1. 12th June 2009
Building Beautifully: The Low Carbon of Craft
Ben Bolgar
Director of Design
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2. 80% CO2 reduction with 3 billion more people !?
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3. Decoupling GDP & Consumption from Environmental Impact
Source: European Commission, 2005.
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4. Possible cultural and cognitive shift
When resource/carbon consumption becomes
capped how will industry/habits change?
Activities which take longer with lower impact
and greater satisfaction will occur
Low consumption entertainment – sports
Low consumption building - crafts
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5. Green Building
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6. What can be learned from Traditional Construction?
1. It’s simple (solid wall) and transferable (self-build to industry)
2. Materials often sourced locally – organic and reusable/recyclable
3. The core is straightforward leaving time for architectural detail
4. Usually based on high thermal mass
5. The materials tend to get better with age
6. They degrade elegantly helping to sustain value
7. The details are designed to be practical and beautiful (evolution)
8. They are easy to patch and repair (by non specialists)
9. They don’t rely on fast track production that may have built in
redundancy (non availability of components)
10. They are generally non toxic (with exception of lead!)
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7. What’s wrong with it?
1. Slow to construct and labour intensive
2. Sometimes heavy use of materials – stone/brick
3. Excessive heat loss through wall and air gaps
4. Acoustically poor
5. Limited by small spans
6. Can be high maintenance
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8. Elegant long term solution?
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9. Organic, simple and thermally enhanced
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10. BRE House precedent – paired houses
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11. BRE House precedent – paired houses
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12. BRE House precedent – paired houses
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15. Organic, simple and thermally enhanced
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20. The Art of Land Platting
1 yard = 3 ft = 0.9144 m
1 rod, perch, or pole = 25 links = 16.5 ft
4 rods = 1 chain
1 chain = 4 rods = 66 ft = 100 links
10 chains = 1 furlong
1 link = 1/100 of surveyor's chain = 7.92 inches
25 links = 1 rod = 16.5 ft
100 links = 1 chain = 66 ft
1 furlong = 10 chains = 1/8 mile = 220 yards = 660 ft = 201.168 m
8 furlongs = 1 mile
1 mile = 80 chains = 320 rods = 1,760 yards = 5,280 ft = 1,609.344 m
league = 3 statute miles = 4,828.032 m
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21. Convert that to housing
•1 chain = 4 rods = 66 ft = 100 links
•60-66ft gives 4 houses at 5m wide or 3 houses at 6.7m
wide
i.e. 4 no. 2-bay houses or 3 no. 3 bay houses
•Platting by multiples allowed for roughing out at right
stage in process
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22. The Modern System – Platting on a 30m (15m module)
Housing options on 30m land plat:
•6 no. 5m wide houses – 2 bay terrace
•5 no. 6m wide houses – 2 bay/paired houses
•4 no. 7.5m wide houses - 3 bay terrace/ 2bay alley
•3 no. 10m wide houses - double fronted/mews
•2 no. 15m wide houses - double fronted/flats
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23. The Modern System – Platting on a 30m (15m module)
Block options on 30m land plat:
•45 x 60m small alley block
•60 x 75m medium alley block
•75 x 90 m large alley block
•Squarer blocks for parking courts of large blocks
of 120m length may be appropriate for lower
densities
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25. Blocks giving a well over-looked public realm
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26. A diverse set of ‘Streets, Squares & Crescents’
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27. Liverpool Road residential with set-back
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28. Liverpool Road residential closer to centre
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29. Grand street of large paired houses
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30. Normal terraced street
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31. Residential Street with Pub on axis
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32. Lonsdale Square
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33. Bla
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34. Gibson Square
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35. Bla
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36. Barnsbury Square
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37. Part 3 Deck of Spatial Composition Cards
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