Buschow Henley’s St John’s Therapy Centre, Clapham procured through NHS LIFT

Source: BD 16 Feb 2007

Green homes crisis

Two thirds of local authorities admit they are ‘not ready’ to deliver zero-carbon targets
An exclusive BD survey has revealed a planning system in meltdown, with two out of three local authorities not ready to deliver the green homes promised by the government.
Just six weeks before the introduction of key legislation, the findings show huge inconsistencies across the country, alarming gaps in knowledge and skills and a feeling of impotence among planners, many of whom called for stronger guidance from central government.
Some senior planning officers were not even aware that Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes would be mandatory on publicly funded homes from April this year.
Even more worryingly, 16% of authorities surveyed said they were still not meeting the regulations on energy efficiency that are already in place under the new Part L, introduced a year ago. Level 3 of the code is 25% tougher than this.
Other findings show that two out of three local authorities do not impose sustainability standards on planning applications for new housing over and above the statutory minimum, despite strong encouragement from bodies such as the GLA and BRE. And only one in four plans to enforce a level of the code on private residential development from April.
Shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman said: “What concerns me about the findings of this survey is that local authorities have not had the proper support, guidance and direction they need from the centre. This suggests the government’s commitment to delivering energy efficient homes is merely skin-deep.”
The Department for Communities & Local Government defended its position. A spokesperson said: “The code is a voluntary standard. As such there is no requirement for local authorities to enforce it. We will continue to work closely with them over the coming months to raise awareness of the code, to explain exactly how it affects them, and how they can use it.”
But planners told BD they would be unable to deliver the government’s zero-carbon target without strong legislative backing.
“It will be difficult to achieve because it will require a significant culture change for builders, designers and customers,” said one local authority in north-east England. “Primary legislation may be the only means of achieving zero-carbon development.”
The Town & Country Planning Association’s director of policy Robert Shaw urged planners to take responsibility for implementing sustainability standards. “We all have to take responsibility for this. It’s been in the pipeline for two years,” he said.
“It’s a big job to make sure everybody is geared up for this, but a lot of it is not new, a lot of this is good practice. The urgency of climate change dictates the speed at which we do things, that’s why we need to move so fast.”
Amanda Baillieu Buiding Design February 16^th 2007.

The Code for Sustainable Homes will be mandatory for publicly funded housing from April. Initially voluntary for privately funded developments, it will be mandatory for all new homes from April 2008. The code sets minimum standards for energy and water efficiency, promotes renewable energy, and most importantly, does not allow improvements undertaken in one area to be traded against lower performances in another.

Chancellor Gordon Brown
   

Insurers warn on storms

Herzog & de Meuron buildings hit
The Association of British Insurers has warned that new buildings need to be designed to withstand increasingly severe weather conditions after storms caused £400 million of damage across the country last week.
Buildings — including Herzog & de Meuron’s Tate Modern and Laban dance centre — were prominent casualties of the storm after they were unable to withstand high winds thought to be an early sign of major climate change.
A spokesperson for the ABI, the trade association for insurers, said: “We are encouraging the government to look at how the climate will change in the future and how developers and designers should respond. We need to face the problem now: make sure no new buildings are built near flood plains, and that they are designed to resist the high winds and heavy rain expected.”
Heidi Ancell  Buiding Design 26 January 2007

A view down Call Lane terminates with an interesting glimpse of the building.

As you may be aware the Stokesley office is having a re-design of the toilets and the ‘Toilet Team’ (myself, Eamon and Tom) have accepted the challenge to produce a fantastic design. Therefore, if you have any suggestions, improvements or anything which you think we must include ie. a fold down bed…..then let us know!

CABE has produced yet another report slamming the quality of housing in this country. The document makes the specific claim that 82 per cent of new housing built over the last five years fails to measure up on design quality.

The new Housing Audit is, CABE claims, the first complete analysis of the design quality of new homes nationwide.

It examines samples from the largest-volume housebuilders in the Midlands and South West, and integrates this analysis with data from the six other regions of England.

The result of this study is savage. Less than one in five developments were assessed as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, and 29 per cent were defined as so poor they should not have got planning permission in their current form.

Commenting on the results, CABE boss Richard Simmons said: ‘The government has put design quality at the heart of planning policy and the housing minister has called for a revolution in housing design.

‘But everyone in the industry has to take responsibility – planners, developers and designers alike. As it stands, consumers are getting a raw deal when it comes to the design of new housing.’

by Ed Dorrell AJPLUS 08022007

An unexpected alliance between house builders and the Prince Charles-sponsored Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment was announced this week that sees most of the industry’s big names queuing up to have their developments officially ‘recognised’ by the foundation as meeting its traditional design principles.

The Home Builders Federation said it had entered into a joint commitment with the foundation to promote design principles pioneered at the Prince’s Poundbury development and would be working to promote these principles among mainstream house builders.

Most of the biggest names in housing – Barratt, Bovis, Bellway, Redrow, Persimmon, Bryant, Berkeley and others – featured on the first recognised list of 11 schemes this week, with locations as varied as London’s Swiss Cottage and a retirement scheme in Cupar in Fife.

Hank Dittmar, chief executive of the foundation, explained that the recognition of these schemes amounted to the setting of a benchmark for the best of UK housing design. A statement from the Foundation added that this benchmark would form the basis of an industry-wide programme of design education to be delivered through the Home Builders Federation – you have been warned.

[RIBA Practice Bulletin No. 383]

Is the tide finally beginning to turn in favour of design quality considerations in public sector procurement? Recent events suggest that design is moving up the agenda: new Treasury guidelines for clients are on the way that will put a far stronger emphasis on design appraisal, and this week the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee threw its weight behind a greater weighting for design in PFI projects – very much in line with the RIBA’s Smart PFI model.

The Public Accounts Committee’s report was concerned with the debacle of the Paddington Health Campus and concluded that the inadequate business case for the PFI project should never have been approved until sufficient design work had been completed.

RIBA President Jack Pringle addressed the committee last year, explaining how Smart PFI could have avoided many of the problems that dogged the project. Speaking this week, he said he was delighted with the committee’s support for the RIBA position and for the positive response that the proposals have now received from Treasury and the Office of Government Commerce.

Meanwhile RIBA Vice President for Practice Richard Saxon reports that a new supplement to the Treasury’s Green Book, effectively the rulebook for public sector procurement, will be published in the spring that will require projects to justify themselves in terms of operating costs – minimum ten years – as well as headline capital costs. Environmental impact, in terms of carbon emissions and water use, will also have to be taken into consideration.

Inevitably these demands can only be met through appraisals of more advanced design submissions.

Saxon, who sat on the working group that looked at the whole life cost approach to project value for the Public Sector Construction Clients Forum, says the supplement will reinforce the design aspects of the Gateway Review stages that must be completed during procurement.

The new Gateway Review scenario readily falls into line with Smart PFI in terms of ensuring that the client has an affordable and acceptable design concept before going to the market for a contractor.

[RIBA Practice Bulletin No. 383]

Wall protection needn’t be boring… be inspired by the hungry caterpiller!