16 ROUND TABLE REVIEW
GIVING CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT hris arr said as a housebuilder he too a slightly different approach to the fabric first’ mantra, in the interest of delivering what customers want e’ve gone design first, fabric second, he told the panel. e’re looing at building houses from the inside out’ we need to now what we can do inside, including in terms of floor space, before we loo at the facade. e mentioned an ongoing development which had outline planning for homes but his firm is looing to build instead, in order to offer the space that customers want.
hiha hardwa from awinsrown said that one of the remaining issues was that the housing sector is taling about values, net zero and s, but is not actually taling about the comfort of the occupants, which is absolutely essential. he said that ust focusing on heat pumps was counterproductive to creating a product that consumers will buy into They are part of the strategy, not the strategy, and step one is to better understand what the occupants want. hris arr remared that in terms of improving ventilation and natural ventilation in line with the new art , there had been research wor underway with rup looing at crossventilation of apartments, immediately prerenfell. owever, following that event, getting crossventilated designs on the table was suddenly not the best idea, but he added that whichever solution we find, has to be adaptable for everybody.
COUNTING THE COST n our ndustry iewfinder audience survey conducted on art , of respondents thought that added cost was the biggest challenge, and the estimated average , extra per unit would be passed on to customers by of respondents. owever at our round table, hris arr said that the cost increase would actually be per house for his firm around , a huge increase on some estimates which have put it as low as ..
The uality of installation is clearly at the core of ensuring that fabric measures have the desired result, particularly in terms of customer confidence, which was damaged again following botched reen eal installations. imon lacham said that in order to mae things easier for installers, ecticel introduced a tongue
andgroove fullfill board solution which has become a maor part of its domestic business. t is designed to be simply installed in narrower cavities than would normally be reuired to achieve that value level. hris erry said that his own research had found that creating net zero’ready homes for would be around . e added that consumers are willing to pay more for a zero carbon home, but that the value it adds is really more than that. e added magine we were in a tech industry, there’d be so much development into reducing the costs, because it’s something people want and are willing to pay for. hris arr however said that more of his customers needed to be persuaded of the reasoning for the large cost uplift.
PART L VS PART O
hiha hardwa said that in order to avoid overheating and comply with art , the industry needed to have a conversation about internal heights, as we end up doing designs for . metres and these heat up uicly. he added that it’s a balance between comfort, carbon, energy and what the developer wants. The tandard ssessment rocedure and its associated challenges came up several times during the discussion. hris erry said that an unfortunate sideeffect of the need to mae very flexible to balance policy across various building typologies was that it has ended up so opaue. hardwa said she wored closely with energy consultants on proects to identify whether the energy figure they were aiming at is sensible. he explained further that n , you can only benefit from a certain value up to a certain point.
hris arr said that with temperatures rising in coming years, developers should be looing to countries such as pain for inspiration, such as by including
shutters. e are looing at a design of shutters sliding across which will bloc the sun completely in summer, but which in summer are also a thermal brea. e added e are trying to reinvent the wheel. aybe we ust need to loo what other people are doing. ill ayward of choc countered oone wants to pay for it, that’s always the issue, but arr responded that with uture omes tandard homes costing , plus per unit more, some of these other products become commercially viable. avid lare of ystems submitted a uestion here does the balance lie between glazing performance and appearance that is going to be necessary for art compliance’ e said his customers have got used to seeing insideout living, and floor to ceiling windows, but added we now that is not necessarily going to be achievable. in from hepheard pstein unter responded with a challenge to the floortoceiling window specifiers ur energy consultants eep telling us that anything below the waist in terms of glazing is a waste. hris erry asserted that the only way to hit the balance between art and art , especially with the uture omes tandard, is modelling and testing. e said an engineer has to be involved right from the start, and that the very big housebuilders are already doing this, but at the smaller scale it hasn’t got through. hris arr said that modelling had to tae into account the as lived in performance of homes, as a priority, and wor bacwards from there.
PLANNING TO FAIL?
hris arr suggested that as there were issues around planners’ engagement with building performance currently, uilding ontrol should be brought into pre application meetings to help them achieve the right between the standards. e told the group lanners aren’t interested in how it physically wors you have to educate them on why we are doing certain things that affect the loo, such as why we can’t put s on the rear of all the properties.
hiha hardwa said planners needed to change their mindset on how ugly’ a zero carbon home will be. ill ayward of choc added that there was a not invented here’ syndrome of conservatism present in planning departments which
“IMAGINE FOR A MINUTE WE WERE IN A TECH INDUSTRY, THERE’D BE SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT INTO REDUCING THE COSTS, BECAUSE IT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE WANT
AND ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR” CHRIS PERRY, TODD ARCHITECTS
WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
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