This Big City

This Big City in Conversation with Bonnie Wong

Bonnie Wong - an independent consultant who makes enterprises investment ready, with an equal interest in sustainable development - recently met with This Big City for a coffee in east London. Sustainable developments and the role of communities in planning were just a few of the topics that emerged in conversation:

Bonnie Wong: I work for private sector clients, and they have access to a lot of assets, they do stuff quickly and they’ve got their processes down. I’m trying to take a bit of that into the social enterprise, not-for-profit sector, trying to get them to move a bit more…

This Big City: Efficiently? There is a lot to be said for that, because these private sectors do that so well. They’ve refined their working methods almost to perfection, and that level of organisation between divisions could be utilised well in start-up social enterprises.

A Sustainable Future for Suburbia

London, like many of the world’s cities, is a city of suburbs. With a population density of around 4,795 people per square kilometre, it is less dense than Tokyo, Paris and New York. In fact, despite having a similar population size, London’s 8 million people occupy a massive 1,500 square kilometres, more than twice as much land as New York’s five boroughs.

Sustainable Housing Done the British Way

Would you like to be the proud owner of a sustainable home designed and built in Britain? Then look no further than Cub Homes, who are currently exhibiting at this year’s Grand Designs Live in London.

These modular homes, available with 1, 3 or 5 bedrooms, have been designed to easily reach Level 5 of the British Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes, with Cub calling them ‘a solution to carbon neutral living.’

By creating an extremely airtight and well insulated design, the homes keep heat loss to a minimum, and if implemented with solar paneling, fuel bills could be as little as £56 ($82) a year. The homes are so eco-friendly they even qualify for local government grant schemes. The basic model costs £88,000 ($129,000) with the 5 bedroom, fully equipped solar model costing £260,000 ($381,000).

2010 Skyscraper Competition Winners Announced

Yesterday, eVolo magazine announced the winners of their 2010 Skyscraper Competition, an award that aims to ‘discover young talents whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.’

The nine jurors selected 3 prizes and 27 special mentions out of 430 entries from 42 countries, and considered factors such as globalisation, sustainability, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution when making their considerations.

The First Prize went to Malaysian Architecture students Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze, for their prison in the sky, pictured above. Inmates would live in a free and productive society with farming and factories supporting the world below. It’s an interesting idea that seeks to totally re-imagine the prison system, and even though the logistics of creating such a system are pretty unfavourable, the judges considered this the strongest entry.

Second place went to a water purification tower from Indonesia, and third went to a skyscraper that changes form depending on climate, from Japan. Head over to eVolo’s competition page for more about the winners and special mentions.

Shipping Affordable Housing to the Masses, via Phoenix

Part 4 in the Series ‘Reimagining Shipping Containers’

By reusing shipping containers, Phoenix-based design firm Upcycle Living have created a modular housing system which costs 2/3 less than a traditionally built home, and with prices starting at $100,000, property ownership could become a more achievable goal for many.

Their 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom model is made up of four 40-foot shipping containers, and contains 1,280 square feet of space. Sustainability is a key factor in the design, with recycled flooring, bamboo cabinets, and energy efficient appliances all present in their first model. More advanced environmental features, such as solar panelling, will be introduced in later models.

As the above image shows, there is plenty of space inside, but the design is nothing spectacular. This is probably why, despite being suitable for mass housing and having already received some private orders, their primary focus is the provision of temporary buildings in disaster zones, and one off public buildings, like their proposed press box and locker room at Grand Canyon University.

Video courtesy of Angela Hardison on Vimeo.

Converting a Victorian House into a Bright Green Home

Most Victorian terraces are known for being cold, draughty and expensive to heat, and as reducing the pollution generated by our homes becomes an increasing priority, these buildings are at serious risk.

With that in mind, Greentomato have set about improving the energy efficiency of this Victorian property in London. Their six month plan includes a loft conversion, super-insulating, triple-glazed windows, a green roof, rainwater harvesting, and some ‘major engineering works’, as well as making the building completely airtight.

Think that sounds a lot more than your average home improvement? Then you would be right. This epic conversion is a result of Greentomato’s goal to turn this property into a PassivHaus, an environmental standard which is difficult to achieve in a new build, let alone an historic property like this.

A PassivHaus uses less than 15kWh of energy to heat it per square metre per year, compared to a British average of 130kWh, which definitely applies to an old building like this. Once converted, the building will be home to Tom and Sophie Pakenham, who are both working on the project, and their baby Luke. They believe that:

Low-energy houses are not only much more comfortable living spaces than the old clunkers we live in now, but they also don’t have to look like a nuclear bunker.

Tom, Sophie, and the Greentomato team are hoping this build will show that the amount of work and cost involved in a PassivHaus conversion ‘is not all that much more than a normal whole-house renovation’, and other property owners will be inspired to improve the energy efficiency of their heritage homes.

Interested in following their progress? Check out the Greentomato blog which will be updated throughout the conversion.

Posts tagged with ‘sustainable’