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.

Active and Passive measures contribute to energy savings. Passive measures by and large are designed into a building from the outset. Active measure are a more bolt-on way of reducing a buildings energy and resource load. The Green House in Wicken illustrates additional active measures that can be taken to reduce energy consumption and costs. It is important that active measures are self regulating. Building users do not need additional chores in relation to energy management. All the measures in the Green House are managed by control systems that require little day to day input.

Although the Green House illustrates domestic measures, the principles also apply to Commercial Projects. We are currently working with a developer designing commercial buildings with naturally stack ventilated offices.

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.