Although not self built, the two passivhauses at Ebbw Vale may be very relevant to many self builders. Built in 2010 as show houses mainly for the attention of housing associations, they are attractive and innovative while being relatively modest. The 3 bed Larch House is clad with a locally sourced larch rain screen and [...]
|
|||||
|
Aberfeldy, October 2009 This is a timber frame house of 76 sq,m. built in 2001. In terms of heating it benefits from its double storey living area facing south and the limited amount of glazing to the north. There is 200mm cellulose insulation in the roof, 150mm in the floor and 145mm in the [...] September ’11
Constructing with FSC timber (or another accreditation organisation such as PEFC) is potentially one of the greenest ways of building for several reasons.more +/-» However, the UK seems to have a rather backward, or at least over-cautious attitude towards timber construction and this is outlined below. Grading timber There are [...] October 2009 On the Hill of Bandodle, Aberdeenshire, stands a beautiful timber frame house designed by architect Genevieve Jones for her family. Incorporating high levels of insulation (in the form of 350mm of shoddy obtained from Elgin woolen mill) and mainly locally sourced materials, Larch, Douglas fir and Caithness slate, the house also has [...] October ’09 Locally grown timber Situated in the Scottish Highlands, this nearly completed timber house is composed of three hexagonal areas plus a sun room which extends segmentally out of one of the hexagon sides. The framework is of local Douglas fir and the rain screen of wany edged larch, also locally grown. Much [...] A very interesting terrace of three houses, on a curved road junction, has recently been completed in this Somerset village. Some of the main features of the design are: Very high insulation levels provided by insulating concrete forms (ICF) with added exterior face insulation Structural insulated panel (SIP) roofs Eco-slab ground floors and upper [...] Self build eco houses in the Field of Dreams, Findhorn Foundation Over the last decade or so the green building movement in the UK has gone from being fringe to mainstream. Architects, builders and suppliers are falling over each other to declare their green credentials Self builders have something of a tradition of trying [...]
Earth Heart is a community of 22 people in 8 homes based on a large converted farm in Derbyshire set up in 1998 around home education. Although not initially concerned with eco-build, they have embraced the concept thoroughly during their upgrading of an old farm house and several outbuildings into dwellings. There [...] Smile Plastics recycle plastics into beautiful high quality sheet materials. Here's an example of bottle recycling Sustainability of building materials This can have several slightly different meanings which are to do with: Whether the material is actually running out or very rare (e.g. Cuban Mahogany) Whether the embodied energy of the materials is [...] ‘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 increase [...] October 2010 Eco-house design is a fairly recent development which started getting off the ground in the UK during the mid 1990s. more +/-» Although you will probably end up using an architect or designer for your final plans there is no substitute for being clear about what you want. Especially with eco-house design, you [...] October 2009 The Findhorn Foundation near Fores in the North East of Scotland has a couple of interesting areas of eco-housing and a whole approach to living lightly on the earth including 750kW of electrical energy from 4 wind turbines recently installed for Findhorn Wind Park Ltd which is the trading arm of Findhorn Foundation. [...] |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 selfbuild central - All Rights Reserved |
|||||