Affordable Eco-Homes Winston Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship Senior Lecturer in Human Geography September 2011 Low Income Environmental Solutions
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Report by Dr Jenny Pickerill Affordable eco-homes Winston Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship Senior Lecturer in Human Geography September 2011 Low income environmental solutions Summary of key findings This is an initial report from an academic research project looking at Eco-building involves more than technical changes to construction; it ways we can make eco-housing more affordable. Its key findings are involves cultural shifts in how we consider our houses and homes. that: There are dynamic relationships between physical structures and indi- vidual behavioural practices, culture, history and place. We need both a technical assessment of materials and methods used, and a social assessment of people’s choices and decisions in There are many simple ways to make eco-housing more affordable, order to understand eco-housing. including: There is a diverse variety of eco-housing worldwide. The definition Reducing the size used in this report is that an eco-building minimises resource use (in Simple design and avoiding the use of unnecessary technol- construction and life-cycle) while also providing a comfortable envi- ogy ronment in which to live. The USA has a long-standing and established Designing affordability in at the start eco-building culture, whereas eco-building has only existed in Thai- land in the last decade. Designing in modular units so that a building can be extended at a later stage We already have the technical knowhow, and many working exam- Internal open plan design to enable maximum flexibility ples, to build resilient eco-houses in Britain. However, ecological Using the space between buildings building methods remain marginalised and often mis- Building collectively understood. Sharing common facilities and infrastructure Sharing the cost of the land Eco-building will only be adopted if it offers what peo- Avoiding the use of experts ple demand from a house and Participating in the debate about new planning regulations to that they can live how they ensure that eco-building is permissible. want to within it. Careful choice of materials Less durable houses The success of eco-housing is only as great as the behaviour Using pre-fabricated elements or existing structures of the people who live in it. Avoiding a purist approach Construction and technology Ensuring design is aesthetically pleasing cannot compensate for exces- A hybrid ecohouse at Lama Foundation, New Mexico Using hybrid combinations of materials sive energy use. Planning favours buildings which conform to existing styles and norms There remains a perception that building an eco-house is more and building regulations need to be negotiated. costly, whereas figures for the lifecycle costs of buildings have proved that in the long term they are actually cheaper. More invest- Eco-building is gendered in that is it perceived to be a male domain ment may be required upfront but it pays off in costing less to run where men are presumed to be better builders, more men than women throughout its lifetime. actually build and women find their ideas and contributions to eco- building are often belittled. Socially constructed notions of gender have Living sustainably has been associated with forgoing (doing without) determined that strength is the most important attribute required for many elements of contemporary life. However, a good eco-house is building, which is not true. actually more comfortable. The replication of eco-build techniques worldwide has less to do with It is not technology, or even politics, which is holding us back in whether the build actually worked or its cost, but is influenced by the building more eco-houses, it is deep rooted cultural and social con- less quantifiable factors of foreign importation of ideas, the appeal of ventions in how we live and what we expect houses to do for us. the aesthetics, open discussion of failure, a critical mass of support, Choices of building materials are made according to complex com- assertive pioneers, and people understanding how their existing houses promises between cost, local availability, skills and expertise re- work. quired, suitability for climate, ecological properties, maintenance Further research work is needed on how people understand their requirements and cultural attachments to certain forms. Thus eco- houses, how eco-build approaches are replicated, post-occupancy materials need to satisfy many criteria before they are adopted. evaluations and the cultural dimensions of eco-building. Affordable eco-homes Aims of research This report identifies the preliminary findings from a one year (March 2010 to March 2011) research project on Contact low cost eco-housing. The aim of the project was to understand how to encourage more affordable eco- Dr Jenny Pickerill housing in Britain by learning from examples at home and overseas. [email protected] The aims of the research were to: +44 (0)7964737994 Department of Geography Identify successful examples of low cost eco-housing University of Leicester across a variety of different environments and con- University Road texts. Leicester LE1 7RH Understand how such developments have overcome United Kingdom any problems they faced (such as planning, local resis- tance, finance, or using non-conventional materials). Green Building Blog: Identify common successful strategies in creating http://naturalbuild.wordpress.com/ affordable eco-homes which could be adopted in (contains reports on each case study) Britain. Personal website: The main focus of this work thus far has been on new www.jennypickerill.info builds and on small scale projects. It includes retrofitting, community and individual builds, radical and more con- ventional approaches. However, it does not include large-scale commercial or state-led developments. an eco-building minimises resource use (in construction and life-cycle) while also providing a comfortable environment in which to live Brighton Earthship, UK Defining eco-building What is affordable housing? The broad definition used in this report is that an eco- What is affordable greatly depends on average incomes building minimises resource use (in construction and life and what people expect to have to spend on a house. -cycle) while also providing a comfortable environment According to government criteria, affordable housing is in which to live. In other words, a good eco-building defined through a formula of local income levels and balances our need for comfort with ecological impact. local house prices. Its basic premise is that it should be An extremely ecological house that provides no comfort low enough for those on the lowest incomes to afford. does not satisfy our human need for a home. Determining what is actually affordable, however, is very difficult. Currently many people are unable to This can be achieved in numerous ways and there is a afford to buy a house, and others secure 25 years of breadth of approaches between buildings which use debt to buy one. technology to reduce their environmental impact and those which rely upon natural materials and a low im- This research starts from the premise that even bor- pact lifestyle. The more natural buildings can actually rowing three times your annual income for a house is have a negative carbon footprint because materials like not low cost housing (instead there are examples of eco straw actually store CO2. Eco-building thus requires -houses built for just £3,000). ‘Cheap’ housing should Peninsula Park Commons, careful consideration of location, materials, resource use, also not mean low quality. However, people might be Oregon, USA toxicity, durability, reclamation potential, biodiversity, prepared to pay a little more for a house which costs aesthetics, relation to community, and the ongoing dy- less to run and is good quality—increasing purchase namic relationships between people and their homes. costs to save on life-cycle costs. As such we need to continue to critically question what ‘affordable’ should actually mean and examine ways to create better low Page 2 cost homes. September 2011 What is wrong with current housing in Britain? High environmental impact: salary. Despite being average design. Traditional terrace houses not rapidly growing or declining) Housing – both in construction figures which hide the huge dis- are often dark and only have our household composition is and use – consumes significant parity in incomes and house small windows to the south. changing and there is increased amounts of energy and contrib- values evident across Britain, our demand for more single occu- utes at least 25% of all carbon houses are still very expensive Poor inflexible internal design: pancy dwellings. emissions in Britain. Of residen- and many simply cannot afford a Our houses have historically been small, but they are also Our houses are not built for cli- tial CO2 emissions in a house over house. Even if they can they are 50% is used for space heating and saddled with debt for on 25 restrictive internally. Few are mate change: The Met Office 20% for water heating. More- years average. open plan and instead have lay- predict that temperatures will over, the construction industry is outs which no longer suit con- rise in Britain with increasing responsible for one-fifth of total It is of poor quality and not en- temporary life. More than half a heatwaves and fewer frost days. UK waste. Despite lots of state- ergy efficient: As many as 20% of million people in Britain live in At the same time we will have led environmental housing initia- our existing houses are not ther- overcrowded conditions. increased rainfall, more intensive tives and legislation there has mally efficient in that they leak rain showers, a rise in sea level, heat. As a result we use a lot of Limited possibilities for retrofit- coastal surge events and more been a slow update of eco- ting: Although it would clearly be building. expensive energy trying to heat storms. In other words, we need them and many people suffer preferable to retrofit existing to be prepared for flooding, Our housing is very expensive: In from fuel poverty (when more houses rather than build anew, storms and heat.