Week 7

Activity 7.3 - Building design near you

A building or part of an urban landscape that indicates a design that is adapted to a changing climate.

A well-known building that has been adapted to a changing climate is the former Ovaltine Egg Farm in Kings Langley, Herts, WD4 8LR. In 2002 the farm buildings were converted into headquarters offices for Renewable Energy Systems Ltd. (RES)



The building is now known as Beaufort Court, and as you would expect, the conversion incorporates a number of features which adapt it for climate change.

A comprehensive description of the building can be found online, but the main features are:

Energy generation

225 kW wind turbine (visible from M25 motorway)
54 sq m of hybrid photo-voltaic / thermal (PVT) panels
116 sq m of solar thermal panels.
5 hectares of 'Elephant Grass' to fuel biomass boiler in winter
75m deep borehole for cooling in summer

Energy storage

A large underground seasonal heat store allows heat generated from the PVT and solar thermal panels in the summer to be used later during cold weather.

"Greening"

The inner office areas are covered by a grass roof
Boxed Hornbeam trees in front of windows provide shade in summer, and allow light into office during winter.

Activity 7.8 - Reflection

Week 7 covered three main themes:

1. The huge variety of factors that must be considered when designing new buildings to survive through expected climate changes, and even more when looking at making existing buildings more resilient
    
2. Advantages of bottom-up approaches for gaining acceptance of renewable energy systems which change the appearance of familiar landscapes and buildings, compared with top-down approaches which generate resistance to change
    
3. An example of "carbon budget" approach, whereby everyone in a locality can see how their own actions contribute to reducing carbon emissions.  I think this approach can be usefully applied where I live.

Clearly, mastering all the aspects of building for climate change is obviously a lifetime career!

I hadn't realised the extent of UK government efforts which stem from the Climate Change Act of 2008, such as individual Departmental Climate Change Adaptation Plans, Energy Roadmap to 2020, Technology Strategy, Building Regulations & materials, Planning guidance, and so-on. I wonder how well these plans have survived under the government's austerity programme.

As someone who suffers more than many from cold, it hadn't occurred to me that keeping cool in summer is likely to be more important than keeping warm in winter.

I was puzzled why there seem to be relatively few campaigns against wind turbines in our local area. On a recent flight over Portugal we could see large numbers of turbines on every hill, and I was told that 70% of that country's energy demand is no met from renewable sources.

However, our area is relatively flat and average wind speeds are below 7m/sec, which seems to be a critical factor, so there aren't many locations where turbines are financially viable around here. The turbine at Beaufort Court shown above may have been approved because it is near the motorway, rather than "beautiful unspoilt countryside".

Particularly useful documents this week are the Design for future climate and Beating the Heat, and the Guardian article by Rebecca Willis on developing the Lake District's carbon budget.