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FROM THE EDITOR
s the forest fires start to abate across the globe, the climate debate is heating up to an unprecedented level in the UK. It’s finally front page news, because it’s inconveniencing people directly – as the offshoot of Extinction Rebellion with the unlikely moniker ‘Insulate Britain’ brings motorways to a halt. And this was before the driver shortage made moving about impossible in various areas, thanks to the queues.
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An offshoot of the group’s recent actions is bringing the urgency to retrofit our homes to the forefront of people’s minds, although perhaps now with added negative connotations due to Insulate Britain’s resolutely combative stance. They claim that nearly 15% of the UK’s total emissions come from heating homes, and are demanding that the Government produces – in four months – a nationwide, well funded programme to upgrade “almost every house,” with the priority given to social housing.
After the failures of the Green Homes Grant and Green Deal, the Government has its work cut out to persuade anyone it is going to deliver on the agenda. New build should be covered by the Future Homes Standard, but when will the Heat and Buildings Strategy on retrofit be published? Despite the frustration, with protesters endangering lives and in turn being labelled ‘terrorists,’ the level of debate needs to cool down.
Many of us certainly (myself included) take the ability to drive a car for granted, and many become violently angry when that right is threatened. As well as fights over petrol however, battles on motorways over insulation aren’t the way forward, despite many of the protesters’ doubtless good intentions. Liam Morton, one of Insulate Britain’s leaders, recently stormed off Good Morning Britain (I confess, not a show I watch regularly), inadvertently resembling ex-host Piers Morgan. The interviewers were desperate to expose him as a hypocrite, because he apparently couldn’t afford to spend £10,000 to insulate his own house. This is effectively poverty-shaming and should be called out as such, despite his unadvisable methods for raising awareness.
Instead, in the year of COP26 and with a climate catastrophe looming, we have to get real about what is going to take to support ‘real’ people to pay for the upgrades they need. Taxation is going to have to be tweaked not only to pay for the pandemic, but to ensure that the nation’s leaky homes are no longer the shame of Europe, when it comes to the climate change agenda.
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Unless there is concerted action soon, people are going to feel hopeless as to how to help make a difference as we approach 2050, and global temperatures continue upwards. Grappling with Covid and a fuel crisis, Government still haven’t managed to successfully get climate to the top of its agenda, despite the UK about to stage the most critical international climate forum yet, in Glasgow next month. ‘cop out’ at COP26.
One sure-fire way to reach net zero is to design to Passivhaus standards. Some, such as Lord Deben, have called for all new homes to be Passivhaus. This is clearly fanciful, but in the new Building Insights podcast we have just published, architect Sarah Lewis of the Passivhaus Trust explains just how achievable Passivhaus really is, as a possible way out of our current predicament. Visit
architectsdatafile.co.uk to listen to the conversation.
James Parker Editor
10.21
ON THE COVER... Zvonarka Bus Terminal in Brno, Czech Republic demonstrates how a light-touch refurbishment can still have major social value results, giving a Communist era relic a new lease of life in the city.
ZVONARKA CENTRAL BUS TERMINAL, BRNO Restoration of a brutalist bus station in the Czech Republic’s second city brings a positive future to a neglected symbol of the Communist era
THE BOTTLE FACTORY, PECKHAM Studio RHE exploits historic features in commercial reuse project For the full report on this project, go to page 30
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ADF OCTOBER 2021
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