Is your project sustainable? There were 3 key wins with Burnt House that we as an architecture practice fought for for the sake of sustainable design. 1) Retrofit over demolition. We advised against the QS’s advice of demolition and start again. Just because the existing building is ‘ugly’ doesn’t mean we can’t work with the existing fabric, upgrading and altering to suit the new use. We’ve since proved that it wasn’t at all cheaper to do this too. This mitigated a lot of waste and carbon. 2) Low embodied carbon materials Throughout the project, external materials that sequester carbon to internal finishes that regulate humidity. This is so important in an industry that is very complacent with concrete and steel proprietary systems. 3) Operational Carbon Many academics are now focusing on operation as opposed to fabric first when dealing with existing buildings. The importance of an efficient, consistent system that doesn’t use fossil fuels is massively important. Hopefully these systems become less carbon intensive as their popularity increases. We will try to update on in-use statistics. If you’ve a project in mind or wish to talk these points further, reach out! hello@o-ru.co.uk #sustainabledesign #lowcarbon #carboncounting #environmentalarchitecture #ecoarchitecture #architect
Final months of Burnt House now with finishes starting to go in and external works being cleaned up. Full ASHP system and solar installed with operational carbon being monitored. Insulated to almost passive standards with heat recovery system; even recycling the excess heat from the sauna and steam. All modelled and calculated prior to construction. Included in the comments are some existing building shots for context. Do give our Instagram a follow for updates @officerenosourmston #architect #architecture #luxuryhome #youngdesigner #sustainability #propertydevelopment #property #mcr #smallbusiness
