Bere Admin January 7th, 2010
Wednesday, February 3rd 2010 (Camden Town Hall, Judd Street)
Councillor Alexis Rowell of Camden Council, the Liberal Democrat ‘Eco Councillor’ and very active chair of the Camden Sustainability Task Force has organized what will arguably be the first dedicated Passivhaus conference in the UK (The AECB could also arguably claim this). The decision to organize the conference came after a period of broad but intensive research by Alexis and the Camden Council Sustainability Taskforce on cutting carbon emissions in UK buildings. This research was carried out in the UK (inviting a wide range of experts to present to the Sustainability committee) and abroad (research visits) by Alexis and other Liberal Democrat councilors.
One of the most convincing research visits included a trip to Frankfurt to meet the leader of the passivhaus schools programme there, Axel Bretzke, and to visit the successful Riedberg School, now famous throughout Europe for its proven success in cutting energy consumption to amazingly low levels. Axel explained that the Frankfurt school was developed after energy and air quality monitoring of traditionally designed schools. Apart from the high energy demand of contemporary traditionally designed schools, they found, in practice, appalling winter air quality in schools that relied on only natural ventilation. By combining natural (summer) and active (winter) heat recovery ventilation, the Riedberg passivhaus school is now famous throughout Europe for achieving extremely low heat energy and electrical demand, whilst at the same time achieving extremely good summer and winter air quality. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 21st, 2009
Councillor Alexis Rowell’s website provides an update on the Camden Passivhaus.
www.ecocouncillor.org.uk
Bere Admin November 6th, 2009
Read the original post here
Justin Bere, 6th Nov 2009
Amanda, if you are searching the internet for scientific facts, may I suggest that you dip into Cambridge Professor David JC MacKay’s extremely scientific and highly respected book at www.withouthotair.com. There you will see graphs showing the big rise in atmospheric CO2 levels that occurred between about 1800 and 2000. Scientific fact.
To those who remain sceptical about the cause of this, MacKay asks “does sceptic mean someone who has not even glanced at the data? Don’t you think, just possibly, something may have happened between 1800AD and 2000AD? Something that was not part of the natural processes present in the preceding thousand years? Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 6th, 2009
Amanda Baillieu shocks Building Design readers with her claim that the science of global warming is just ‘hot air’ (the text of this article was toned down Monday 9th November, 9pm)
November 6th 2009, Amanda Baillieu today wrote a shocking article in Building Design. In her title piece, she refers to “the increasing evidence against man-made climate change” however she does not explain what she means by this and appears to have no real interest or grasp of the issues. When challenged to substantiate her claim, she did no more than refer to “the dizzying range of ideas that are being debated” – without giving details of a single one of them.
Her ‘twitter’ site gives some indication of what is behind this. Items 2, 4, 13, 17, 18 below are written by Ms Baillieu. Ref to no.18 at 10.03am on Nov 4th indicates that it seems to have started by an article she read in the Guardian about a judge finding that someone was discriminated against for his environmental principles. At 10.07am she exclaimed to the world “Basically believing in man made climate change is a bit like hoping that fairies live at the bottom of the garden.”
This is followed by some mind-numbingly vacant utterances from another journalist and a designer. (who’s home page curiously says “We are the leading UK consultancy working across public health, sustainability and planning.”)
Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 6th, 2009
The Welsh Assembly, advised by Nick Tune of BRE (Wales), is leading the UK in its drive towards the most efficient, low energy designs possible for new housing.
These are similar first steps to those of the small, self-contained Vorarlberg region in Austria. In the early 1980’s, when in the UK we were squandering our oil reserves without making any plans for renewable energy generation or energy efficiency, as if there was no tomorrow, the government of Vorarlberg developed a plan for self-sufficiency in food and energy. Vorarlberg is now prosperous and the community is well housed, well educated, well fed and relatively happy. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 6th, 2009
Below is the official press release, 6th November 2009, and at the bottom are judges technical comments made by the Building Research Establishment (Wales) experts:
Two highly energy efficient homes that will produce more than 80% less carbon emissions than a standard new house have been chosen as the overall winners of the Welsh Passive House architectural competition.
Innovative designs, coupled with high levels of insulation and renewable energy, will dramatically reduce the need for supplementary heating, resulting in fuel bills that are at least two thirds cheaper than the average home.
The winning 3 bed home – which has a wildflower meadow roof and 85% less carbon emissions than a standard new house - is designed by bere:architects of London and the 2 bed home, which utilizes hempcrete, paper and glass for insulation, is designed by HLM Architects, Cardiff. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 5th, 2009
I am looking forward to participating in this conference. Emigration to Wales is on the cards…..
WALES LOW CARBON SUMMIT
12th November 2009
Innova 1
Tredegar Business Park
Blaenau Gwent Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 3rd, 2009
Energy Data Monitoring: results from a Passivhaus using no heat energy whatsoever, compared with results from a London Terraced House using occasional heating
Passivhaus and the Muse
The Muse, my home and also my office, was started on site in 2002 before I knew about Passivhaus techniques emerging in Germany; but together with Max Fordham we discovered an approach, unique in the UK at that time, that is almost identical to the Passivhaus approach. Wolfgang Feist, the founder of the Passivhaus Institute, has visited the Muse and announced at the AECB conference this year that he is keen to provide certification subject to satisfactory energy monitoring and careful checking of our PHPP analysis. So until our various other Passivhaus projects are complete, energy and temperature monitoring of my own house provides the best possible comparison of energy use with traditional housing in the UK. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin November 2nd, 2009
Centurion Magazine, written for American Express Platinum Card holders, has written a piece entitled ‘Ecotecture’. I think that this is probably a Good Thing.
Centurion magazine ecotecture.pdf
Bere Admin October 13th, 2009
Judges’ Special Award: Bere: architects
“Having scrutinised the entries in all categories the judges decided they wanted to make a special award to Bere Architects for their achievement across a range of competition categories. They have shown initiative and innovation in providing a local site that is also a national exemplar. They have turned their office into a test centre for sustainability as well as showing how an urban building can contribute to local biodiversity, and simultaneously have reached out to their local community, running a series of seminars for local groups to spread good practice in green building.”
Bere Admin July 30th, 2009
Hattie Hartmann of the Architects Journal says architects should be ashamed of their abysmal record on carbon emissions, 30th July 2009
This is an excellent article by a journalist who is getting fed-up with ‘greenwash’ about sustainability.
However, what is not picked out, and seems to be incredibly difficult for many people including architects to understand, is that you can get a low-carbon building that has frugal energy consumption, or you can get a low-carbon building that guzzles energy and burns masses of ‘zero carbon’ biomass. (Of course an incredibly frugal building that also uses a tiny amount of biomass in order to try to become zero carbon is not a bad thing at all but such buildings are extremely rare in the UK). Continue Reading »
Bere Admin July 18th, 2009
Sustain magazine published the following 4 page article in July 2009. This piece summarises my experiences so far and explains how the common house sparrow in particular, and the wren have benefitted at the beginning of the breeding season to what is on offer.
sustain article july2009.pdf
Bere Admin July 1st, 2009
Pictures taken by Getty Images of the arrival of my bees on July 1st 2009 caught the imagination of press around the world from the London Times to the Washington Post. Every little bit of help the bees can get is a good thing?
eveningstandard-beehive.pdf
telegraph-beehive.pdf
Bere Admin June 30th, 2009
Wolfgang Feist, founder of the Passivhaus Institute, teaches at AECB national conference, June 2009 and gives masterclasses at bere:architects
Wolfgang Feist came to the UK to provide a series of lectures over two days at this years AECB national conference at Oxford Brookes University. As a physicist and a university lecturer, his talks are always clearly presented and illustrated by graphs based on robust data derived from the monitoring of hundreds of completed projects around Europe and further afield. He explained the fundamental principles of Passivhaus design over a number of packed sessions. Even for those who were already familiar with these advanced techniques, there was much to benefit from hearing them direct from Wolfgang and to be able to hear the answers to questions from the audience.
After the conference, Wolfgang came to London where he spent a long day with invited guests at my home, the Muse. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin June 17th, 2009
In an ideal world the police would be impartial upholders of all fair and just laws; of course with the proviso that the legal system, based on logic and reason, can challenge unjust or outdated laws.
However many people who have experienced a burglary, a theft, injury by dangerous driving or been a victim of countless other crimes will have concluded that the police were too busy or disinterested or even incapable of helping. The usual reason given is that the police were too busy to cope. That is effectively an admission that cases are prioritised according to an agenda. But who lays down that agenda? Is it senior police officers or is it left to the conscience of the individual police officer? If anyone who knows would tell me, I would be interested to hear from you. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin May 17th, 2009
How Justin Bere’s rooftop native wildflower meadow provides important support for the local house sparrow population as well as evidence of the role of native planting in the support of a healthy ecosystem.
May 16th 2009: The local house sparrows have suddenly found my rooftop wildflower meadow very interesting. After the adults have fed themselves on sunflower seeds that they collect from nearby bird feeders, they have taken to flying over to the native wild flower meadow roof where they collect beak-fulls of insects and fly off, presumably carrying them to their fledgling chicks. I have noticed that the sparrows are most interested in the Common Vetch native wild flower which is abundant on the roof thanks to ecologist and green roof expert, Dusty Gedge’s planting advice. Close inspection shows that the Common Vetch is host to an abundant supply of huge juicy aphids; one of the favourite foods for baby sparrows, and essential for the survival of the first of the season’s brood of chicks. Further research (below) indicates that Common Vetch is known to be unusually attractive for aphids and that by supporting healthy aphid populations, the Common Vetch in turn supports the declining house sparrow population. I believe that this may indicate a strong link between native Common Vetch and a healthy sparrow population. It also suggests more broadly that green roofs planted with native wildflowers may provide a particularly high level of support for native ecosystems that may not be immediately obvious to many green roof specifiers. Continue Reading »
Bere Admin April 29th, 2009
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/green-roofs/klinkenborg-text/1
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/green-roofs/cook-photography
We lifted 20 tonnes of soil on to the green roofs of the Muse with our own hands and the result, photographed last June, only four months after planting, has contributed to National Geographic’s feature promoting the use of green roofs on buildings for environmental and ecological reasons.
Again I give thanks to Dusty Gedge for advising me on soil design and procurement, as well as native wildflower meadow planting and arranging monitoring to measure the growth in biodiversity.
Bere Admin April 27th, 2009
The native Solomon’s Seal grows in shady conditions beneath trees and its flowers are loved by bumblebees that don’t mind hanging upside down to get at the nectar. Hazel trees overhead form a coppice which shades the native underplanting of wild flowers, working well for a broad range of wildlife from insects to birds. The Dog’s Mercury groundcover, a signifier of ancient woodland, has spread underground after an unpromising start last year and this spring has popped up all over the ground beneath the hazel coppice. I am appreciating Kim Wilkie’s brilliant landscape planting design more and more for its delightful concentration on shades of green and foliage texture on the larger scale and delicate detail and support for biodiversity at the smaller scale.
Solomon’s Seal with flower buds Continue Reading »
Bere Admin April 24th, 2009
“…this ship, relaunched in 2007, has taken a hike in class and has taste oozing from its portholes. The design is sleek and sexy and the food is great…Views are peerless, so don Audrey Hepburn shades or brush up your Cary Grant drawl, and get aboard.”
Bere Admin April 23rd, 2009
