Big names slam draft Future Buildings Standard and demand national retrofit plan Digital Edition: Big names slam draft Future Buildings Standard and demand national retrofit plan A group of 21 leading built environment and climate action organisations has hit out at ‘significant shortcomings’ in the government’s proposed new energy and ventilation standards for non-domestic buildings and existing homes in England
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By Elizabeth Hopkirk2021-04-14T06:00:00+01:00
Proposed Future Buildings Standard contains ‘significant shortcomings’, government warned
A coalition of architects, built environment and climate groups has written to the top civil servant at the housing ministry highlighting what it describes as “significant shortcomings” in the proposed Future Buildings Standard (FBS).
The government must be far more ambitious in the way it regulates the energy consumption of new buildings, say the 21 signatories who include the RIBA, Architects Declare, the Architects Climate Action Network and the UK Green Building Council.
Zero carbon homes designed by Ash Sakula
The letter to the permanent secretary at the MHCLG, Jeremy Pocklington, outlines serious concerns about the proposed new energy and ventilation standards for non-domestic buildings and existing homes in England.
Last modified on Sat 3 Apr 2021 08.02 EDT
Hanging plants smother the walls of a new office block proposed for Salford, giving it the look of something from an abandoned post-Covid city, reclaimed by nature. The ivy-covered tower, designed by Make Architects, has been trumpeted as “fossil-fuel free”, set to run on 100% renewable energy and reach net zero operational carbon, with tenants enjoying the “biophilic” benefits of dangling foliage. But not everyone is convinced.
“It’s strange to see something described as ‘fossil-fuel free’ when it is made of concrete, steel and glass,” says Joe Giddings, coordinator of the Architects Climate Action Network (Acan) campaign group. “The production of these materials entails burning a huge amount of fossil fuel.
Climate activist group Architects Climate Action Network has launched a student-focused arm in response to its recent survey, which revealed that UK architecture students feel unprepared to tackle the climate crisis.
The new branch, named Students Climate Action Network (StuCAN), calls on architecture schools to place sustainability at the forefront of their curriculums to reflect the urgency of the climate crisis.
Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) argues that students will be less able to tackle climate change in future work if carbon literacy continues to be seen as a specialist subject. Architects are complicit in the climate emergency Fundamentally, students feel they are currently being let down by their architectural education, explained Megan Coe, education coordinator at ACAN.
Environmentally, retrofit makes sense and for designers there is so much opportunity
Weston Adventure Playground. Macintosh says: ‘Internally there is a mezzanine level with a bench running all the way along the main space, where the children who were less rumbustious or more reflective could retreat and do their homework in a more secluded area.’
Source: Joe Low
Done judiciously and sensitively, retrofit is one of the biggest contributions the construction sector can make to help reduce embodied carbon, writes
Emily Booth
The picture of a child hurtling through the air, hair flying, on a zip wire at Finch Macintosh’s Weston Adventure Playground encapsulates the pure joy that a wonderful experience of a place can bring – plus the freedom that we probably all wish we had more of right now. Kate Macintosh, winner of this year’s Jane Drew Prize, has always put community at the heart of her work and embraced issues of environmental and social sustainability.