Lammas eco village

summer 2011

The Lammas project at Tir y Gafel, Glandwr, Pembrokeshire, is Wales’ first collective initiative based on what is now the (TAN)6 national planning guidance for sustainable rural communities. (One Planet Development).

Planning permissionthe legal basis for being allowed to do some form of development such as building a house. (not to be [...]

Van Midden House

The Van Midden house is at the Lembas Organics farm at the Bridge of Muchalls, Stonehaven. It is a very low energy house due to high levels of insulation and the use of timber I beamsprefabricated timber beams with a web of OSBOriented Strand Board and softwood flanges. They are very light, efficient and [...]

‘Under the Sun’, Birmingham

Bringing existing houses up to a high standard of energy efficiency is a much greater challenge than with new ones.

This particular example of eco renovation is outstanding because of the way it will achieve a net zero carbon rating while at the same time reaching CSH Code for Sustainable Homes. A standard for [...]

Tressour Wood

This timber post and beamSubstantial, usually horizontal structural member. house in Aberfeldy pioneered “breathing construction” in the UK.

Designed by Gaia Architects and built in 1992 this well insulated passive solar house also has a wood burning stove and stack effect cooling for summer. The building materials used were chosen for being non-toxic [...]

The Tree House

The Tree House in Clapham, London is a recently completed and very elegant example of a self built detached house. It has, on occasion, been open to the public as part of the London Open House programme. Situated on a small urban plot of land dominated by a large sycamore tree it has [...]

Rowangarth

October ’09

Jim and Jo Monahan are nearing completion of their passive solar house in Spinningdale, Sutherland. This is a timber frame house which utilizes roundwood for many of the structural members. This is a way of using timber at its maximum strength because it is not cut across the grain. The timber framing [...]

Passivhaus at Denby Dale

the front of the house with double storey[for the purposes of part B (fire) of the Approved Documents to the Building Regulations] this means a. any gallery[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] – A raised area or platform around the sides or at the back of a room which provides [...]

Houses by Ecos

ECOS, (formerly known as the Somerset Trust for Sustainable Development) is a charity which has been behind several green house building initiatives. Although not self-build, their houses are excellent examples of what is possible and are open to viewing on certain occasions. At present there are two schemes which are complete or nearing completion and [...]

Retrofit

‘Under the Sun’, a Victorian terrace house in Birmingham is an outstanding example of bringing a fairly typical old building up to PassivhausSee more on the Passivhaus standard. The PassivHaus Institute has pioneered a standard for low energy buildings. It includes very low energy usage and ways of achieving this. The word is derived [...]

Decorating

There is a line of thought that says that if beautiful basic building materials are used sensitively and creatively then there is less need for decoration, in the same way you would probably not want to paint over stylish tiles or a hardwood floor. The paint stripping industry is witness to this. This is all [...]

Alterations & Fashion

‘Energy use’ is usually associated with how much energy is used to construct a new building. However, this is only part of the story. Most buildings get altered and repaired and redecorated a considerable number of times during their lifetime and taken to an extreme, some houses are constantly having ‘makeovers’. This can vastly [...]

Green Design

October 2011

Background

If you are thinking of building a green building then it pays to be aware of where this whole process is going

Eco-house design is a fairly recent development which started getting off the ground in the UK during the mid 1990s.

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Although you will probably end up using [...]

Window design

There are many purposes a window can serve and several of these have important ecological considerations:

Letting light in Collecting solar heat Providing a view Acting as a door The visual character of a house

Windows may have associated drawbacks to consider:

They may let in too much light at certain times Too [...]

Healthy buildings

The concept of ‘sick building syndrome’ has now moved from speculation into widespread acceptance with several well designed studies showing how people can react badly towards certain aspects of poorly designed buildings. This subject has several partly overlapping areas

air quality problems associated with dampness microbe allergens poor ventilation chemical pollution pollution from [...]