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News Release from: Working Architecture Group | Subject: Near-zero carbon house in London
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 March 2007
WAG to build low carbon house
WAG (The Working Architecture Group) have been granted planning permission for a new build two bedroom, near-zero carbon house in Homerton, East London.
WAG (The Working Architecture Group) have been granted planning permission for a new build two bedroom, near-zero carbon house in Homerton, East London The project, one of three that WAG currently have on display at the Building Centre's 'Sustainable London' exhibition, should be completed on site by the end of summer 2007
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 16 Feb 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Jon Goodbun, director of WAG comments "This is a great project for us, our first new build house project in London, and a scheme that inter-connects many of the research questions that we have been working on in recent years, in both teaching and practice.
These include incorporating the use of CADCAM technologies into building production; integrating IT media and intelligence into the building use; working with pattern; and developing a modern architectural expression of holistic ecological thinking by integrating urban and media ecologies, natural and environmental systems, and what the philosopher-anthropologist Gregory Bateson described as "ecologies of mind....finding the pattern that connects...".
"This new near-zero carbon home will be constructed using a prefabricated structural timber panel system from Germany.
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This solid timber system not only saves around 25 cubic meters of CO2 ,which would have been pumped into the atmosphere had a more energy intensive material been used such as concrete or steel, but the wood itself also takes 23 cubic meters of CO2 out of the atmosphere, storing it in the house.
The prefab system also has practical benefits as well as being the most sustainable solution".
"The site, which is currently occupied by two garages adjacent to a Victorian terrace, is very tight, with no space for storage of materials, site offices etc, making a traditional construction process difficult and costly.
However, by using this system, once the existing garages are demolished and the basement excavated, the main body of the house can be craned into position and built in a matter of days".
The house is organised with the bedrooms and bathroom sunken into the lower ground and the ground floor, as recommended by the BRE for energy efficiency reasons and the Fire Brigade for safety reasons.
The main living spaces are on the split level first floor.
A lower lounge area faces onto a vertical slot of bamboo garden that drops through the house, allowing natural ventilation through the building.
A glazed roof panel can slide open to transform the lounge into an open courtyard.
Wrapping around this area are the dining and kitchen spaces, which open onto a semi-external staircase leading up to a roofscape that combines a green grass lawn, the retractable glass window, and solar water heating panels.
Tanks in the basement deal with rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling.
Sensors within the house will control the internal environment through controlled passive heating and ventilating systems (opening/closing windows and blinds).
The facade of the building is a perforated timber cladding system.
Fields of small apertures create spectacular internal lighting situations, and help to create a sense of privacy for the ground floor bedroom facing the street, whilst making the building impossible to break into.
On the front facade the timber cladding is more articulated and textured in places by CADCAM milling some details into the timber and incorporating CADCAM generated terrazzo mouldings.
These techniques have been prototyped by WAG on previous jobs, such as Central YMCA and Kenworthy Rd, and in numerous workshops with students, supported by the Concrete Centre.
The Working Architecture Group (WAG) is an architecture, design and research practice founded in 2002 and is led by Jon Goodbun, Filip Visnjic and Cordula Weisser, whose interests range from urbanism and ecology to architectural furniture and computer aided manufacture.
The architectural research that WAG has been involved in, produced through teaching, writing and built practice, enables the practice to articulate, explore and develop the core aims and values of their clients in interesting and powerful new ways.
Based near Spitalfields Market, in East London, WAG's portfolio includes residential, retail, exhibition, bar and branding projects.
Clients have included BBC, YMCA, German Embassy and British Museum.
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