I love Grand Designs, it’s been an inspiration to me and is at least partially to blame for this project. But the latest series has so far defined grand in terms of pounds and pence rather than any more noble or aesthetic value. So far we’ve seen rich people building rich peoples houses – grand in terms of Victorian upper class values of opulence and decadence, but out of step with 21st century sensibilities and environmental anxieties.

There have been occasional glimpses of green technology and design – I think a ground source heat pump has popped up at least once, these buildings have obviously been well insulated and therefore energy efficient and I imagine all that glass has been installed with solar gain in mind. But these are not key topics within the programmes and are not being highlighted as I think they should be in a world where sustainable building & living are crucial issues that we need to tackle with tenacity.

Perhaps it’s not the job of Grand Designs to promote the green agenda, perhaps it’s the job of Grand Designs to be a ‘pimp my crib’ show – rich people in James Bond homes showing off to the rest of us. I don’t think that’s what Grand Designs started out to be and I hope it’s not what it now aspires to be now.

Kevin McCloud must shoulder some of the blame for this – I know he cares about sustainability, take for example his involvement with HAB housing (Happiness, Architecture and Beauty):

HAB is committed to creating communities which are a pleasure to live in and sustainable in the broadest sense.

…but the series so far, at least in my watching of it, has failed to get the balance right, failed to promote the sustainable perspective that must gain influence and priority in the development of buildings of all sorts.

In the words of McClouds namesake, Kevin Keegan:

‘I’m not disappointed – just disappointed.’

In the words of the song: emphasize the positive, eliminate emphasize the negative – let’s have a frank and honest evaluation of buildings within the context of the current day, not just praise people for building shopping centres to live in. Perhaps the rest of the series will live up to my hopes….?

Grrrrrrr…

Sue Roaf, Manuel Fuentes, Stephanie Thomas ~ 2003, Architectural Press.

This is the second edition of this book and has two introductions – one for each edition. The introductions carry the usual messages of doom regarding rising sea levels and diminished fossil fuels that pang of preaching to the converted, but sets the context for the book. This is a book about eco-houses and in its terms that means zero fossil fuel and low or zero carbon buildings.

The books starts with a chapter on ‘the building as an analogy‘ and provokes consideration of buildings and purpose through the use of a number of analogies, from the relatively straight-forward A Cool Core Building to the more stretching and less obvious A Hobbit Hole.

We’re then into more practical matters – the choice of building materials and consideration of embodied energy, recycling and environmental impacts. Then insulation and the design of the building envelope. After a brief jaunt into the esoteric territory of ‘Building in Soul‘ we return once again to practical matters – ventilation, healthy house design (a favourite subject of mine) then the four key areas of heating, electricity, hot water and general water consumption.

The book finishes with a series of 24 insightful and statistic packed case studies from around the world.

Overall, this book is a pretty good read for the eco-builder. This isn’t one to sit and read cover-to-cover, more a reference source to dip into as information needs dictate or time allows. As reference book it has frustrations & flaws – due to their diverse sources, the diagrams & charts are not consistent in format, the writing style varies and sometimes the material lacks a theme or clarity of purpose – for example, the analogies introduced at the start of the book are a seemingly random selection. It is a pick and mix of eco and zero carbon / fossil fuel information and advice. A book that sensibly seeks to explore and encourage the establishment of a new eco building vernacular.

“By the middle of the century we will probably all have to live in zero fossil fuel homes. The seed of the ideas sown in this book by then will have grown into the New Vernacular of housing for the twenty-first century and beyond.”
(Towards the New Vernacular page 279)

Rather grandly, but well, said.

At the moment, my life seems to be dominated by lintels – oak or concrete, big or small.

Progress is really racing along at the moment – the first floor in the main part of the barn is almost complete, the floor has been started in the smaller kitchen end and the first floor doorway through the original wall has been started.

But of most note on my lintel theme – we have oak lintels in the exterior wall for the new windows that will grace the seemingly leaky gable end.

Progress has really slowed as my builder is away on holiday and left his boys finishing off another job at the start of the month. However, as I write I’m led to believe by my spy on the ground that there’s furious activity at the barn.

Whilst the first floor continues to be built, the main progress has been in the installation of reclaimed oak beams as the lintel between the two ground floor rooms. Getting the levels correct was a bit problematic, as there is a two step drop through the opening and two beams are necessary because of the thickness of the wall. To accommodate the difference in levels between the two rooms, the beams are staggered – one is lower than the other, but I think it works.

Like the oak beams that will support the first floor in the main room, I’m really pleased with the oak lintels, they add a life and solidity that other materials just couldn’t.

As this project progresses certain features become core to the overall design whilst others fall onto the ‘B’ list. This ‘B’ list consists of technologies and design elements that I would like to implement during some future phase of the project as time and money allow.

Electricity-generating photovoltaic (PV) solar panels have always been on the ‘B’ list for reasons of cost, payoff periods and the fact that there is a ready and easy alternative (can’t get much easier than mains electricity!).

I’ve read a number of articles recently that me me glad about that decision. Since government grants were capped at £2500 in May last year applications have fallen off – only 113 households applied between March & September 2007 with around 4,000 total prior to then and installers have been reducing the size of their workforces due to lack of business. The PV industry as a whole seems to be further back than it was when I started this project.

Within feed-in schemes (householders being paid for electricity they generate and export back in to the national grid) receiving no government encouragement – the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform states that such schemes do not fit with the UK energy market, it is increasing difficult to see any practical financial governmental support for green energy initiatives.

So I’ll leave solar power on my ‘B’ list for a year or so and hopefully some support will materialise …. here’s hoping …