decisions early on. Although the construction industry is flexible and things can be changed throughout the project, there will be an impact on cost. It is far better to make changes at the design stages and then stick to these decisions as the build progresses.

The architectural profession has been at the leading edge of the sustainability agenda in the construction industry

Adrian says that he wouldn't like to claim that architects are the lead innovators in the construction industry in every aspect, but certainly he feels that its engagement with regards to sustainability issues has given it a reputation for trying to support and encourage its clients to push forward and not be bound by legislation.

He says that, even with very modern design approaches, we are seeing a return to a more vernacular way of thinking where buildings are being designed for locality and climate.

While the volume house building industry tends to rely on standardised products in every location, Adrian credits the self build industry for focusing on locality, being space specific, and with response to climate being a part of that.

Find out more

Use the RIBA Find an Architect service

Follow Adrian Dobson on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Adrian Dobson.

Ecobuild meet-up

On the first day of Ecobuild 2016, Tuesday 8th March, we're going to be holding a House Planning Help meet-up. We would love to see you there – there's no cost – so please sign up to let us know you'll be coming!

The Hub update

Our latest module in The Hub is addressing insulation and airtightness. We've focused this on Passivhaus, following a question from one of our Hub members. He was asking about best practice, so we've got the basics of that and have built in things to look out for and checklists to help you.

We also have a new video from the Long Barrow self build project. We're up to the stage where they're building the basement in Insulated Concreted Formwork. If you've never seen it being used before this is a great chance to see how it goes together and how you get the great airtightness and insulation.

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