... news, views, comments and events with a focus on sustainability, collaborative working, built environment improvement and its connectivity to the natural world.
ALL new homes built from 2013 onwards will have to be carbon neutral and emit no harmful greenhouse gases, the Irish Independent has learned.
Solar panels, woodchip burners, wind turbines and triple-glazing windows will become standard features on new housing under ambitious plans outlined by Environment Minister John Gormley yesterday.
Mr Gormley plans to change the building regulations so that “passive” housing becomes the Irish norm. Tougher regulations will also apply to office blocks and other developments.
Swan Country Homes recently won a national competition with it’s design for a zero carbon Urban Village for Restormel Borough Council as part of the Urban Village Phase 2 in St Austell, Cornwall. Planning permission has been granted and construction is underway.
The scheme which will encourage inclusive community living will provide affordable homes that have low environmental impact by minimising harmful carbon emissions. The development will comprise 19 units, 6 lifetime houses and 13 one and two bedroom apartments plus an area of community space.
Industry experts believe IT groups have been slow to go green because of the disconnect between IT and facilities management – FM manages energy cost and availability, while IT’s focused on computing needs.
Is this an FM issue, an IT one or a missed collaborative opportunity? Increasingly it is the facilities management measured on energy performance and efficiency, but IT who have a big input to energy usage.
A few points are raised here, in addition to the energy costs
Cost of providing energy systems and designs to deal with non green IT
The building centric Facilities Managements approaches, rather than a organisational-centric one.
With the future of green IT being in cloud and saas developments - (see ExtranetEvolution) how will the fm sector deal with this, indeed how will this affect the design (building and M&E) of todays and tomorrows buildings
It’s actually about people making things together. What’s going to come out of this is cities and intention and collaboration and community, because the capability this thing provides is mysterious in the degree to which is allows people to do things together.
This quote from Philip Rosedale Linden was the turning point in Second Life’s beginnings.
I had heard this before but was reminded from the Really blog in their story on I am in your web browser. - a great title for a blog!
By the way did you know there are avatars virtually present on your websites, your homepages, as you view them, chatting amongst themselves?) I can see a couple of weblins below - weird and uncanny but a glimpse of Web3.0 perhaps? If you happen across a weblin called Snape do say hello
The presentation for my recent Route2Zero event for No Limits (Constructing the Future @ Elevate East Lancs) is available here: No Limits Route2Zero. The pdf is more print friendly than the actual slides used, with the images removed to reduce the size of the file. Also the reference for the Transition Town movement discussed on the evening is included.
Organisations looking to sign up to the No Limits Route 2 Zero programme should contact Donna at No Limits directly.
If anyone is looking for route2zero images please contact me directly.
I have watched the excellent Maybe climate change videocast by the Auctons through Green TV on my ipod over and over again many times this week. The images and music are simply great - keep with the video for images of cities, floods, eco build and homes and more…. and be inspired…. maybe I should use as an debate opener in my workshops.
A line-drawing short film designed to inspire people to do something about climate change. This acclaimed song by Autons (from their debut album Short Term Manifesto) is a definitive environmental statement of the year. Directed by Yesca and supported by Undercurrents and Permaculture Magazine.
From the Auctons Livejournal: This video was made by Yesca for Autons song Maybe. You can pass this video link around to all of your friends. You can also show it to people and show it at events. All you have to do is say it is available under the Creative Commons licence.
Holding an improvement module event within a Walter Segal construction last Weds, introduced me to this concept of sustainability and gree construction. I also wonder why we dont hear more of it as an alternative approach to housing and other small non domestic construction. And with the concept being ’self build’ opens up a whole new approach to community involvement, eco towns and villages
From wikipedia:
The Segal method is based on traditional timber frame methods modified to use standard materials available today. It eliminates the need for wet trades such as bricklaying and plastering resulting in a light-weight methods which can be built with minimal experience and are ecologically sound. The roofs tend to be flat with many layers of roofing felt, which allows the creation of grass covered roofs. Foundations are minimal, often just paving slabs, the strength coming from the geometry of their construction. Segal houses have been compared to traditional Japanese houses.
A friend across in the US gave me the heads up on a job advert for an Integrated Construction Manager at Mortenson Construction . What made me look twice at the job specification was the inclusion of all the themes and issues that we discuss today, as being the way forward, themes of virtual design, BIM, integrated management, collaboration and joined up thinking with facilities management. A sign of the times or a glimpse into the future of construction management?
Extracts from the spec:
The IC Manager is responsible for providing input and leadership to the design and/or virtual design and construction process.
Coordinates design team members and Preconstruction services (i.e. estimating, scheduling, project planning, constructability, site utilization, etc.).
manages the integrated delivery team’s resources
Oversees the preparation of models for facilities management.
Facilitator of project collaboration and integrated delivery activities
and basic responsibilities:
Oversees the production and management of 3D models
Establishes the scope of work for projects
Establishes the schedule and deliverables for integrated delivery services
Oversees construction coordination
Communicates model generated information to project team
Implements 3D technology during construction
Participates in the research and development of new technologies
Internal training
Develops project BIM models
Attends, participates and presents at conferences
Manages others
Business Development support
May lead the Operating Group Integrated Construction team
What is missing of course is the green sustainability theme, but then some would say that is taken for granted today, a given that an integrated construction manager would build green. (Discuss!)
The UK Green Building Council has promised an open source sustainability code, to help address the confusion arising from the myriad of different green building standards with a new Code for Sustainable Buildings, joining in the debate / tussle between LEED and BREEAM.
Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK-GBC,: “Industry needs a clear and practical route map and milestones that are aligned with Government policy to give it the confidence and knowledge to move forward on a trajectory to 2019.
UK-GBC Chairman Peter Rogers , “The UK-GBC wants to see very wide take-up of robust and customer-friendly tools, and we believe that the standards at the heart of a new Code for Sustainable Buildings should be ‘open source’, meaning that such a Code could potentially be incorporated into a range of different tools, from a range of providers who could then compete in terms of service provision, without confusing the industry with different standards.”
The concept of open source, is to be welcomed, allowing the code to be incorporated into regional, corporate and community developments, and also allowing other standard bodies, building firms and consultancies to use elements of the code in their own green building guidelines. And it flies in the face of the more closed and commercial approaches from BREEAM and LEED
The final code, which is scheduled to be published in March next year, is expected to mirror the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes and as such, will feature wide-ranging rules and guidelines on the metrics and best practices builders should embrace to limit the environmental impact of offices, commercial properties and other non-domestic buildings.
Is there something else here,? Can codes, approaches, tools and technologies which in essence will improve environmental performance, carbon emissions, sustainability generally, and ’save the planet’ morally be closed and commercial. The emerging models of wikinomics, freeconomics etc must be applied to sustainability, where the economic model is built upon giving away free ‘lead’ products.
I would love to see much more open approaches with the built environment sustainability agenda using for example the creative common model.
Just as I read in the Guardian about European monsoons, Gridworks colleague Pam over in Illinois blogs on her Public Works site about dealing with water quantity and a one in 500 year event.
Questions to be asked of our storm drainage perhaps?
But discuss it we must, because talk of a “European monsoon” is increasing, not just due to this summer’s frequent cycle of deluges but last summer’s washout, too. Is a recognisable trend now occurring, whereby the prevailing westerly winds from the Atlantic, which weaken at the end of spring, pick up again at the beginning of June and bring with them wave after wave of rain-laden depressions that can last into July
