Footprint

This Saturday Footprint visited Brighton for their annual Open Eco Houses event. The event, held over four days, gives the public a chance to look inside a variety of exemplar homes. This year there were fourteen homes open and I managed to visit three.

Whichelo Place by ARCH Angels

My first stop for the day was this retrofit of a Victorian terrace on Whichelo Place, where the building’s owner Paul Early, gave a talk.

The project’s main inspiration was the forty percent house report. The retrofit aimed to:

• Reduce energy consumption for space and water heating by at least sixty percent
• Use low energy and natural products wherever possible
• Increase comfort
• Carry out all the improvements in one hit
• Look to using alternative energy sources

The house is on the edge of a conservation area, which meant that, unlike nearby homes within the boundary, they were able to externally insulate the property. This allowed them to avoid thermal bridging and benefit from the thermal mass of the solid brick walls without losing floor space. The front wall was insulated with 80mm of Celotex with a haired lime render, and the rear wall with 100mm of Celotex with cement render, increasing both of the walls U-values to 0.26.

The decision was made not to make any major changes to the ground floor due to the disruption this would cause. 10mm of cork underlay was laid above the existing concrete ground floor with a wood fibre laminate flooring was laid on top.

Solar hot water heating provides hot water to the house. The installation, a 250L tank with thirty vacuum tubes, was sized at fifty percent bigger than originally required because the increased cost was negligible. This provides hot water for two-hundred days of the year without the need for any additional heating.

The house is heated by a wood burning stove with a 5kW output. This stove has been the sole source of heating in the house for the past two years, using one tonne of wood per year. However, Paul did acknowledge that in living in the house they have changed their lifestyles to suit and have gotten used to the bedrooms being at a much lower temperature than the downstairs living space.

Through the refurbishment work came the opportunity to convert the loft space into a habitable room. For this they experimented with the use of different insulation materials and methods, using 150mm of celotex and gypsum plaster board for the sloping roof, 200mm of Warmcel for the floor, and 150mm of sheep’s wool with Heraklith board and lime plaster for the flat roof.

A study was carried out for a year, comparing the house with its next door counterpart which not undertaken any improvements. This . Fifty percent less gas is used in the refurbished home, highlighted the benefit of the external insulation.

The environmental improvements have cost £30,000 in total. The owners estimate that they are saving £300 - 600 per year on electricity and gas bills.

Smart House by Alan Phillips Architects

The next house was a new build project completed in 2004 which offered an interesting contrast to the refurbishment. There was no talk here; instead we were free to wander around at our leisure.

Reminiscent of Robert and Brenda Vale’s Hockerton Housing Project in Nottinghamshire, this earth-sheltered house benefits from large amounts of glazing to the south and high levels of thermal mass. The house uses passive principles of solar and thermal gain to provide continuous levels of thermal comfort with minimal energy use.

The plan is a linear arrangement which allows all living spaces to benefit from natural daylight and ventilation. The living spaces all have views over the garden space creating a sense of connection with the natural world outside.

Concrete is exposed throughout the house to maximise the benefits of thermal mass. A simplicity and honesty in its use of materials characterises the house throughout.

Exposed concrete is visible throughout the house

A continuous line of rooflights gives light to the back of the house

The bathroom and kitchen surfaces were cast from concrete

All living spaces had a view outside to the garden

Avondale Road by Heath Design

The house before the retrofit

The house after the retrofit

The final project was a 1960s detached family home, which was refurbished with the intention of reducing its carbon footprint by sixty-five percent compared to that of an average UK home. The original carbon footprint of the home was 10.9 tonnes, and it has been reduced to 3.7 tonnes.

Owner and designer Oliver Heath toured us through his home, remarking that, ‘This is not just an efficient home; it is my home and where my children will grow up… an eco-home is not just about creating an efficient box.’ Oliver’s three main principles in refurbishing the home were the use of natural materials, technology, and vintage. It is possibly the first time I have heard vintage used as a main driver for sustainable design. When entering the house it was clear that, in stark contrast to the other projects visited, this home was about interior design, and this is clearly Oliver’s passion.

The brick home has been clad in locally-sourced sweet chestnut, finger-jointed in small sections to avoid waste. Insulating render was also used externally. Originally built in the 1960s, the house has cavity wall construction, which was filled with insulation during the refurbishment.

The stairwell

Reclaimed timber boarding used as a wall covering in the living space

Recycled glass worktops and reclaimed timber in the kitchen

Reclaimed timber boarding used for sliding doors

Drawers lined with wallpaper creates shelving

The main focus of this project was the interiors. Imaginative uses of reclaimed materials was evident throughout. Reclaimed timber boarding was used for wall covering, interior doors and the kitchen fit-out. The kitchen worktop is made from a recycled glass product called Resilica, which was included in Sandy Patience’s sustainable products feature in the AJ here. Reclaimed and recycled furniture has also been used throughout, often given a new lease of life by recovering in modern patterned materials and wallpapers. Oliver view is that:  ’Designers play a key role in sustainability and can often find something in things which other people would normally throw away’.

The experiences at each of the three houses were very different; the first a talk and discussion, the second an open walk around, and the third a guided tour. It was refreshing to see a variety of homes and architectural styles.  Visitors to the houses were given the opportunity to ask questions, and at Whichelo Place in particular, many local home owners had turned up to hear how the principles used could be put into practice in their own homes. Events like this are great for disseminating good practice in environmental design and refurbishment to the general public.

Read Footprint’s post on BBM’s Retrofit for the Future project, launched during this year’s Brighton Eco Open Houses, here.

by Laura Mark, AJ sustainability intern

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