What is an Ecohouse?
“Eco-architecture sees buildings as part of the larger ecology of the planet and the building as part of a living habitats…. Why bother making buildings connect in this way? Because the alternative is not acceptable and ‘modern buildings’ are quite literally destroying the planet.”
These words are lifted directly from the Introduction to the first edition of our book ECOHOUSE that ran to four editions (2001, 2004, 2009 and 2013) and was translated into six languages. The book was based on our experience of designing and building the Oxford Ecohouse in 1995, with the first integrated solar roof in the UK.
The simple message of Eco-Design is DESIGN WITH NATURE – NOT AGAINST IT.
An Ecohouse does two things as it protects:
- Its occupants from climate extremes
- The Planet by minimising Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from it
To do this it needs a ‘well-behaved’ indoor climate so energy is not thrown away trying to compensate for poor thermal performance. There are many simple measures for the success of an Ecohouse – other than how much people like living in it – for instance:
- How much of the year can the house run on local free natural energy?
- How quickly or slowly does the building loose or gain heat without grid energy?
- How large is the swing in indoor temperatures over a day or year?
- How many Adaptive Opportunities are there for occupants to control indoor temperatures?
To work With Nature an Ecohouse needs to be able to do two things:
- Adapt to different climate conditions over a day or year
- Store excess energy when it is not needed to use it when it is in water, batteries, thermal mass
As the website develops we hope to explore and expand all of the above topics.