d. building beautifully: placing craftsmanship alongside architecture and urbanism in new urbanism

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12th June 2009

Building Beautifully: The Low Carbon of CraftBen Bolgar

Director of Design

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80% CO2 reduction with 3 billion more people !?

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Decoupling GDP & Consumption from Environmental Impact

Source: European Commission, 2005.

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When resource/carbon consumption becomes capped how will industry/habits change?

Activities which take longer with lower impact and greater satisfaction will occur

Low consumption entertainment –

sports Low consumption building -

crafts

Possible cultural and cognitive shift

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Green Building

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What can be learned from Traditional Construction?

1. It’s simple (solid wall) and transferable (self-build to industry)2. Materials often sourced locally – organic and reusable/recyclable3. The core is straightforward leaving time for architectural detail4. Usually based on high thermal mass5. The materials tend to get better with age 6. They degrade elegantly helping to sustain value7. The details are designed to be practical and beautiful (evolution)8. They are easy to patch and repair (by non specialists)9. They don’t rely on fast track production that may have built in

redundancy (non availability of components)10. They are generally non toxic (with exception of lead!)

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What’s wrong with it?

1. Slow to construct and labour intensive2. Sometimes heavy use of materials – stone/brick3. Excessive heat loss through wall and air gaps4. Acoustically poor 5. Limited by small spans6. Can be high maintenance

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Elegant long term solution?

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Organic, simple and thermally enhanced

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BRE House precedent – paired houses

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BRE House precedent – paired houses

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BRE House precedent – paired houses

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Organic, simple and thermally enhanced

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The Art of Land Platting

1 yard = 3 ft = 0.9144 m1 rod, perch, or pole = 25 links = 16.5 ft4 rods = 1 chain1 chain = 4 rods = 66 ft = 100 links 10 chains = 1 furlong1 link = 1/100 of surveyor's chain = 7.92 inches 25 links = 1 rod = 16.5 ft 100 links = 1 chain = 66 ft 1 furlong = 10 chains = 1/8 mile = 220 yards = 660 ft = 201.168 m8 furlongs = 1 mile 1 mile = 80 chains = 320 rods = 1,760 yards = 5,280 ft = 1,609.344 mleague = 3 statute miles = 4,828.032 m

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Convert that to housing

•1 chain = 4 rods = 66 ft = 100 links

•60-66ft gives 4 houses at 5m wide or 3 houses at 6.7m widei.e. 4 no. 2-bay houses or 3 no. 3 bay houses

•Platting by multiples allowed for roughing out at right stage in process

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The Modern System – Platting on a 30m (15m module)

Housing options on 30m land plat:

•6 no. 5m wide houses – 2 bay terrace•5 no. 6m wide houses – 2 bay/paired houses•4 no. 7.5m wide houses - 3 bay terrace/ 2bay alley•3 no. 10m wide houses - double fronted/mews•2 no. 15m wide houses - double fronted/flats

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The Modern System – Platting on a 30m (15m module)

Block options on 30m land plat:

•45 x 60m small alley block•60 x 75m medium alley block•75 x 90 m large alley block

•Squarer blocks for parking courts of large blocks of 120m length may be appropriate for lower densities

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Blocks giving a well over-looked public realm

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A diverse set of ‘Streets, Squares & Crescents’

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Liverpool Road residential with set-back

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Liverpool Road residential closer to centre

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Grand street of large paired houses

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Normal terraced street

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Residential Street with Pub on axis

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Lonsdale Square

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Bla

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Gibson Square

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Bla

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Barnsbury Square

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Part 3 Deck of Spatial Composition Cards