Looby
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't that have been slightly patronising as it was pretty obvious don't you think?
Grand Designs "eco house"
- Thread starter danny la rouge
- Start date
Wouldn't that have been slightly patronising as it was pretty obvious don't you think?
Cid
Proper break this time
We should be a lot further than the concept stage by now though...
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
I nodded off half way. I also tend to "switch off" when the money gets silly.
Some of the projects have been a fair bit more sensible - the straw bale house in France was rather tasty :-
Some of the projects have been a fair bit more sensible - the straw bale house in France was rather tasty :-
Gromit
International Man of Misery
I think you've confused terminology.
The word Sustainable can be applied to housing in two seperate ways. Economic and Enviromental.
Was it sustainable? The answer is both yes and no.
danny la rouge
Ninja swords for all disabled people
The point I'm making is that we're too often pushed a version of sustainable that is the latter but not the former. Unless it is both, then all we do is spread the impression that sustainability is unattainable for most.
Which is more than a shame. It's too important an issue.
danny la rouge
Ninja swords for all disabled people
It was patronising to the audience to keep on saying "green" and "eco" if they actually just meant a very expensive house that was energy efficient.
Gromit
International Man of Misery
Ideally all houses should be carbon neutral. However as with most new technology its often the wealthier who have to lead the way on such things.
Before video recorders became dirt cheap enough for everyone to be able to own one we went through a cycle of them only being available to those able or willing to pay through the nose for it. Same with plasma tellys etc.
It took 20 years for every home to have a VCR and for the prices to become as low as £20 when previously it cost hundreds.
Hopefully carbon neutral technologies will follow the same path and one day all houses will be built this way cheaply.
Don’t expect it to happen overnight when it took a mere household goods years.
Don’t spurn and discourage rich wankers leading the way when they could be spending their money on jet fuelled hols in the sun instead.
danny la rouge
Ninja swords for all disabled people
I feel all ashamed now. All I could think was "typical smug, liberal rich twat."
Gromit
International Man of Misery
I'm sure they were.
But in the scheme of things there are worse things rich twats can be smug about than being eco friendly.
Owning racehorses, jetting off Oz three times a year, their 8000 bhp sports car, spending four more times money on clothes than i spend on a mortgage etc.
So as rich twats go these 'keeping up with the eco Joneses' are nice ones.
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
I came away thing it partly a grand eco-folly and partly ground-breaker. Poss a bit ostentatious, in a new age kind of way. Think we'll see a lot more of this from wealthy, guilt-trippy professionals.
Interesting that we're so behind in this country that Cambridge Uni wanted to put sensors all over his gaff - not exactly cutting edge science to recycle air in a sealed environment.
Interesting that we're so behind in this country that Cambridge Uni wanted to put sensors all over his gaff - not exactly cutting edge science to recycle air in a sealed environment.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
If I was going to build my own 'eco' house (which I will, someday), it would be a lot less assuming than this - and probably much cheaper.
However: If I was going to build my own self-supporting inverted catenary thin shelled vault (which I probably never will
), it'd be quite a bit more extravagent than this one 
However: If I was going to build my own self-supporting inverted catenary thin shelled vault (which I probably never will
), it'd be quite a bit more extravagent than this one 
teuchter
je suis teuchter
The house wasn't really pushing any "new technology". All fairly regular stuff that's been around for quite a while now. As far as I could see it was based on pretty basic but sound and well-proven concepts - airtight construction, good insulation, decent thermal mass and thoughtfully placed glazing and shading.
Part of the reason why things like the windows were so expensive and had to be sourced from abroad is that there is not a great demand for them here, because the regulations in this country are not as strict as in others. The way to change this is to gradually tighten our regulations, and make sure they are enforced. Which is what is happening, slowly.
The air-tightness thing was presented as if it was somehow radical: it's not particularly, they were just going above and beyond what would be necessary to pass building regs. Air-tightness standards have recently been introduced into the regs, and tests like the one they showed with the big fan have to be carried out on new-build housing now.
I actually thought it was considerably less ostentatious than most houses you see on Grand Designs. They had chosen to spend their money largely on making sure it was super-well insulated. I think that is better than spending it on blingy kitchens or wanky lighting systems.
They also spent a fair bit of their money on the arch, of course, which was basically a folly and for fun. It was kind of experimental but not in a particularly useful way; you could have achieved much the same result with much more straightforward construction methods. But I had some sympathy with his desire to do something a bit unusual purely for the sake of it.
Design-wise, I thought the end result was pretty good. Better than I expected. It looked like the interior worked quite well - I was a bit sceptical when they showed the plans at the beginning because I thought there was a danger they'd build a beautiful self-supporting arch and then render it pointless by cramming a load of stuff underneath it.
One of the nicest projects I've seen on Grand Designs for a while.
Kevin McCloud annoys me slightly more each episode though.
Part of the reason why things like the windows were so expensive and had to be sourced from abroad is that there is not a great demand for them here, because the regulations in this country are not as strict as in others. The way to change this is to gradually tighten our regulations, and make sure they are enforced. Which is what is happening, slowly.
The air-tightness thing was presented as if it was somehow radical: it's not particularly, they were just going above and beyond what would be necessary to pass building regs. Air-tightness standards have recently been introduced into the regs, and tests like the one they showed with the big fan have to be carried out on new-build housing now.
I actually thought it was considerably less ostentatious than most houses you see on Grand Designs. They had chosen to spend their money largely on making sure it was super-well insulated. I think that is better than spending it on blingy kitchens or wanky lighting systems.
They also spent a fair bit of their money on the arch, of course, which was basically a folly and for fun. It was kind of experimental but not in a particularly useful way; you could have achieved much the same result with much more straightforward construction methods. But I had some sympathy with his desire to do something a bit unusual purely for the sake of it.
Design-wise, I thought the end result was pretty good. Better than I expected. It looked like the interior worked quite well - I was a bit sceptical when they showed the plans at the beginning because I thought there was a danger they'd build a beautiful self-supporting arch and then render it pointless by cramming a load of stuff underneath it.
One of the nicest projects I've seen on Grand Designs for a while.
Kevin McCloud annoys me slightly more each episode though.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
It's about not letting heat get out.
Like doing up the buttons on your coat.
You still get fresh air but it comes in via a heat exchanger, which means it gets warmed by the outgoing warm but stale air.
Surprisingly enough they are obtainable by googling "Grand Designs".
http://www.channel4.com/4homes/on-t...-of-kent-eco-arch-the-story-09-02-18_p_1.html
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
I'm not that keen on doing my coat buttons up either.
Well I suppose that's okay then. Very good. Carry on.
I did, but noticed there were a couple of 'eco' houses so wandered back here, expectantly, if a little niavely to wait.
Thank you.
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
I reckon they wuz on drugs .... How do you sell heat back?
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
One of my favourite GDs so far.
I felt really sorry for the dude the other week who had all that planning permission kerfuffle. Mind you, he was trying to build a yoghurt pot house, but still.
I felt really sorry for the dude the other week who had all that planning permission kerfuffle. Mind you, he was trying to build a yoghurt pot house, but still.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
As ever with this programme, that episode was frustrating because the planning issue thing wasn't gone into in any useful detail, so there was no way of knowing you was at fault... The guy being foolish or building something different from the drawings, or an incompetent planning officer, or what.
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
Well he was building it too tall than the agreed written plans said, and only had a verbal say so that it was okay to start from a particular level. However, the whole thing did seem proposterous. I did notice I didn't see a neighbour's house once. It looked like it was in the middle of endless fields and woodland. So where the person who was complaining about it lived I don't know.
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