Posted on January 16th, 2012
By Brian R Murphy | GreenSpec Founder | www.greenspec.co.uk
The interior design profession is coming around to the idea that refurbishment jobs need to take into account the environmental impact these projects have and to address this, The Green Register is holding a seminal one day conference in London on 9th February to address some of the more pressing issues interior designers have to face. But what are these issues?
Since interior finishes are removed and replaced frequently, the building-fabric-only needs to be competent or every refit would require building regulations applications, associated design and application fees and increasing energy performance requirements would make refit progressively more expensive. Issues that need to be addressed by the building include: G value/solar gains/thermal mass /U value/decrement delay/wind and airtightness/thermal breaks/weather tightness/vapour permeability/internal surface temperatures etc.
No tenant/purchaser would want to buy into inadequate property that needs them to complete it as part of the fit out and tenant agreement. The Tenant would quite rightly expect a competent building. If building running/heating/ventilating/cooling are part of their landlord agreement there is no incentive to reduce costs unless they see a financial return for a consumption reduction. Carpets may be insulating but they will have an effect on the ground floor only and they also hide thermal mass that can have an effect on the overall energy demands. The same two points apply to suspended ceiling, not the ground floor, but the roof.
The interior finishes can have variable properties that help of hinder regulating internal conditions and comfort conditions hence affecting heat/vent/coolth requirements. The same finishes with the wrong choice of materials can affect indoor air quality and the need for ventilation which drive up energy costs. Issues of concern include: material ingredients/ binders/ adhesives/ VOCs/ off-gassing/ indoor air quality/ moisture mass/ thermal mass/ acoustic mass etc.
Increasing internal insulation of historic buildings by wall coverings can lead to condensation, mould, asthma, rot, toxic mould, frost damage. In my limited past experience the level of technical expertise in IDs (who often have to rely on manufacturers reps to tell them what they need to choose and specify) is below Architects who themselves can still be inadequate in these matters, so I would be worried about this too. Issues to be address here include vapour permeability/ capillary action/ continuity/ gap avoidance/ moisture transport.
The RICS ‘Ska rating’ assessment process addresses refit better than any of the BREEAM tools – it focuses on building fabric and the materials that both IDs and Architects specify. But I think it follows the conventional approach (competent building, complimentary interiors) More importantly it addresses reuse of existing interior materials and reuse of reclaimed rather than sending perfectly sound materials to landfill.
Re-education of the designers in all disciplines on environmental issues is paramount, coordinated design is essential and respect of each other and each other’s contribution would help a lot. The Green Register’s one day conference will help ID’s to arm themselves with the knowledge they want and need to inform themselves and their clients about the choices they can make with fit-out, refit and refurbishment projects.
http://www.greenregister.org.uk/events.php?p=1&id=219#event219
http://www.scribd.com/doc/78130374/The-Challenges-of-Eco-Interior-Refit-A03-130112-BRM
Posted on November 1st, 2011
By Lucy Pedler | The Green Register
I was discussing with my family tonight who we might put on the bonfire this Saturday 5th November if given the choice and I said I’d like to choose Climate Change Minister Gregory Barker. This is because of the spectacularly disappointing decision announced yesterday to cut the Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) for micro-generation by more than half, reducing the FiT from 43p to 21p as of next April.
We all knew that the basis upon which FiT’s were introduced was that the unit payment would drop off over time but today’s decision is really unacceptable – both in terms of the degree to which it has been cut and the date when it comes into effect. Installers have been left with an unreasonably short time to adjust to this and their customers will understandably be furious if they don’t get the technologies installed by 12th December.
What really bugs me is the fallout from this decision: all the jobs that will be lost and the loss of faith in renewables that the public, already highly sceptical of the technologies, will have.
Whatever one’s opinion of the FiT’s – and there are many detractors – there are several positive outcomes so to date. According to Ofgen, the scheme has increased the amount of solar power installed in the UK from 30 to 321 megawatts (from before the subsidy started in 2010 to October this year). FiT’s have also kick-started many small businesses, created jobs and generally raised awareness of the fact that we have to start to decarbonise the grid right now and one of the many ways (although not the most efficient cost to benefit option) is to generate power from the sun.
With such a good start, it seems madness to pull the rug out from under micro-generation so fast and so soon. As shadow energy and climate change minister Caroline Flint said in response to the news “With growth flat-lining everywhere else today’s announcement threatens to strangle at birth the solar industry.”
Posted on May 24th, 2010
I am a carpenter/general contractor who frequently works with Architects on small scale domestic and commercial refurbishment jobs. Last year I looked into green issues with my work and discovered that in fact I was already doing many things right- recycling, reusing materials, local suppliers- however there were big gaps in my knowledge which is where the green Register comes in. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 19th, 2010
Our architectural practice, archipeleco, had been designing eco-refurbishment projects for our residential clients for five years when we decided to up sticks and move from London to Bristol. One of the reasons for moving was to be able to carry out an extreme eco-refurbishment on a 1930’s house we had just bought in central Bristol and see how much we could reduce our carbon emissions and general environmental impact as a family. We had proposed some of the more substantial eco-refurbishment measures for our clients but often they did not end up being realised due to various constraints (time, money, planning restrictions) and we wanted to test out these ideas ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on March 18th, 2010
Guest Blog by Simon Reid of Building-engineering and maintenance ltd.
I have recently attended an “Eco-refurbishment” day-seminar created by The Green Register and felt that I’d like to put “pen to paper”, as it were.
The content of the day was varied, covering many aspects of this rapidly evolving field of construction. I was particularly impressed by the calibre of the speakers – each of them being “fresh from the front-line” and enthusiastically sharing their recent experiences and thoughts of this valuable work.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on February 11th, 2010
Guest blog by Mark Tinker
I really enjoyed last Friday’s Green Register ‘Becoming an Eco-refurbisher’ course. I think all of The Green Register events I have attended have been really good and useful, and this was no exception. All of the speakers gave very good presentations, and were really focussed. They complemented each other very well, with very little overlap, and covered a broad range of approaches and topics. So very impressed, thank you. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on July 23rd, 2009
The Green Register held its new Accredited Eco-refurbishment seminar in Bristol on 24th June with a satisfyingly full house. We had three things in mind when creating this course – architects workload slowing down, people not being able to afford to move (and so needling to refurbish/expand their current abode) and the demand for advice on refurbishing houses using eco-principles and hey presto the course was born. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on June 26th, 2009
Guest blog by delegate Tim Brown, Ashton Design, Cumbria
Work in Cumbria is varied and diverse but predominantly involves renovation/refurbishment and extension of traditional buildings, many employing solid stone walls and dipping slate roofs. Therefore when I learnt of the one day course to become an Accredited Eco-Refurbisher and with the experience of previous Green Register events I decided to venture down to Bristol. Read the rest of this entry »
