The Society, in conjunction with the University of Surrey held its Annual Architecture Lecture on the 19th October 2022.
The topic was Sustainable Design in Housing, addressing the Climate and Energy crisis
Recently, with concerns rising over the effects of Climate Change the Sustainability of buildings has come into increasing focus. Sustainability covers the environmental impact of creating the building, its operation, and its demolition or re-use. In addition, the retrofitting of existing housing stock to improve efficiency is also important.
This year we had two stimulating talks by architects Justin Bere and Alex Clifford who are at the forefront of considering environmental factors in the development or retrofitting and operation of Sustainable Housing.
Introduction - Greg Melly University of Surrey.
See Video (opens in YouTube approx length 3 minutes)
The Challenge
Justin Bere describes the challenge of moving to renewable energy and importance of building better for the future.
See Video approx length 10 minutes
Designing and Building
Alex Clifford describes his experience in Designing and Building a Passive House; the second part of his talk outlines how Guildford and Surrey compare with the rest of the country in the adoption of Pasive House technologies.
See Video approx length 10 minutes
Examples of Passive Houses
Justin Bere describes several of the projects his practice have completed over the years using Passive House Standards, this includes retrofitting exisiting Buildings.
See Video approx lenght 15 minutes
Questions and Answers.
Chaired by Peter Coleman of the Guildford Society with Questions from the audience.
Thanks
Alistair Smith Chair of the Society concluded the evening by thanking Justin and Alex for their excellent presentations, the University for hosting the event, and all who had attended
Justin Bere - bere:architects
Justin defines design quality as science and art in harmony. He’s passionate about the art and feels a deep responsibility to do the science. The practice, founded in 1994, treats every project as R+D work; always seeking solutions that respond appropriately to the needs of the client and the environmental challenges that threaten to overtake us. The practice’s completed R+D work has included collaboration on academic and peer-reviewed research papers which were funded by government and provided reassurance of the very high standard of health, comfort, and energy performance of the approach practice advocates.
Bere:architects has won numerous design awards for its completed buildings, including one of the first AJ Retrofit Awards for the Mayville Community Centre. See https://bere.uk/
Alex Clifford - Clifford Design
A native of Guildford who having been a commercial designer in the Retail, Office and Exhibition has returned to the town now works on residential design and project management. As a Certified Passive House Consultant, he now specialises in providing Passive House and Deep retrofit consultancy services (He has also trained through the AECB (Association for Environment Conscious Building) in retrofitting of existing housing stock to low energy standards) for people wanting to build new or retrofit their existing homes to low energy and sustainable standards. See http://clifforddesign.co.uk/
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