Colin Powell

gcp visit Edinburgh

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It was back in 2020, when former director, Colin Powell moved to Edinburgh from Bath to fulfil a family dream of living in Scotland. A global pandemic, three years and many successful projects later a small group of the gcp team embarked on a mini-office-trip to pay him (and magnificent Edinburgh) a visit.

Our trip started early on Friday morning with a 7am flight from Bristol International Airport, landing us in Edinburgh just as the day was beginning to break. An atmospheric mist settled over the streets as we took the bus into the capital, finally splitting to cast glorious sunshine over the gothic city once brunch was over.

That first morning was for exploring – the Botanical Gardens, Modern Two, quaintly cobbled streets and an independent-makers-market inside a church were some of the sights taken in before we headed to our meeting place of Edinburgh Castle for a group experience.

We battled the crowds to take in the beauty of the sun soaked city from upon high. The breathless, panoramic views were worth being squeezed like sardines through the entrance and once inside the settlement it was peaceful with lots to look at.

There might have been a pint (or two) consumed afterwards in an quirky little pub and many thousands of steps clocked up on the step trackers.

Day Two started off with pastries and coffee (for those of us who didn’t have breakfasts at the hotel or AirBnB) and meeting Colin at the bottom of the Royal Mile, for a walk that started in a graveyard and ended in a café.

We took a meandering route, soaking up amazing views and the lovely streets of New Town. There were surprising pockets of nature to be discovered in the West End, all sprinkled with history, stories, anecdotes and interesting facts from Colin. We caught up as we walked, taking in what felt like an entirely different city to the day before.

Everywhere you turn in Edinburgh, there is something for your eyes to feast upon. Each street looks like it could be a scene in a film or the setting of a novel; I found myself saying “it’s beautiful, no this is beautiful” more times that I can count. With Autumn just at the edges of the trees and the weather zig-zagging between smokey skies and blinding sunshine, I felt like we really got the best it could offer.

After our tour we were armed with knowledge of the best bookshops in the city and filled with the most delicious toastie I’ve ever eaten it was time for a well-earned rest. Another 15,000 steps clocked in on the tracker, there were a few free hours (an amazing entrance-way in the National Portrait Gallery, yoga, a chapter of my book, a glass of wine) before we met again for a lovely dinner.

Colin surprised us all with some hand-thrown tea bowls (he has taken up pottery since moving to Edinburgh); and we finished the evening in a wine bar, chatting about our trip so far and sharing our go-to karaoke songs.

By Sunday, there was still more to do and by now, my fitness tracker was wondering if perhaps my watch had been stolen by someone who walks much more than I normally do. Today was Arthur’s Seat for some, bookshops, people watching and coffee for others. Signed-First-Editions, origami book pages, museums, galleries, parks, fountains, a fancy new shopping mall – we made the most of our last, long day, squeezing in as many of the sights as we could, before heading back to Edinburgh Airport for dinner and a late flight back to Bristol.

 

Barton Gardens, Sherborne, North West Dorset

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This site is the first for the construction of a terrace of three modular 3 bed houses, designed and fabricated by Rollalong Ltd, based in Dorset.

Rollalong Ltd are partnered with Magna Housing, to provide homes at infill sites in the local region.

The first phase of 5 sites are existing garage block plots, no longer deemed viable and ideal brownfield sites. These vary in size between 6 and 20 units.

Rollalong have developed the various house and flat types to be factory certified approved by NHBC.

The site infrastructure, drainage and external works, as well as the installation of the modular units in place, are by Fisher and Dean Contractors, based in Nailsea. gcp are providing support to Fisher and Dean, with site layout design coordination, external works, site based Building Control and planning conditions discharge.

New Homes for People in Pill

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Chapel Pill | Image prepared for Community Consultation

Chapel Pill | Image prepared for Community Consultation

A planning application has been submitted by gcp Chartered Architects on behalf of Pill & District Community Land Trust in partnership with Alliance Homes. We really enjoy the satisfaction of helping to realise the objectives of local community leaders, whose knowledge and passion for their local area is so instrumental in creating opportunities for affordable homes for local people. The site at Chapel Pill is in a sensitive location, on a steeply sloping site on the edge of the settlement. Achieving practical access for both cars and pedestrians, minimising visual impact, and enhancing natural habitats have been very real concerns. Opinion was split between those who opposed the development due to concern over impact on a sensitive green-belt location, and supporters who see the need for affordable houses in a community where it is increasingly difficult for local people to afford their own home. 

 

The project team have put a great deal of effort into understanding the context and constraints of the site and developing a solution to address these issues.  gcp’s design response creates a group of 14 high quality homes that are compact in form to minimise impact on the green belt, sensitively landscaped to bring biodiversity enhancements, and provide affordable homes with very low energy bills.

The Willows – Start on site

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We have been working with Curo for over 4 years now to develop 3 adjacent parcels of land in Lawrence Weston. The development will provide 57 new affordable homes across the site, formerly home to the Longcross pub, Holly House and Rockwell House. Last week we had our first site meeting where we finally met the Jehu team in person. It was also an opportunity for some members of the team to see the site in person for the first time!

Works have begun on the Rockwell site where the old care home has been demolished. My inner child loved seeing the diggers in action! Curo’s old office, Holly House, has now been stripped back ahead of refurbishment works to create accommodation for over- 55s.

It’s been a long journey getting here. The Willows, or as I know it Corbet Close, was one of the first projects I worked on when I joined gcp 4 years ago and several initial feasibilities had already been explored. Planning was finally approved in 2019 after an 11-month process. Being a newly qualified architect, I get very excited to see projects I’ve seen through from the beginning getting onto site. I’m looking forward to being back in 4 weeks’ time to see the progress. Esther Brown, Architect, gcp Architects

Bright new home at Clover Place, West Oxfordshire

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Such a pleasure to see Clover Place looking so homely! There is still work to do in the garden but the interior spaces are looking great.

Our clients wanted a home for the future: a home which could easily adapt to changing mobility, and a home with low energy demand. gcp designed the house to Passivhaus principles and with an adaptable internal layout to suit future needs. The interior is beautifully bright and will have a fantastic outlook over the garden once the latter is complete.

Our favourite spot? The window seat in the dining area, definitely.

gcp supported the client with this special project from initial conception right through to completion. We provided visualisations throughout the design stage to ensure we were correctly capturing the client’s vision. Following the award of the building contract to social enterprise Toolshed, gcp acted as Contract Administrator, bringing the build to completion.

If you are looking to build a low-energy home, please get in touch with us to see how we can support you!

Century Park - It’s been a long time coming! 

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We have been working with Curo Enterprise for over 4 years now to develop former Bristol City Council land in Lawrence Weston and provide 128 new homes. Last week we were finally able to see the project coming out of the ground! Although the view was fairly limited to ground beams, pipes and DPCs, it was a pretty exciting moment for me to see the scheme materialising.

The development is a mix of 2-, 3- and 4- bedroom homes alongside a small number of 1- and 2-bed apartments. The initial brief required us to provide a high-density housing solution without relying heavily on apartments, to create a marketable and affordable development. We were determined from the outset to design not only high-quality homes but also high-quality public space. The development features public open space with dedicated play areas as well as a trim trail; the layout of the terraces and design of surfaces create a safe and attractive community for all. The houses themselves are elegantly designed. We have used simple but sensitively placed brick and cladding details to bring vibrancy to the scheme.

Century Park is one of those special projects for me, having poured so many hours into the initial site planning, design development, community consultation, planning submission, technical design and now construction support. We are so pleased that the homes are already getting a lot of interest from buyers; I really can’t wait to see the final result. Sarah Makroum, Architectural Assistant, gcp Architects.

Fantastic progress on site at Clover Place, West Oxfordshire.

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Clover Place in West Oxfordshire is our first Passivhaus project constructed using the Beattie Passive construction system.  The house is progressing well on site and the main frame is now largely complete.  Externally the frame is enclosed in a weather-tight breather membrane and the roof tiling has commenced. Internally partitions are in place with the internal air-barrier membrane installed and services being installed.  It is good to see the form of the building taking shape and we will be excited to see the roof profile complete and tiled so that scaffold can begin to come down.

 

Building your house to Passivhaus standard: an interview with our client

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“Our energy bills have dropped by about 70% from the old house that was on site.”
— Client, Homelands Passivhaus, Dundry

gcp Chartered Architects were appointed by a private client to create a flexible 3-bedroom home to be certified to the Passivhaus performance standard. We have recently interviewed our client Roy and we are excited to share his experience below.

Hello Roy, I would like to thank you for taking the time to share your experience as a Passivhaus owner and answer our questions. I am sure most people would wonder when did you find out about Passivhaus and how did you decide that you would like to live in one.

Our main driver was to have a house that had the lowest possible running costs. We recognised this was going to mean some more investments upfront, but we were trying to think about the lifetime of the house, recognising it would outlive us. (A concept that was introduced to us when we attended a Passivhaus open day: a building should be designed to outlive its current owners!)

We were already familiar with the concept of Passivhaus as our friends in Switzerland live in a very airtight, super insulated house supported by an MVHR system. Triple glazing and several other features often seen in a Passivhaus design are commonplace in new builds in several parts of Europe and Scandinavia. So, although their house was not formally certified, it is a Passivhaus in all but name! It helped us to see some of the benefits first-hand and to consider the maintenance of running a Passivhaus, which was important to us, we did not want to build a house that was too complex to understand or live in.

Once the route of Passivhaus was decided, we went about gaining as much information as we could, visiting two other houses through the Passivhaus open days. We are hoping to support this going forward as it really helped us to see how Passivhaus would work in the UK.  I also read ‘The Passivhaus Handbook’ and pretty much everything else I could find on the internet to help us understand the choices we were making.

Once we had decided on the ICF system, I actually went and laboured on a couple of other house builds when they did their ‘pour days’ as you tend to need a few extra hands-on-deck during this part of the process. This was arranged through the local Nudura representative, the ‘pour days’ are when you fill the void created by the ICF with concrete – and lots of it. The main thing this taught me was not to underestimate the benefits of good preparation and having the site ready….and allow enough time to double check everything is really ready for the pour!

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Having reviewed the information you have shared in your blog, I understand that you have been actively involved in building your house. Was this an easy process? Would you like to share an insight to your experience?

Easy? No. Worth it? Absolutely!

I always knew I wanted to be hands-on and do more than ‘project managing’ and I am very lucky to have a brother who was able to take a break from his own business to come and live on site to help.  I say help, he brought the skilled labour to the build!

We did over 90% of the work ourselves, having only a couple of trades in over the whole project. This meant that I was aware of all the decisions that needed to be made and the interdependencies of certain stages. We drove the schedule for the work, so we set the pace.

Being hands on allowed me to really shop around for materials well in advance to get the best prices on everything that we could. The saving we had on some of the most basic building materials was massive, from big one-off items down to non-specialist products like screws and silicone.

My brother, Mark, is a carpenter by trade and so the ICF system was a perfect fit. Many of the worries of things like getting the corners square for the foundations were taken away as these came pre-formed from Isoquick for the insulated slab and from Nudura for the ICF system. So with the regular use of a laser level (well worth the investment to buy one rather than rent) and a trusty spirit level the walls went up quickly, true and square.

There was only one sleepless night, at the start of project, the night before the pour of the foundations into the insulated slab! I had done all the estimations for the concrete myself, having never done anything of this scale before.  It was the equivalent of 6 concrete wagons and I just hoped I’d ordered enough but not too much! Luckily, it turned out to be pretty much spot on.

Some of the more physically demanding work was the dry-stone render on the bottom half of the house. It took the two of us 6 months to do but we think the results are amazing and worth all the hard work.  

Living on site in the remaining half of the old bungalow really helped save money and time. It meant we knew the site was secure and we were never caught out with an early delivery or left hanging around at the end of a day. Also, in the evenings when I was ordering materials, I could pop back into the site to double check dimensions if I needed to. There was no commute in the morning, or at lunch time and on days when things were going well it was easy to keep going.

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How has living in a Passivhaus standard dwelling affected the quality of your life? Have you experienced a significant reduction in your energy bills?

To be honest it is very much what we were expecting – but I think that is because we had done a lot of research. A real positive is living in a house that is draft-free, it is hard to describe what it’s like to open a window and nothing happening. If we want to get the outside air in, on say a lovely sunny day, you need to open two windows otherwise nothing happens! It is a very strange experience.

We live close to Bristol Airport and have noticed less noise from the planes. We were worried the metal roof would have been noisy when it rained, especially with a vaulted ceiling inside, but it’s so well insulated, it has not been a problem.

Our energy bills have dropped by about 70% from the old house that was on site. Having 4.5KW of solar PV panels on the roof has significantly reduced our electricity use. We have also made some other adjustments of how we live to maximise the use of the PV when we are generated, like putting the dishwasher on in the morning rather than after dinner and doing an extra load of washing on sunny days.

Our hot water from March to October is heated by the PV panels and the house requires no heating over this period, so that is a great time of year for us. For the winter months, we have a log burner in the garage that heats a large thermal mass which tops-up the remaining hot water and heat requirements. We light the log burner once every 5 days, but this depends on the weather. When we have sunny winter days the windows on the south side of the house provide some amazing heat gain and the PV panels will also generate.

The other bill that we have seen drop has been our water bill. We decided to invest in a rainwater harvesting system and bury a 3,000-litre tank below ground. This tank serves the toilets and washing machine. It was a big upfront investment, but we felt it was easier to do from the start when we already had diggers on site than to try to retrofit in the future. Currently we are estimating about a 50% saving on our water usage.

Condensation was a real issue in our old house having to use the “window vac” every morning to clear the glass on the inside. Now we have a different condensation issue, in certain weather conditions it is on the outside as the glazing is so well insulated.

Another area where we have noticed a difference is in the bathrooms. Its lovely not having extractor fans running all the time to clear the steam and there is no mould build up, even on an internal bathroom. The MVHR monitors the moisture in the air as it extracts and just boosts the ventilation as and when required. This means all the condensations in the bathroom clears a lot quicker.

It is amazing to have a large open plan living, dining and kitchen area upstairs, which is always warm. To have such a large space warm all the time has been fantastic. Slightly cooler bedrooms downstairs is also a benefit of having ‘flipped’ our house from a traditional layout.

We are also able to confirm that MVHR units are not noisy, ours is located in a cupboard in the middle of the house and we do not hear it. Do not be put off by MVHR units, when fitted right, without tight bends in the ventilation pipe and when well supported and fixed, they make no noise at all.

A slightly strange benefit of such a well insulated house is that the large windows aren’t cold spots, so you have an even temperature throughout which means you can fully utilise the space.

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What do your friends and family think about your new home?

HAHA, usually shocked that we have actually done it!

No one can believe that we have our thermostat set to 21 and yet have reduced our bills.

Most of our friends and neighbours are stunned by all the stonework. We essentially built our house on bedrock so all the stone came out of the ground when we were digging the foundations, it would have been a shame to have not utilised it. It is a fascinating stone and changes colour in different lights, some days the house almost glows.

We have inspired at least one friend (that we know of) to want to live in a Passivhaus of their own one day. The most common question we get from friends who have experienced the Passivhaus for themselves is to ask why we aren’t building all houses like this. This is a very good question!

The only drawback we have discovered of the Passivhaus is that fresh cut flowers brought by visitors don’t last very long as the house is too warm. We have however found that blubs and other plants live very happily, and the warm house is great for germinating seeds on the window ledge! 

Having successfully completed this project, I am wondering whether you are planning to get involved into any other similar projects in the future?

Not just yet! While we have successfully gained Passivhaus certification and finished the house, there are a few more jobs in the garden to do before I can move onto something else. Covid has made sourcing materials very difficult and added some delays on these jobs, but once these are done, I will need to think about the next challenge. Either I will hunt out the next adventure or it will find me! 

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Last but not least, what advice would you give to someone who is considering building their house to meet the Passivhaus standard?

Over this journey we have gained loads of experience, some of which is specific to Passivhaus and some which is just general advice to self-builders.

  • For anyone wanting to build to Passivhaus standard, educating yourself before you start is critical, there is so much knowledge out there. The more information you know about the products on the market the easier it is to solve problems you encounter on route, for example understanding there are different (sticky) tapes for different jobs and who knew that ‘airtight expanding foam’ was a thing.

  • Airtightness should be considered at all points during the building process, you have to carefully plan each penetration of the Passivhaus envelope to know which products you are going to use to seal the holes you’ve just made. Getting an air-tightness test as soon as you have a dry Passivhaus envelop was something Colin recommended, and I could not agree more. It enabled us to find any points which were leaking and do remedial work to get the structure right before fitting the plaster board.

  • When using the IFC system, make sure you put in enough service ducting before pouring the concrete. It would have been really hard to drill through reinforced concrete. Having planned our service ducting, we were able to get services in easy, we even built in some redundancy and have a few spare for the future!

  • Talk to manufactures of Passivhaus products, their technical departments have been very happy to help and they usually want to make their products perform at their best. They generally got very excited to hear that we were building a full Passivhaus so often went out of their way to help. The Zehnder (MVHR) technical department have been very helpful with software updates and very patient when we have queries.

  • Another benefit of building to Passivhaus standard it that it really does stop you compromising on route. Along the journey it would have been very easy to have compromised and bought building materials which were ‘almost’ the same as the branded product, even though the U value was not quite right for Passivhaus standard. Or to swap out materials when they were not in stock. Having a clear goal of the standard you want to achieve really does stop you from compromising, but we have ended up with a warm home as a result.

Now moving on to the more general stuff for anyone who is considering building their own home.

  • At the start it was really important to consider how we wanted to live in the space and to challenge ourselves to not just replicate how you live today. We found marking out some of the early floor plans in full size, in a car park really helped us visualise and understand our future home and how much space we needed. We challenged everything to really make sure we didn’t live to regret some poor planning decisions. An example of this is where to put the washing machine, usually this goes in a kitchen or a utility room, but neither are near the laundry basket nor where you store clean clothes. The lack of radiators also meant traditional ways of drying clothes had to be reconsidered. Our machine now lives in a purpose-built cupboard under the stairs which also functions as our drying cupboard, neatly tucked behind a door out of sight.

  • From the start we considered how we would clean and maintain the property. We have gone for wall hung toilets to make cleaning easier and wooden floors which are quick to clean.

  • Having a brother who has done a lot of building maintenance in a previous job means he wanted us to have pipe rod points accessible under cupboards in case the pipes ever get blocked. We also have isolation valves on all taps rather than service valves, so if something happens you are not trying to find a screwdriver to turn off the water. On a less dramatic scale it means we can also confidently turn off the water to change the washer on a tap.

  • Living on site during the building process, meant planning and considering the lighting has been much easier. We have been able to come in at different times in the morning and evening and get a feel for the natural light. The lighting in the kitchen was something we manufactured ourselves as we were unable to find anything on the market that did what we wanted. We wanted both bright task lighting but also a warmer upplight. A friendly lighting rep brought us some samples so that we could play with different lighting effects.

  • When using LED lights, we considered where the drivers would be located when laying out the electrics, so they could be changed easily. The bathroom lights have the drivers in the machine room above, so they are easy to change in the future.

  • Really planning the electrics is again critical, we made a few unusual choices but are so pleased that we did. We realised that we would often sit at the dinner table with a laptop and did not want trailing leads to the wall so fitted a floor socket that we now use almost daily! We also fitted shaver points inside the bathroom cupboards for charging toothbrushes out of sight. The wardrobes and kitchen cupboards also have power points, which are really handy.

  • Early in the design stage we sat with Colin and worked out how to build in storage. Having an upside-down house means we do not have a loft space to hide things in, so we had to think differently. We have a lot of built-in storage with a large space under the stairs and large larder cupboards in the kitchen. In the porch we created a good-sized area for storing shoes and coats, so that these didn’t even need to come inside the actual house! The mirrors in our bathrooms hide yet more storage. For more outdoor stuff and gardening things we have a large undercroft under the garage. This was not part of the original plan, but once we discovered it was an option we jumped at the chance. It is also a prefect consistent temperature for storing our crop of pumpkins!

“We have inspired at least one friend to want to live in a Passivhaus of their own one day. The most common question we get from friends who have experienced the Passivhaus for themselves is to why we aren’t building all houses like this. This is a very good question! ”
— Client, Homelands Passivhaus, Dundry

End of year blog 2020

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A year like no other is coming to an end and I just wanted to say that, despite the numerous challenges presented to us, the whole team has responded magnificently demonstrating a deep-routed culture of mutual support and understanding. My thanks and appreciation go to you all. I have known for ages that it was all about the people and so I want to mention some of the ways that we have progressed as an organisation to put us in such a strong position looking forward to 2021 and the part that the individuals have played in that.

Everyone has developed a ‘teams’ persona whether it’s during a virtual rendezvous with genial GP ‘doctor’ Martin Spear, ‘cat juggling’ Esther Brown, ‘squeezed under the stairs’ whispering Michael Hanson or ‘wild man of the woods’ Jonathan Platt. Sometimes they all appear at once on screen like a mad version of University Challenge.

I thought some like borrowing the cool neutral background of a beautifully tasteful modern kitchen until I eventually realised that in Olia Kyritsi’s case it was actually her real kitchen.  Some like Tom Mellor, Tom Hubbard and Matt Andrews like fading out the domestic child strewn chaos in which they obviously live while Owen Faunt either has many rooms in his house or a different selection of bold wallpapers in each. Sarah Markroum looks as though she is just about to pick up an instrument and sing us a song and Matt Bonney has been sitting next to his match pot decorated wall for most of the year.

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Natalie Lock likes to share her domestic bliss with us occasionally interrupted by child or husband or both and recently we have been able to share the homes of Maria Steward, who’s husband lives, we now know, behind a door curiously located half way up the wall in her kitchen, or Siobhan Tarr who has brought the garden inside her house with her spectacularly green fingers.  James Pilling resides in his person shed in the middle of a building site with bike poised for an early morning spin whilst Jon Briscoe organises our every waking hour with benevolent decisiveness and our recently distanced genial voice of reason and wisdom Colin Powell looks over us and after us. 

What a dream teams team!

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This year really has been full of achievement. Financially we have, more or less, broken even which has been no mean feat on its own.  During a year when we have completed a refurbishment of the office, had to work in bubbles, incurred the considerable cost of converting the business into an Employee Owned Trust and set everyone up with the IT infrastructure to work fairly seamlessly from home or from Corum 2, this performance has been even more remarkable.

The year stared with James Pilling achieving a Part 1 Architectural qualification by distance learning with Oxford Brookes and ended with Esther Brown becoming a fully qualified Architect.  In the middle Sarah Makroum passed her first year of Part 2, again at Oxford Brookes and Own Faunt his first year apprentice Part 1 at South Bank University, both with flying colours.  Matt Bonney and Olia Kyrirtsi became qualified Passivhaus designers and Tom Hubbard became a certified Architectural Technologist.  Congratulations to you all.

Shout outs go to Michael Hanson for his tireless responses to your never-ending technical queries and Michael again with Tom Mellor for masterminding the IT development and eventual delivery of a VOIP telephone system.  Don’t ring us ( and expect to get transferred ) we’ll ring you back!  Lastly a big mention for Esther Brown, Natalie Lock, Matt Bonney and James Pilling for boosting our social media presence to the status of influencers – who would have believed it!

And then there was the actual work!

Happy Christmas to you and yours and I look forward to eventually meeting up with you all in 2021.

Jeremy Pilling

2020 Favourites: Homelands, Dundry

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“It was really satisfying to have achieved Passivhaus certification for these lovely self-build clients, who put so much into building their home and achieved such a high standard of finish and detailing. It is a real pleasure to work on projects like this where the end result is all you hoped it would be.”
— Colin Powell, gcp
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We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Colin has chosen Homelands Dundry, a private dwelling which was a self-build to Passivhaus certification.

Passivhaus Interview: Designer Colin Powell

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Above: 5 Passivhaus principles

gcp Chartered Architects have been developing their expertise in Passivhaus since 2011, when Colin Powell became one of the first Certified Passivhaus Designers in the area of South West.

We asked Colin to tell us more about his journey towards Passivhaus design. He busts some of the myths surrounding design and talks openly about benefits of living in a home designed to this standard.

What lead you in developing your passion for low-energy design and becoming one of the first Certified Passivhaus Designers in the area of South West?

From my first trip to the Centre for Alternative Technology in the early 80’s I have always been interested in alternative approaches to sustainable living and felt this was something Architects should actively promote. Later in my career I was able to study for an Msc in Environmental Design of Buildings and I started to find out about Passivhaus. I liked the way this cut through to an essential part of sustainable design – creating very low energy buildings – in an approach that was both rigorous and rational. I believe that architects should take a lead in this fundamental requirement for modern buildings as we are in a unique position to support clients to make informed decisions on these issues.

Has your opinion about the Passivhaus standard changed, having designed Passivhaus projects yourself?

No. I have continued to learn through our project work and some of the lessons have been hard, but I still think Passivhaus is a good standard and should be more embedded in statutory requirements such as planning and building regulations.

Is there a growing demand from clients to explore methods of low-energy design? If so, do you always recommend exploring the Passivhaus standard as an option?

I think there is a growing interest again, especially with so many local authorities having declared climate emergencies and recognising the part Passivhaus can play in meeting the challenges of zero-carbon buildings.  Just using the principles of Passivhaus design, and the robust approach to thinking about building performance is a good start and I would always encourage clients to use this as a benchmark even if they don’t want to aim for a certified Passivhaus building.

Is building to Passivhaus standard more expensive?

There are some additional costs to Passivhaus, particularly for items such as windows and doors.  The big problem is the lack of familiarity amongst contractors, who feel Passivhaus is hard to achieve which leads to higher costs.  As designers I see an important part of our role is to simplify the design and construction so that it can be built as easily as possible.  Several of our projects, both current and complete, are working within very tight budgets and have been completed at a cost that is not very different to a ‘conventional build.  Passivhaus can be delivered in a cost-effective way but it needs to be designed and communicated well to ensure it is easy to build.

Which sector do you believe could benefit more from adopting the Passivhaus design standard?

I think all sectors should engage with Passivhaus as a design principle, using the design process as a tool to guide decision making on achieving low energy buildings.  It would be exciting to see more public and commercial Passivhaus buildings and I would be very keen to be involved in a larger scale project of this type.

Is it a myth that only building with south facing windows achieve the Passivhaus standard?

Orientation plays an important part in the energy balance of buildings and having good areas of south facing glazing can contribute a lot of free energy to a building to reduce heating loads. Of course, this has to be designed to avoid summer overheating risks and Passivhaus has good design controls and limits for overheating.  However, it is possible to achieve Passivhaus standards without this optimum orientation. Two of our certified Passivhaus project have large areas of north east facing glazing – this was where the views were, and our clients wanted homes that looked out.  This makes Passivhaus more difficult and other elements of the project had to work harder as a result, but both projects are complete and successfully certified – so it is possible.

How does living in a Passivhaus standard dwelling affect the daily life of the home owner? What is the feedback that your clients are usually giving?

Unfortunately, I don’t live in a Passivhaus, I hope one day I might have that opportunity then I would be able to give you my first-hand feedback. One of the design challenges for any building is to make it easy to use and suited to the people who will use it – it should serve their needs and lifestyle and not be something they have to adapt themselves to.  This is one of the benefits of Passivhaus in my opinion, they can be very simple buildings that do not require lots of complex controls or require you to live in a certain way.  The main technology that is different from conventional buildings and homes is the ventilation system which delivers fresh air and moves heat around the building.  Once this is set up and the simple controls are understood there is no reason that a Passivhaus building should be different to any other – it just works better.  Feedback from our clients has been very positive, they love their Passivhaus homes and would be reluctant to go back to a conventional home with its stuffy air and expensive energy bills.

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If you or your company are looking to build a PassivHaus project, get in touch by emailing mail@gcparch.co.uk or phoning our office on 0117 967 6286

Click here to for more information on Passivhaus projects completed by gcp.

Meet the team: Colin Powell

Photography by Colin Powell

September is a special month here at gcp as it marks the company’s birthday! This year is our 32nd anniversary and to celebrate we will be reflecting on past staff events over on social media.

As part of this celebration, we have conducted Director-interviews to add to our meet-the-team series. Next up is Colin Powell, Architect, PassivHaus Designer and Director who, joined gcp in 1995.

For the last 10 years Colin has worked particularly with residential development clients in the public and private sector, developing projects from early feasibility and inception through planning and delivery stages, acting as lead consultant to manage the design process and coordinate the inputs of other consultants and specialists.

As director responsible for gcp Consulting, Colin has undertaken research and energy modelling to help clients optimise design and construction specifications for low energy housing. This has included modelling energy performance, overheating risks and researching the impacts of renewable technologies, analysing their costs and benefits for clients and occupants.

Colin studied and worked in commercial practice in London for 12 years before moving to Bath in 1989 and joining gcp in 1995. He is an experienced architect with knowledge in housing, education, hotel and leisure, health, commercial and industrial design. Colin has worked on a wide range of projects as both lead architect and in a consultancy role advising on sustainable and low energy design. This experience provides him with a good understanding of technical and construction issues as well as the need for a pragmatic approach on how to deliver low energy buildings that are cost effective and easy to operate.

As part of an interest in developing a deeper understanding of building physics and energy in buildings Colin completed an MSc in Environmental Design of Buildings at Cardiff University in 2006 achieving a distinction. Extending this interest he completed training with The Building Research Establishment and passed the International PassivHaus Institute examination to become the first chartered architect in the West of England Region to be a Certified PassivHaus Designer. 

 Hi Colin. So this year marks 24 years with gcp and I think your impressive professional experience and qualifications in the introduction back up why our clients and colleagues think so highly of you. It’s going to be hard for me to cover all of that this afternoon but it would be good if the readers of our blog could get to know you a little better on a personal level.

Let’s begin with what inspired you to pursue architecture?

I didn’t have much idea of what I wanted to do when I was 16; my dad organised a summer job for me working at Leominster Council Architects Department. I helped surveying properties, preparing some (very basic!) drawings and had my first exposure to design and how architects use their imagination to visualise problems. This is when I first realised that somebody had to think up what buildings looked like and how they work which sparked my imagination for a possible career.

It's so interesting to find our that someone with your passion and skill for great design stumbled into this industry almost by chance! If you weren’t an architect, what do you think you would be?

I was nearly a firefighter (!) and I’ve always liked the idea of being a National Park Ranger. (Hmm… maybe I’m attracted to being in uniform?)

I’m afraid I’m going to have to put my foot down and give a hard no to a gcp uniform!! Moving swiftly on … what has been the best moment for you at gcp in the last year?

The opening of our rural housing project in Mark for Southwestern Housing Society. This project had a challenging early design process involving some very difficult local politics. It was great to see the original members of the Community Land Trust cutting the ribbon on a project that represented their vision for local housing in this community and to see how pleased the first families were with their new homes.

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And could you tell me a little about a favourite project that you’ve worked on to date?

I don’t think I can select a single project as each has had its own satisfactions; I like the work I did for The Leadership Trust in Herefordshire which involved working with some lovely old farm buildings and creating sensitive new insertions. I am proud of the Fairfield Park Health Centre refurbishment as this has had such a positive impact on the doctors and patients who use the building every day. My favourite projects are the ones where our clients have high expectations – this means we have to do our best work to meet their aspirations – and I get great satisfaction from feeling we have delivered our best projects for these clients.

Colin, you speak so passionately about doing your best to meet a client’s expectations and it is really inspiring to hear. Could you share with me a special memory or moment from your 24-years at gcp.

As part of our 30th anniversary year in 2017, we arranged a dinner in Bristol and invited past employees to join us. It was lovely to see so many old friends, catch up with their news of families and careers and hear them speak so warmly of their time with gcp.

Ahh that was a lovely evening, hopefully we will be able to all get together like that again soon. On a more serious note where do you see the future of the industry, in general terms?

I would like to see the industry being better at tackling the issues of climate change, positively engaging with this issue, designing and building much higher quality sustainable buildings, and playing our part in tackling this major threat to our children’s future. 

Couldn’t agree more.  

I hope you don’t mind if I ask a few more personal questions now – let’s start with something easy like, what you like to do in your spare time. 

I like to be outdoors; drawing and painting or taking photographs. 

We have some of Colin’s fantastic photography attached to this post and here is the link to his photography Instagram, if you want to see more. And what about your proudest personal achievement? 

My (twin) daughters, my MSc in Environmental Design of Buildings and achieving my qualification as a Certified PassivHaus Designer. But mostly my lovely daughters! 

Anyone who knows you won’t be surprised to hear how proud you are of your lovely daughters! On that note, do you think you could tell us something we might not know about you?

I was once part of the Oxford University Underwater Archaeology Team, surveying a Greek wreck on the seabed 35 meters deep, off the island of Panarea, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

If I had an emoji keyboard, I’d be inserting the gobsmacked emoji in here. I absolutely love the answers to that question! That sounds equally interesting and petrifying (I’m scared of being deep under water).  

Thanks for your time today Colin, I’ve really enjoyed chatting to you. To finish up could you tell me what are you looking forward to most in the next year?  

My Daughter Harriet getting her professional qualification as an Architect (no pressure was applied – it really was what she wanted to do.)

As part of the interview, Colin was asked to pick three favourite projects that he’s worked on. He chose:

Leadership Trust Foundation, a project in Herefordshire which involved working with some lovely old farm buildings and creating sensitive new insertions. 

gcp established a close working relationship with training organisation Leadership Trust Foundation, helping support the trust’s growth plans over a 10-year period. gcp has managed projects to provide the Trust with new offices, seminar rooms, a 150-seat lecture theatre and a 24 bedroom residential centre with conference facilities. 

Set in a rural location, all the new buildings emphasise energy-efficient design using sustainable, locally sources materials. 

The next project on the list is Homelands, Dundry, one of our Passivhaus schemes in a lovely location with views over Bristol, to the Bristol Channel and the Welsh hills beyond.  

This was an exciting project for gcp as, along with it being built to Passivhaus standards, it was also a self-build project with a client who has an eye for detail and is passionate about creating a low energy home. 

The main structure is built with Nudura insulated concrete form work (ICF) as it is quite easy to use, suiting the self-build nature of the project. The results on the project have been great, achieving an air tightness test of 0.45 the best performance of any previous gcp project. 

The aesthetic results are also brilliant. The ground floor facade is built from stone quarried on site and is complemented by the render and grey roof and grey windows. 

Last up is Coopers Court, Tiverton. This project rejuvenated a visually important, contaminated brownfield site. Creating 13 new, affordable homes in a conservation area, adjacent to a Grade I listed building.  

Colin said his favourite projects are the ones where the Clients have high expectations - this means we must do our best work to meet their aspirations. Coopers Court was a complex project needing a high-quality finish, which is exactly what we got.

 

Handover at Mark, Somerset

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Our latest rural housing scheme was handed over this week at Mark, Somerset.

The 10 new homes for South Western Housing Society are located on the edge of the village and form a lovely courtyard development providing a range of homes that include bungalows, houses and apartments, to cater for a range of housing needs.

The development is already fully let to people from the local area - excited to be moving in to these light and spacious homes. The development has been constructed by EG Carter Construction with a really excellent standard of finish. The homes have heating and hot water provided by Ground-Source Heat Pumps; which will keep energy costs to a minimum.

This development provides an excellent benchmark for affordable rural housing.

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Planning Approval for New Self-Build PassivHaus

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Architects image of Passivhaus in Dundry

gcp have obtained planning approval from North Somerset Council for a new home in the village of Dundry to the south of Bristol.  Located in green-belt, the project will replace an existing house that was very cold and draughty in the exposed location, with an extra-snug and energy efficient PassivHaus.

gcp’s in-house PassivHaus designer Colin Powell, has modelled the energy performance and optimised the design to enable the client to achieve a certifiable building on completion. We are now working with the client on construction design to ensure the home will be easy and efficient for the self-build team to construct to meet the exacting PassivHaus standards.

Certified for AECB CarbonLite Retrofit

gcp director Colin Powell was among the first group of students undertaking (and passing) the new AECB CarbonLite Retrofit training course developed to deliver robust low energy retrofit solutions for existing buildings.

AECB CarbonLite includes detailed understanding of the moisture risks in existing building retrofits and the particular requirements for servicing in existing buildings. With this qualification Colin will be able to certify projects under the AECB CarbonLite scheme.

Get a £50k grant towards building your Grand Design

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Material supplier Saint-Gobain and creator of the Multi Comfort concept have teamed up with Grand Designs to host a competition for aspiring self-builders by offering a £50k grant to the winner of a competition to design the ideal Multi Comfort home.

A prerequisite of the competition is all entrants must appoint a PassivHaus-competent architect to design the dwelling. Colin Powell, architect and director at gcp Chartered Architects is a certified PassivHaus designer and is keen to take support your Grand Design aspiration.

The competition is open for entries from 15th August 2016 to 15th October 2016.

https://www.multicomfort.co.uk/multi-comfort-projects/grand-designs-self-build-competition/

Continuing Housing Success

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Torpoint Housing scheme for Knightstone, nearing completion.

gcp have been reappointed to the Knightstone Housing Framework and have, for the first time, secured a position on the Devon and Cornwall Housing Framework. gcp are currently supporting Halsall Construction on a new housing project for DCH in Four Lanes, Cornwall. Working with Kier Living and South Western Housing Society, gcp are now developing proposals for 28 new homes in Cotford St Luke, Taunton.

We have also submitted planning for a Rural Exception site to provide 6 affordable homes for local families in Othery Somerset, for South Western Housing Society. Working with Stonewater Housing (formally Raglan) and EG Carter Construction, our 20 unit infill development within the Glastonbury Town Centre Conservation Area is now being handed over and first tenants are moving in to their new homes with fantastic views of the Tor.

If you would like to learn more about our housing design services, please contact Colin Powell.