Archive for the ‘Eco build’ Category

Not long ago - about four blog posts ago, in fact - I wrote about how painting your roof white could save one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions. I’ve just discovered that having a green roof could…

“If the roof of every building was painted white, what impact would it have on the albedo of the Earth”. Over the last few years I’ve mentioned this to a few climate scientists and they’ve looked quizzical but then nodded…” he said.

Last week the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called again for a “green revolution” and suggested that the UK could be aiming for an 80% cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Hurrah. That sounds promising.

Or does it?

Thanks to Treehugger for pointing me towards this recent article in Wired about a new eco friendly design for an apartment block in Chicago’s Hyde Park, designed by Studio Gang’s Joanna Gang…
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At Festival time, Brighton is known for its Open Houses, selling art. Some of it’s great. Some of it’s… ah… interesting. Mostly everyone goes around to check out their neighbour’s kitchen extensions and tut at the wallpaper.

Blimey. I see Brighton’s Earthship eco village development at Falmer has made it into the “soaraway” Sun this morning.…

Having built one Earthship at Falmer, the plan is now to build 16 more overlooking Brighton Marina.

In the tech world, people regularly bandy around the phrase “early adopter”. If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, here’s a quick definition:

If you’re the first person to buy the first ludicrously overpriced piece of electronic equipment, you justify the shocking price to your partner/housemate/mum by calling yourself “an early adopter”…

The Brighton Festival is coming up. One of the highlights of the fringe are the Open Houses, where people turn their houses into open galleries for three weeks in May to sell their art.

The Yellow House is a different kind of Open House. The Marshalls have created a website exclusively to show how they’ve turned their 1930s terrace into their dream eco-home…

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s blog post comes this news. This eco development in Brighton’s New England Quarter by The One Planet Living organisation, which is backed by the World Wildlife fund, has just been given the planning go ahead. It has the highest eco specs of any new build in the UK. They’re trying to achieve a zero carbon strategy…

Most people here in the UK live in old housing stock. I live in a flat in a Victorian building. They weren’t too concerned with energy efficiency when they built my street. At least new buildings have to conform to new regulations that make them more energy efficient, but anyone who’s ever tried to build a real eco house knows how hard it is to get it past planning authorities here because we’re weighed down with regulations about what houses should look like.