GREEN OBJECTIVES
Especially in British latitudes, buildings should be arranged to make more use of the sun. Sunshine is definitely an underused resource. Incorporating planning strategies, at an early stage in the design process, to bring sunlight into a building, is easy to do. Sunlight in buildings saves lighting and heating costs. The additional capital costs of measures required to plan buildings with south facades are not that great, and significant savings on heating and lighting costs can be made, which add up to large savings over the lifecycle of a building.
Moreover light and airy buildings result from this process, which incidentally are very pleasant to live in. Of course care has to be taken to get the balance right. Midsummer sun will cause overheating, and sun and computer screens do not co-habit easily. In winter large areas of glass are a heating liability, and curtains and shutters are necessary. These issues can be overcome successfully, maximizing the benefits of passive solar design.
In relation to the construction of buildings our main concern has to be to provide our clients with the construction project they have commissioned, on time and to budget. Within this main concern we will aim to bring some of the principles of 'responsive climate sensitive design' to bear on our solutions, in the knowledge that: (1) they can be incorporated at little capital cost, from the outset, and (2) the spaces created can be very pleasant to occupy.
