A guest post by freelance writer Will Jones
It’s all well and good claiming that your new office tower is sustainable or that the the Olympic stadium will be the greenest ever but when it comes down to it true sustainability and environmental construction is much harder to achieve. Your project has got to stand up and be counted on multiple levels; from the embodied energy used manufacturing, transporting and assembling its parts, to life-long power use and the pollution caused by occupants or visitors coming and going from the building. There aren’t many projects that can call themselves ‘green’ on all of these levels.
But then again I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t know of one. Tucked away in 45 acres of woodland in east Sussex is a new development of eight workshops. They are being built as you read this, and, once they’re finished seven new businesses and a local university will move in, creating a diverse work community that will hopefully be able to train and trade within itself as well as the ‘outside’ world.
This blog has now moved. Please visit Zerochampion.com and update your bookmarks
This blog has now moved. Please visit Zerochampion.com and update your bookmarks
This blog has now moved. Please visit Zerochampion.com and update your bookmarks
Now that all sounds nice and twee doesn’t it: but the real point of this project isn’t simply to 
provide shelter for a few small firms. Architect Stephen Johnson of the Architecture Ensemble, part of the TimberBuild in the South East of England, sees it setting standards for a reappraisal how truly sustainable architecture can benefit rural life and in turn how we can all profit from some ‘joined-up’ thinking.
But first, here’s how the project itself stacks up on the sustainable front. Breaking it down into easy to swallow chunks, let’s start with the embodied energy conundrum. Well, the buildings are built extensively from timber, locally grown timber that’s been harvested and processed in a local mill. Next, yes you’ve guessed it, a local carpentry firm is now manufacturing the frames and panels off-site and then they’ll be transported the small distance to site for assembly. The same local carpenters will assemble the buildings in just a few days. Getting to sound a bit Royston Vasey ‘local wood for local people’ aren’t I!
Environmentally, we are already doing well with the relatively small energy input but from a material perspective how do we fare? The timber is all from sustainable sources. The insulation in the walls will be wool from local sheep. Green power sources are being investigated at the moment and the whole site will be heated by an existing wood-fired heating plant.
Future sustainability will depend upon the firms taking up residence in the workshop units. However, local interest has already been high and it is expected that many of those working on the site will be folk from surrounding villages. Add to that, the forestry course to be taught from one unit and the site will be ‘growing its own’ future guardians.
This all sounds great but back to Johnson’s vision and the real value of the workshop project. In the 18th Century there were far more foresters than farmers throughout the UK. We were a nation of wood cutters. But, as we chopped trees down without bothering to replace them, they became fewer and so did work for the foresters. The Scandinavians still look at us with a good degree of bemusement – how did we manage to forgo our ‘roots’ and trade it all in to become farmers?
Anyway, the woodland that we have left is still a valuable resource but at the moment much of it is being neglected, quite literally left to rot. Johnson’s workshop project shows how we can utilise a resource which is close to hand and sustainable. What it also does is bring us full circle, back to managing our forests. If woodland is managed properly it can provide timber for construction and carbon-free fuel while still being a beautiful natural habitat for animals, birds, insects and us humans. A resurgence in timber construction techniques could also persuade farmers that they might plant trees instead of churning out mountains of EU subsidised wheat.
Britain, well rural Britain, will eventually become a nation of foresters again. Local industries will spring up from this old ‘new found’ resource and rural communities will thrive, where now they are slowly dying.
Wow, I got carried away there and a bit misty eyed in the process, but you get my drift, I’m sure. This project is what sustainability is all about. I know it’s not possible to work like this in every situation; we still have to build office blocks and hotels. But Johnson’s dedication to core values and enthusiasm to carry them through is finally paying off. He’s fought tooth and nail to make this project work just because he believes in its future. He’s cajoled and convinced clients and local authorities to believe in him and the ethics behind his project. If we can get other clients to think the same way every project can make its own difference.
Comments