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  • HPH130 : A Passivhaus barn that embraces contextual design – with Lisa Jackson

    HPH130 : A Passivhaus barn that embraces contextual design – with Lisa Jackson

    Planning consultant Lisa Jackson talks us through her Fox Barn Passivhaus self build project.

    Lisa Jackson 4

     

    Interview with Lisa Jackson

    Lisa has been running her planning consultancy business for the last 7 years. She also trained as an assessor for the Code for Sustainable Homes, which is what started her interest in energy efficiency and thinking about building in a different way. Her husband has a background in construction and is a town planner, so their combined skills in sustainability, construction and planning, all proved invaluable when it came to taking on their own self build project.

     

    RICS Red Book was used to get a valuation of the potential plot

    Originally Lisa and her husband had bought the house next door as a DIY project. It was the worst house in the village and they realised they couldn’t afford to develop it the way they hoped, but it was on a really good plot. So they approached their neighbour who agreed to sell half of his plot for them to build their house. Lisa and her husband owned the access and the neighbour owned the frontage. After getting the plot professionally valued via the RICS Red Book it was determined to be a 50/50 split. They came to a formal arrangement, whereby should planning permission be granted the neighbour would give them the option to purchase the land.

    Lisa Jackson 3

     

    Don’t be afraid to revise your planning application

    The house needed to be relatively low key and contextual in terms of design, as it was an infill plot between a thatched cottage and a one and a half storey bungalow, and was replacing a single storey agricultural barn style of building. They achieved planning consent for a 4-bedroom house.

    However, after more research, Lisa and her husband decided they wanted to build to Passivhaus standard. With the help of timber frame specialists Touchwood Homes they were able to adapt the designs relatively easily. They worked on increasing the insulation and reducing the amount of glazing on the north elevation.

    They then submitted a section 73 application with the changes and were issued with a new consent.

    Lisa points out that if you’re looking to buy a plot of land which has already been granted planning consent, you shouldn’t feel coerced into using that design. She says that there’s every opportunity, if it stays within the constraints, to make changes using the section 73 application for the interior and even some of the external features.

    Lisa Jackson 2

     

    “Don’t make a planning application for what you want, make a planning application for what you’ll get consent for”

    This is advice that Lisa gives to her clients. She suggests looking at all the guidance (in terms of conservation areas, village design statements and character studies) and making sure that your application is policy compliant. She thinks it can be easy to get carried away with designing the house that you desperately want to build, but if it doesn’t pay any regard to its context then the application is likely to fail.

    From her own experience as a planning officer, Lisa advises careful consideration of how drawings are presented in the planning application. She often found CAD drawings to not fully reflect how the building would look, have little light and shade, and no feeling of the materials. In comparison, hand drawings would often bring it to life more effectively.

    “So presentation to my mind is everything and winning over the hearts and mind of that planning officer, because that’s what you’ve got to do and they’ve got to love it like you do.”

     

    People want certification if they’re buying a house without radiators!

    Lisa’s decision to go for Passivhaus certification was partly based on being a sensible business decision to enable her to persuade clients to go for certification. Having the certification also helps with the re-sale, because it demonstrates to potential purchasers that while it may not yet be the conventional approach, it actually does work.

    Lisa Jackson 1

     

    Live nearby to your plot during construction

    After selling their old home to release equity to finance the project, they decided to rent a nearby house. Lisa fully recommends that anyone doing their own self build.

    During the construction Lisa’s husband was diagnosed and treated for cancer. As Lisa says, the silver lining was that he was able to spend his recovery period on site project managing the build, which actually aided his recovery and gave her the time to concentrate on running her business.

     

    Certain jobs fall between trade skills

    The house was made from Touchwood Homes’ ‘light and tight’ timber frame which was pre-cut off-site, and insulated with Warmcel recycled newspaper.

    They used a local team of tradespeople who they were very pleased with, but still found that they ended up doing some of the work themselves where certain jobs fell between skills and there was no one else to do it.

     

    A good mortgage broker can really help if you need to re-finance

    During the winter of 2011 they realised that there was a gap in their finances of £60,000. They managed to borrow some of the money from a relative, but also had to extend their mortgage – a process which Lisa says was made more difficult by the providers’ lack of knowledge about what’s involved in the self build process. She does however credit her mortgage broker with being a huge help and making a big difference.

     

    Take professional advice where possible

    When they moved in 3 years ago it still felt like a building site, but completing the landscaping after the first year made a huge difference. Also, creating happy memories in the house turns it more into a home.

    Lisa recommends taking good professional advice where possible and she suggests that if you’re looking for a good planning consultant go through the Royal Town Planning Institute or look at the Planning Portal to see who’s managed to get planning permissions in your area.

    She also feels in hindsight they should have employed the services of a lighting designer, as they slightly over-specified on lighting.

    Above all she thinks you need to be brave and prepared to put in the hard work. She says her husband thinks it took him a couple of years to really recover from the whole experience, however he is already talking about the next one!

    Lisa Jackson

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Lisa Jackson.

     

    Find out more

    Visit the website of Jackson Planning

    Follow Jackson Planning on Instagram

     

    NSBRC Summer Show

    The National Self Build and Renovation Centre are holding their summer show on June 17th to 19th. There will be exhibitors, seminars and a variety of experts and self builders taking part, including Ben Adam-Smith! Ben will be talking at 1pm on Friday 17th June about the Passivhaus standard. Throughout his time on this podcast he has visited over 30 certified Passivhauses and is keen to share the experiences and advice he has been given along the way.

    Following Ben’s talk there will also be a meet-up for Hub members, so he’s looking forward to seeing you there!

     

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  • Do ‘Garden Cities’ Just Become ‘Cities’ Over Time?

    Although I live a few miles away from one of Ebenezer Howards’s garden cities, Welwyn Garden City, I confess to knowing very little about the garden cities movement. I’ve heard the term crop up from time to time, even at the beginning of this year as a re-visited housing strategy, but I haven’t taken the time to find out more. That’s why I’ve been doing some research on it for this post. In light of some of the recent subjects we’ve been discussing on the podcast, it’s also made me wonder whether garden cities eventually just become cities!

    First, let’s look at some of the fundamentals of garden cities and consider Ebenezer Howard’s vision.

    portrait eh

    Ebenezer Howard’s Self-Contained Cities

    Ebenezer Howard was a reformist who sought to provide an alternative to the overcrowded cities (where standards were deteriorating) by creating self-contained communities, each surrounded by green belt land. He wanted a place that balanced housing, industry and agriculture, finding a middle ground between town and country, and enjoying the benefits of each without the disadvantages. Community was at the heart of this, with a co-operative approach envisaged for land ownership and food grown on the surrounding fields. Howard also proposed that satellite cities would surround a larger city (as in the plan below).

    garden-city-plans-1

    It’s interesting to note that Howard had limited practical experience but nonetheless managed to plan and realise two cities in Hertfordshire, UK. His ideas were documented in the publication ‘To-morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform’ in 1898 and were later revised for ‘Garden Cities of To-morrow’. Making it a reality on the ground was a massive challenge. In 1899, with backing from wealthy investors, construction of Letchworth Garden City began. Some of Howard’s ideals had to be comprised, as investors sought to profit from the new town whereas Howard had proposed a much more egalitarian society.

    For his second garden city, about 20 years later, Howard bought the land himself. Welwyn Garden City would benefit from the experienced gained in Letchworth.

     

    Garden Cities Are Still Great Places to Live

    Creating a city from scratch is quite a responsibility. As I think about Welwyn Garden City nearly 100 years after it was conceived, there is no doubt it is desirable. A magnificent boulevard is still a striking feature. Trees line the roads. The grass verges are wider than perhaps they needed to be and there is space. I personally feel this ‘connection with something green‘ is vital in all our lives but I can see the flip side of the coin. Critics of garden cities suggest that low density housing wastes land and invariably forces us into our cars. In an energy-constrained future, we need sustainable urban spaces. Striking that balance is difficult.

     

    Maintaining The Population of a Town is a Challenge

    I have questions about whether you can maintain the size of a town or city in this current cycle of growth. Yes, we cannot keep on multiplying as a species indefinitely, as the planet does not have the resources, but where does that leave us with creating great places to live? If there is an optimum amount of people for a town or city – as Howard proposed in his garden cities with 32,000 per satellite city – there will come a time when the city is full. The only way to maintain this population would be to police it. Construction would have to stop or only replace like for like (in terms of capacity). As far as I’m aware we’re not doing that.

     

    Part of Howard’s vision was to start the next city at this point anyway. As these new cities are not on the cards, what happens to the population of existing garden city? Is a green belt only a protected area until more land is needed? My experience is that towns keeping growing. If the green belt is respected then old houses get removed in favour of new higher density housing. Gardens get split in half and have a new house at the other end. Over time this must have an impact.

     

    Where Does That Leave us Today?

    We have to set our targets high, like Howard did with his Utopian dream, when we are planning places to live. In an energy-constrained future, the vision of our cities – particularly if starting from scratch – is more important than ever. Sustainable urban systems are essential as the greatest impact on the natural environment is made, ironically, in our cities. Although this self sufficiency did not happen in Howard’s two garden cities, perhaps it’s becoming a much more relevant idea once again. If travel becomes a luxury, working where we live or remotely via the Internet would increase. We’d also need to cater for the products that we used to import from the other side of the world.

     

    Could Self Build Communities be The Modern Garden Cities?

    The more I consider the self build market, the more I like it. Self build communities seem to encapsulate the passion that Ebenezer Howard had for planning better places to live, the only difference being that everyone has an input once the master planning has been done. Not only are houses likely to be built to a better overall standard, but they are bespoke to the individual’s needs and this whole construction process creates bonds in the community. It seems possible that this is the natural progression of the garden city model.

     

    Is the garden city movement something that is still relevant today? How do we create sustainable urban areas?