Author: icwhy

The blackberries have peaked so a new school year must be round the corner.

Bursars trying to balance their books will continue to be challenged by high energy prices, so this week I’m dusting off the results from pilot studies we ran with five London primary schools a few years ago, in case they come in handy. A three-point summary: (1) it is possible to make substantial savings on school energy bills at little or no expense; (2) involving the whole school was recommended by site staff, was linked to increased savings and has a host of educational benefits for teachers and pupils eager for experiential learning; (3) the construction industry and academia could (and should) benefit from the data produced by students from KS2 onwards.

The project was nice: keen university students, fresh from their course, were paired with an experienced engineer or architect, to study a primary school, and quantify ways to make carbon and financial savings from energy efficiency measures and renewables. They also looked a little at wider issues like comfort. Some schools signed up for assemblies, educational workshops and meetings with site staff and teachers which appeared to make a difference to their subsequent energy savings. It made a huge difference to the ease of data collection for the students.

It’s a while since I taught in a primary school. I imagine that teachers are even more pushed for time these days. The project aimed to make recommendations which wouldn’t add to teachers’ workload. With that in mind, the simplest recommendation assigned two keen students as monitors to reset the classroom after each lesson so that the need for blinds-down, lights-on was assessed each day.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has tried this. Happy to share more insights. Do get in touch.

Below is my first attempt at an infographic (graphic designers of the world, I salute you and apologise for the small font, there is much to say on this subject).

Plants are not be a heatwave cooling strategy which can be up and running today but they are effective and have many highly-desirable co-benefits. Many shrubs and trees are best planted in the growing off-season we’re heading into, so here is a summary of some practical actions which can be taken in the coming months to guard against extreme heat in future years. The long game. Hopefully there’s something amongst the five for anyone fortunate enough to have agency over their home or to be designing for others.

With so many perks when plants are used to address overheating, I wondered why they aren’t used for this purpose more often. The benefits that come to mind, on top of their shading and cooling abilities are air-quality improvements, increases to sustainable drainage area, boosts to mental health, enlargements to biodiversity habitat, carbon sequestration and possible local food production (how about, a sense of collective endeavour?). So, why isn’t this currently very widespread? One barrier is that plants aren’t (yet) welcome in compliance testing for daylight, energy use or overheating. Funny not to include these tried and tested living devices for sucking CO2 out of the air in the battle against there being too much CO2 in the air. My guess is that plants have been seen as temporary, unpredictable, maybe unreliable. This is something we need to overcome quickly. Thoughts on this, very welcome.

LinkedIn Post

Finland’s successful Housing First national policy asserts that having a good quality home is the basis for the other aspects of life (health, education, relationships….) to go well. Without a decent home, it’s hard for the rest to follow. It makes sense. Radio 4’s Rethink recently covered social housing which discussed this idea, presenting a case study of a high quality social housing scheme. Its developer emphasised good daylight levels and larger-than-usual windows, as features of high quality housing design desired by residents.

We know instinctively that daylight is good for us physiologically and psychologically. There is growing scientific evidence to back this up, (how about this wonderful paper making a direct link between daylight levels in homes and feelings of happiness) . There’s also growing research regarding the positive difference to be made by other perks of ample glazing such as a good view and connection with outdoors.

A glazed area doesn’t need to grow much to increase natural light levels from adequate to good. With joined-up thinking and design work, floor plans, shading and glass-to-solid ratios can be optimised, concerns regarding overheating and heat-loss can be minimised. So, how can we encourage good daylight levels from ample, well-designed glazing to become the norm?

For starters, here are some inspiring examples of social (or affordable) housing employing larger-than-usual windows.
Unity Place
Appleby Blue Almshouse
Central Somers Town

What a treat it was to see and hear an old friend and colleague at the Architects’ Journal Daylight in Architecture Conference a few weeks back. Hearing the case for a renewed appreciation of the health benefits of daylight was music to my ears. Ruth Kelly-Waskett spoke persuasively on the history of light in homes and how electric lighting altered our age-old relationship with daylight and the outdoors.

With mounting evidence from diverse fields such as neurology, healthcare, education (the list goes on) all pointing at the necessity of a daily daylight dose, its time for a reappraisal of our relationship with natural light. This is particularly important given that the amount of time we are tending to spend indoors.

Daylight ranks third on the list of homeowners’ priorities after energy bills and space. So, it’s about time, daylight rose up the agenda of design priorities. Health concerns around overheating, with their immediate effects on the body, have been used to determine opening sizes to date. The effects of a lack of daylight are more insidious. With a little joined-up thinking, even if the Building Regs don’t require it (yet), it is possible to consider overheating, energy consumption and daylight in the round. This holistic approach is what makes “good daylight design” and is certainly to be recommended.