Grand Designs - 18th Feb

[cardigankid]

lord summerisle said:

cardigankid said:

On the negative side, I don't buy into the airtightness agenda, which is promoted by the man made global warming lobby and overcomplicated Building Regulations. Experience tells me that if the building fabric can't breathe nasty stuff starts to happen, anaerobic bacteria, rot etc.

Like my old Building Tech. Lecture used to bang on about - Built Tight, Ventilate Right.
Used to eulogize about the Glasgow Tenements, about how good their design was. and comparing the air changes between the tenement, and a barratt house.

And the much higher bateria/mould/dust levels in the barratt house, because of this lack of air change.

Quite. I live in a Glasgow Tenement, and it works, because the whole thing is pretty air permeable. I do get gas bills, but the real answer is not to create heat you don't need. Half the problem today is women who insist on wandering round the house in short silk nighties in the middle of winter.

[merc_man]

cardigankid said:

99p light switches, so what? Does expensive electrical control gear turn you on?

Absolutely it does. If I was constructing a new build I'd be sure to have the thing bursting with hi-tech connectivity, superb audio and visual systems and great looking control switches all over the place. Finish is everything and, whilst functional, 99p switches detract from that.

You could tell merely from the awful looking kitchen and the open plan stter arrangement for guests that design had triumphed over practicality. A great looking building and a fabulous engineering achievement but I wouldn't want to live in it.

[V8mate]

cardigankid said:

I imagine the gravel is to add weight and hopefully keep the whole contraption up, and make sure that any water drains away pronto, not insulation.

A green roof IS insulative.

[superlightr]

Im sure I saw this house up for sale. It was being advertised as buy a ticket at 10pounds with the winner being picked end of the month. .

[Ozzie Osmond]

Great concept!

Great arch!

Great staircase!


Very nasty boxy living-room sticking out.

Didn't think much of the gimmicky floors or worksurfaces.

[trooperiziz]

cardigankid said:

Half the problem today is women who insist on wandering round the house in short silk nighties in the middle of winter.

I'm struggling to see the problem?

[Oakey]

They have a website:

http://www.hawkesarchitecture.co.uk/a%20grand%20de...

[Plotloss]

cardigankid said:

99p light switches, so what? Does expensive electrical control gear turn you on?

Well, as lighting design and control form a significant part of our business, a bit. We're not talking wood here, just a bit of a chubby.

I merely happen to think that a wonderful architectural feature such as that arch and the interesting shapes that the floor layout beneath created along with the stairs and the natural light would have benefited from some interesting luminaires and scene control.

It would also have added to the sustainability of the building by saving even more energy.

[AMCDan]

JulesV said:

AMCDan said:

anyone got a source or more info on that resin flooring? Possible cheaper alternative to the white quartz tiles we're looking at.. No paper clips though, thanks.

A friend of mine runs a company that produces some very cool resin floors:

http://www.addagrip.co.uk/addagrip_edl.html

Also some very nice external surfaces.

nice, thanks!

[scotal]

Plotloss said:

It would also have added to the sustainability of the building by saving even more energy.

You fking tree-hugger

[Coco H]

I loved the house - a great concept and they took risks.

He was funny and actually quite normal. Not suprising she got up the duff so quickly - what else could they do in that caravan. Buy you did see the harsh side of living in a caravan for that long and with a baby!

The arch was amazing and the house felt great inside.

I am still not sold on the passive house idea though. I think I would need to check one out before I could make up my mind. I can't see those prinicpals being able to be applied to my victorian pile could you!

[Tuna]

cardigankid said:

lord summerisle said:

cardigankid said:

On the negative side, I don't buy into the airtightness agenda, which is promoted by the man made global warming lobby and overcomplicated Building Regulations. Experience tells me that if the building fabric can't breathe nasty stuff starts to happen, anaerobic bacteria, rot etc.

Like my old Building Tech. Lecture used to bang on about - Built Tight, Ventilate Right.
Used to eulogize about the Glasgow Tenements, about how good their design was. and comparing the air changes between the tenement, and a barratt house.

And the much higher bateria/mould/dust levels in the barratt house, because of this lack of air change.

Quite. I live in a Glasgow Tenement, and it works, because the whole thing is pretty air permeable. I do get gas bills, but the real answer is not to create heat you don't need. Half the problem today is women who insist on wandering round the house in short silk nighties in the middle of winter.

You're against women in short silk nighties on what grounds exactly?

There's a huge difference between a Barrat house with poor ventilation and a modern passive house. The latter focuses on ventilate right part of the 'build tight, ventilate right' mantra, and is proving very successful on the continent. Unfortunately the vast majority of builders in the UK haven't a clue when it comes to building to the necessary standards to make such things work. Hence mouldy old barrat houses.

Just to look at cardigans kid's misconceptions:

It costs electricity to run. Yes, and it saves significantly more on heating bills.

Breeding ground for MRSA. Not at all, we're talking about a dry system here, at normal household temperature levels, not a wet heating system.

Ears popping. Part of the ventilate right concept is to allow airflow internally. Unlike older houses where every door has to be draught proofed to stop those uncomfortable cold draughts, a passive house will have an air gap at the bottom of internal doors. Every room will have a flow of fresh air in or out. No doors popping.

Air quality. You get significantly higher in passive houses. Read up and you'll find asthmatics and allergy sufferers signing the praises of their well ventilated homes.

Waste of heat. This isn't something you can apply to a badly insulated, badly built house typical of most UK building. As the guy on GD said, get it right and your heating bills are so drastically reduced that you can export energy back to the grid. You can have the wife walking around in her silk nightie in the winter because distributing heat evenly around the house doesn't waste energy. No hot spots, and no cold corners.

It's no good looking to Glasgow Tenements for examples of current building practise. We are years (decades) behind most of Europe and Canada, who have been building much higher quality homes on these principles for years. This isn't experimental stuff, out there it's proven and effective. Sadly, the average UK house buyer is so terrified of anything that isn't 'traditional' brick and block, that we just don't see these methods applied properly over here.

[cardigankid]

V8mate said:

cardigankid said:

I imagine the gravel is to add weight and hopefully keep the whole contraption up, and make sure that any water drains away pronto, not insulation.

A green roof IS insulative.

I'm sure that you are right, but I still suspect that on its own it would not give you the kind of levels of insulation which you must need, not only to comply with regs, but achieve the minimal heat loss which must be essential if you have no heating system

I was joking a bit about the control gear. I entirely agree that the latest power, sound, and data technology would be hugely desirable in a house like that, not to mention some really cool light fittings. Maybe it was there and we weren't told, and there were obviously plenty of photovoltaics. What I meant was that if you were really down to the last penny, and you had all that, why not save a little by using boggo switches. A plain modern MK switch is a perfectly serviceable and good looking little thing.

The guy did a good marketing job for himself and it was a nice looking house, good luck to him. I still would not live there, and this time I'm not joking.

[scotal]

merc_man said:

cardigankid said:

99p light switches, so what? Does expensive electrical control gear turn you on?

Absolutely it does. If I was constructing a new build I'd be sure to have the thing bursting with hi-tech connectivity, superb audio and visual systems and great looking control switches all over the place. Finish is everything and, whilst functional, 99p switches detract from that.

With reference to that, did you see the Welsh bloke who built the folly last week say that in the past they had built in loads of systems and ended up using very few of them, so this time round they were paring it down and fitting only useful stuff.

[cardigankid]

Coco H said:

I loved the house - a great concept and they took risks.

He was funny and actually quite normal. Not suprising she got up the duff so quickly - what else could they do in that caravan. Buy you did see the harsh side of living in a caravan for that long and with a baby!

If the kid had got pneumonia it would have been no laughing matter.

[Tuna]

cardigankid said:

Coco H said:

I loved the house - a great concept and they took risks.

He was funny and actually quite normal. Not suprising she got up the duff so quickly - what else could they do in that caravan. Buy you did see the harsh side of living in a caravan for that long and with a baby!

If the kid had got pneumonia it would have been no laughing matter.

Lightweights. We've been living in a caravan for nearly four years. Kevin hasn't visited us (that I know), but we have had two kids since we moved here who are very healthy and happy living in a muddy field.

Rather than whine about it, you have to make the most of what you've got - hot water bottles and thick blankets all round!

[scotal]

Has your build started yet Tuna?

[Plotloss]

scotal said:

merc_man said:

cardigankid said:

99p light switches, so what? Does expensive electrical control gear turn you on?

Absolutely it does. If I was constructing a new build I'd be sure to have the thing bursting with hi-tech connectivity, superb audio and visual systems and great looking control switches all over the place. Finish is everything and, whilst functional, 99p switches detract from that.

With reference to that, did you see the Welsh bloke who built the folly last week say that in the past they had built in loads of systems and ended up using very few of them, so this time round they were paring it down and fitting only useful stuff.

So he installed a upper mid control system which does everything.

In reality you can automate practically everything depending on how far you want to go with it, the killer apps for most people though are multiroom AV and lighting with a bit of security/access integration on the side.

[scotal]

Plotloss said:

the killer apps for most people though are multiroom AV and lighting with a bit of security/access integration on the side.

Which is what I want when I finally get to build my own place.

[Davel]

Lovely people and much as I loved the idea of an arch, covering it with soil and the boxey rooms just didn't do it for me.

Very interesting concept though...