Sustainable buildings
11th December 2007, PAST EVENT, Durham County Hall, Council Chamber
Read review of event
So many aspects need to be taken into consideration when designing truly sustainable building, from the construction to the maintenance and alteration stages. This involves looking into materials, waste and multiple impacts on resources. How and where should designers and built environment professionals prioritise their efforts? What are the aesthetic and cost implications of an eco-building? How can conflicting demands be resolved?
Review by Victoria Eynon, December 07.
Northern Architecture’s Director Andrew Guest opened the second event in the series by calling participants to “talk, debate and discuss the opportunities and challenges of sustainability, but above all, to create a will to do something about it.”
Professor Sandy Halliday, a chartered engineer and founder of Gaia Research, passionately opened the session.
“There is a grave misconception that sustainability equals climate change equals energy efficiency. No! This is not the case!” Sandy considered the original proposals of the Club of Rome where the concept of sustainability was first mooted. Priorities here clearly included social elements, such as employment and security.
Sources and Sinks - Simply put, it is not the number of babies, cars or refrigerators that puts stress on the environment, but the resources required to sustain them and the waste and pollution that they produce. From Halliday S.P 2008 Sustainable Construction Butterworth-Heinemann. Image courtesy of Sandy Halliday.
Sandy highlighted case studies from Europe where high standards of design and materials ensured cost effective, energy efficient and user-friendly developments. [Note: these included some in Tübingen, examples using the Swedish Body Heat Standards and the Weetabix School in Acharacle]. The reason why we can’t achieve such success in England? “People don’t really care about materials.” Sandy emphasised that by using resources effectively, “we could get away from that stupid debate about whether to use turbines or nuclear.” She linked this to funding the design of a building, not the bolt-on technology that is often the victim of marketing fads. The design stage, she said, must also consider the process from construction to management.
This was a theme echoed by Tim Bailey and Mark Elliot. As architect and client for the DigitalCity Business/Boho Zone development in Middlesbrough, they described how ‘the power (of the Boho Zone) isn’t in the buildings but in helping people come together, and that is what also brings your economic success.’ Managing the building is crucial to realise this potential. “We will encourage a culture where unsustainable actions and activities will not be tolerated.”
Boho One. Image courtesy of Tim Bailey.
The importance of sound materials over perceived politically pious microgeneration technology was emphasised. Tim and Mark named the supply chain of these materials as a major constraint. Linked to this is the imperative of having financially attractive sustainable developments; ‘no-one cares about sustainability until it improves the bottom line, and we can do that!’
Gordon Hudson of Mott MacDonald disagreed. Sustainability, he said, was not driven by the business bottom line. His examples from the Middle East showed how pressure groups such as the WWF had a strong influence on business and government to become more environmentally friendly. Gordon also considered the social elements of sustainability, including the need for local ownership of schemes and initiatives. He added to previous concerns about microgeneration and pointed to traditional buildings that designed in natural ventilation, heat/shade and effective materials.
The major concerns that Gordon raised were the potential for the ‘green explosion’ to slow down rather than speed up activity, the apparent trade off between quality of work and speed of delivery and the need to incorporate engineering, feasibility and cost implications at the beginning of the process.
Discussion with the audience
The contributions from this discussion were more delivery focused than those from the previous session on sustainable cities. There was a strong sense that:
• We need to improve skills and information
o developers are keen to get involved when they realise it can improve their reputation and business
o planning officers need information on materials, design and regulation so they can push for the best designs
o Registered social landlords and housing associations could improve design and longevity of properties if they influenced the materials used
• ‘Construction’ should be seen as a process from design to management
• Get the passive elements of design right first. If including microgeneration, think of the amount of embedded energy and its real contribution to the reduction of carbon emissions
• The location of buildings within the region is important to their sustainability. BREEAM is weak here so use section 106 agreements to strengthen public transport provision until a service is commercially attractive to the private operators
• Get the right team and the breadth of skills in early and “be prepared to be bloody minded!”
The Chair of the evening, Kate Cairns, finally invited those working in the construction industry who would be interested in joining Sustaine's new construction workstream to contact Steve Bhowmick at Durham County Council on steve.bhowmick@durham.gov.uk or 0191 383 3236 for more information.
If you would like to contribute to our lively and constructive discussions, and be part of progressing sustainable development in the North East, we cordially invite you to our next event on January 16th in Sunderland. Alternatively, please contact info@northernarchitecture.com
After gaining an MSc in sustainable regeneration, Victoria Eynon worked delivering environmentally sound housing led regeneration and in regional economic development policy. She currently works for National Energy Action, the leading fuel poverty charity campaigning for warm homes. Underlying her work and play is a desire for us to live in the functional, equitable and inspirational world we deserve and can achieve. She is collaborating with Northern Architecture on this project in a personal capacity.
Details of the chair and four panellists invited to lead this debate are below.
Chair: Kate Cairns, Board member, Sustaine
Kate is a freelance Sustainability Advisor. She has recently returned to her native north east from London where she worked as Environmental Advisor for BAA on the construction of the £4.2billion Terminal 5 at Heathrow. She played a key role in the development of CEEQUAL, a tool for assessing sustainability in civil engineering (a BREEAM equivalent), and is a Board member of CEEQUAL Ltd. She is a Board member of the newly reformed Sustaine, the independent champion body for sustainable development in the region.
Kate has a BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of Bristol which included a year of research for French design codes at Laboratoire des Ponts et Chaussees. As a graduate Civil Engineer she was involved in various design and construction projects across the UK and France. Nine years ago, moving specifically into the environmental field, Kate managed the Institution of Civil Engineers' Environment and Sustainability Board and Waste Management Board. Since then Kate has completed an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College and worked as Sustainability Consultant for WSP Environmental.
Panel members:
Professor Sandy Halliday, Principal, Gaia Research
Sandy is a chartered engineer. She established Gaia Research in 1996 to develop sustainable solutions for the built environment. From her earliest involvement with construction she identified the need for building design to respond to stringent environmental criteria, and to user needs and aspirations for healthy buildings. Gaia Research is the newest part of the Gaia Group network, which also comprises Gaia Architects- in Edinburgh and Birnam, Gaia Planning, Gaia Group Norway and Gaia International.
Sandy has been a leading voice in promoting sustainable built environments, policy development and training for over 20 years. She is the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development to the School of Architecture at the University of Strathclyde, where she is working with architects and engineers to improve their sustainable design competence. Sandy was recently presented with an “inspirational person in construction” award in the first year of a scheme supported by the CIOB.
The experience gained as a consultant and researcher was developed into a modular based interdisciplinary continuing professional development course. This has recently been updated and will be published by Architecture Press in 2007 as Sustainable Construction. Her guide to the delivery of sustainable projects The Green Guide to the Architects’ Job Book was re-published by RIBA Publications in its 2nd Edition in 2007. Much of Sandy’s current work is involved with hand-holding clients through the sustainability aspects of buildings.
Tim Bailey, Principal, xsite architecture
Having graduated from Newcastle University in 1990 and qualifying as an architect in 1992, Tim has been pursuing the perfect building project, first at Browne Smith Baker until 2000 and since then as Principal of xsite architecture based in Newcastle upon Tyne where cultural buildings, regeneration and housing have figured largely in workload.
Committed to the North East region’s arts, architecture and cultural scene, Tim has been Chair of Northern Stage from September 2006, Chair of Creative Partnerships Durham Sunderland and was Chair of Northern Architecture from 1997 to 2006, involved with RIBA since 1988 and ran x-site gallery, showing local artists in informal surroundings, between 1994-98. . . and is still in pursuit of the perfect building project!
Mark Elliott, Director, DigitalCity Business
Mark is a graduate of St Martin’s School of Art, London. He became first the youngest commercials editor in London, then its youngest commercials director. During 20 years directing commercials films across the world he made commercial for major organisations including Walt Disney, Ford, Caterpillar, Coca Cola, Volkswagen, Yellow Pages, Unilever, and Procter and Gamble – and a lot of tiny businesses too.
His business experience stretches back to 1981 when - at the same time as editing - he ran one of London’s most successful editing companies. He also has nine years under his belt as a strategic director of an radically innovative training company, and for the past four years has combined creative and film work with the role of Director, DigitalCity Business – taking the project from paper exercise to full project with more than £40m funding and a target to be "the UK’s most vibrant digital hub".
Gordon Hudson, Technical Director, Mott MacDonald
Gordon is responsible for building services design, sustainability and development in Mott MacDonald’s Newcastle office. He has been involved in benchmarking sutainable design for the last 6 years both as practitioner and a researcher. He was lead researcher for the NHS estates project “Incorporating a sustainable dimension in primary health care”. This work led to further involvement with the Sustainable Development Commission and the NHS Alliance.
Gordon was among the first BREEAM for schools assessors in the UK and has provided advice on a number of PFI schools projects. Gordon was principal author and lead researcher for the Scottish Executive funded project “Optimising the Internal Environment”, published in March 2007. Current projects include sustainability design guidance for the Home office and the development of an environmental assessment tool for the Abu Dhabi environmental agency. Gordon is chief examiner for the Engineering Council examination for internal environmental design, visiting research fellow at Northumbria University and Building Services external examiner at UWE.
