Open House does its bit

Open House is a good opportunity to get out and see some real examples of completed projects and to meet the people actually walking the walk. I managed to see three in south London, part of an eco-trail over the weekend organised by sustainable networking group Sponge. I took in two houses and a mixed use scheme(part office, part flats) and they showed that so-called "eco-buildings" can sit comfortably in the context of their surrounding neighbourhoods.

There was also a steady stream of visitors wandering in or queueing outside the buildings – proof of the popularity of the Open House event itself as well as sustainable buildings and technologies. The houses I saw, Three Acorns House and the Tree House, were owned by eco-authors and commentators Donnachadh McCarthy and Will Anderson – the former is a retro fit of a Victorian two-bed terrace and the latter is a new build. Both reckon they have reached the Holy Grail of sustainability, ie producing more energy than they are using. McCarthy has added renewables aplenty to his property and is happy with the performance of all them, barring the wind turbine, which was merrily spinning along whilst I was there but according to McCarthy is "an experiment that is not working". But this has taken 15 years hard slog to get to and McCarthy is keen for the Government to grasp the nettle and make it easier to make such alterations.

Anderson had the advantage of starting from scratch so was able to incorporate passive design, super insulation etc as well as renewable technologies. It’s also a striking building and hopefully offers some inspiration for those taking on such projects.

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