I have avoided using or engaging with the term “exergy” mainly because I’ve never quite understood it. Until now. I came across this post by John Michael Greer and it has helped me make connections between a few key ideas I have been thinking about recently.
Many discussions about renewable energy sources seek to demonstrate they [...]
The Centre is currently engaged in a European funded research project (acronym: SUSREF) looking at how to improve the energy and environmental performance of existing external walls, mainly on older properties. For the past two days I have been visiting houses in North Wales with solid stone external walls to assess their suitability for monitoring [...]
This must be every architect’s nightmare. The dark, shiny, and slippery-when-wet marble floor is an accident waiting to happen, or more likely has already happened, in this hotel foyer in Bilbao.
The solution: cover everything that represents a potential trip or slip hazard with hideous yellow and black warning tape. One redeeming aspect is that the [...]
I’ve written here before about the need to understand how people interact with low energy buildings, and not just the heating system controls. Some of my current thinking is documented in this short paper I wrote for the in-house journal, MADE, published by the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University.
Click here to access [...]
Having missed a train-to-plane connection in Charles De Gaulle airport a couple of weeks ago I found myself with a few hours to spend near Paris. Rather than trudge around the city centre with my baggage I decided to visit Parc La Villette, which is closer to the airport and is a relaxing place to [...]
The students will be presenting their final work on this British Council funded project tonight, from 6.30 pm in the old NatWest Bank on Bute Street in Cardiff. From what I’ve seen of the activities, it should be an interesting evening.
I took part in the debate organised by the British Council as part of the [...]
In an earlier post, I argued that the scope of ’sustainability’ extends beyond the dominant concerns of low carbon design and energy conservation and how we need to continuously commit to the core principles of sustainable development rather than allow a shallow linguistic fatigue persuade us to abandon the term, simply because we are tired [...]
Mel Starrs has provided an excellent post on the way in which LEED and BREEAM treat biodiversity. Apparently, there is no common approach to dealing with this aspect of the environment among current assessment tools. The post highlights the main differences between two of the most frequently used methods.
Though the post draws heavily on the recently [...]
Mark Brinkley has published a useful graph on his blog summarising the output from different types of lighting compared to the power consumption. The graph clearly shows the advances that have been made in developing more efficient forms of lighting than the incandescent bulb. What’s missing of course is any indication of the quality of [...]
One of my biggest regrets of 2008 was that I didn’t get to the Changing the Change conference held in Turin, last July. Apart from not being able to spend time in that wonderful city, I was disappointed to miss the opportunity to meet all those creative people who were there to talk about design [...]
