I saw these in an art gallery in Kalk Bay, Cape Town.
I like the idea of taking an old sheet of rusting metal. Chalk (or something) drawing on some shapes, cutting them out and then ending up with the cut outs to perhaps put in the house and the sheet with it’s holes put in the garden or some such.
Maybe dolphins, fish and flying fish ?
Architect Rob has said the house won’t need to be 100% a steel framework.
– Some steel given the spans is likely. But Rob says even on such an exposed site, other building materials can give a solid, non flexing building.
The spotted a magazine article about a house built on a sloop in some woods, talked about Pavatex Pavatherm in the “Eco Credentials” section of the article:
…. eco-friendly Pavatex Pavatherm Plus interlocking wood-fibre insulation boards, which we used to clad the roof and first floor ……. This made a waterproof sealed skin on the outside of the frame.
Looking at their UK reseller it’s made almost 100% from recycled materials, has good thermal and acoustic insulation properties and can be combined with a light steel frame system:
So, this could be an interesting material to consider at some point. But a long way from that!
– still working on the layout of the rooms etc !
I was talking to Malcom who built the end house and he said his top tip would be to not only “over spec” any windows and doors that face the sea, but also to make sure that they are installed in a way that when it’s windy the external weather pushes them tighter shut, rather than blowing them to create a gap through which wind +/or water can come.
He has since sold the house, but when he lived in it, he said you could see the windows flexing inward when there were strong winds and you could see and feel the whole house flexing. It was a timber frame construction and in order to keep as airtight a house as possible, this re-enforces the idea of going for brick or a steel frame.
A steel frame could then have panels between the steel made with wood, and sheeps wool or similar insulation to off-set some or all of the CO2 impact of the steel and other less eco building materials. The steel frame could be in such a way that, when the house is altered or taken down, it can be taken apart and recycled.
This is a follow on from posts about perhaps constructing the house with a steel (and not wood) frame to give better rigidity, given the exceptionally exposed site location.
Alan at Adaptahaus have got back that yes, we could work with them to:
So it looks VERY interesting and something we should come back to as we move the project along.
I don’t like the in floor coverings to the channels as per the picture below:
So I asked about this and got the reply that:
Thanks for your reply and, yes, the floor covering can be continuous. That is what I have suggested in the proposed build procedure. The conduit access throughout the building would give good access for a speedy installation of the services but all the finished floors would be laid over the covered over conduits once the services were installed.
The dominant location location location feature of Silver Spray is the view. So put the beds, in bedroosm that look at the view, so that you can sit in bed and look out at the view.
Above is a picture of the Scarlet Hotel bedrooms that have the bathrooms behind the bed.
Also see these beds that have a bathroom or other space behind the bed >>
Another bit taken from Kevin McCloud’s 43 Principles of Home.
These thermal blinds are made to keep in the heat by their materials and also magnets in the sides that mean they “seal” over the windows !
I found this company, http://www.eurban.co.uk, who specialise in pre-made timber panels (SIPs) that by their construction are already weather proof (apparently).
On this project (that was on Grand Designs, it’s the Mimi and Andre De Costa project), http://www.eurban.co.uk/Projects/PRIVATE+HOUSES/Headcorn+Minimalist+House, the PDF factsheet, says that Eurban provided the structural design of hybrid timber and steel superstructure. The used materials were crosslam, steel and exposed timber finish throughout. Installation took 4 weeks. The stored carbon due to the wood panels was 139 tonnes of CO2.
I also like the possible idea of leaving the inner walls wooden !
There are firms about such as the one in Bodmin and http://www.modcell.com/ that make units with straw or other insulation, that could go into a steel frame.
One of the architects I’ve been chatting with has suggested / pointed out, that given the site a timber frame could flex too much in the exposed site, so damaging the building envelope.
He comes from a background of creating sustainable / environmental buildings and has no building /builders allegiance, so I’m taking the comment as not biased.
Stell has high embodied energy, so the environmental “cost” of building with stell goes up, but it is potentially a lot more recyclable in the long run than say brick or concrete.
I have therefore been thinking and looking out for an eco/sustainable way to build a steel framed house with timber and natural insulation between within and between the steel frame.
And up pops a Grand Designs programme about a house that is almost exactly this !
The house, built by www.adaptahaus.co.uk has a steel frame, then wooden and naturally insulated panels. They also have a funky looking system where you can move internal walls about at a future date !
On their http://www.adaptahaus.co.uk/buy.php page they have:
Budget on £180 per square foot for the completed house (not including renewable energy systems)
Also, nice to see that “our system achieves a level 4-5 CSH qualifi cation, which is above the current standards for social housing.”
Pictures from Adaptahouse below.
Notes on Steel Houses from 4Homes site:
One thing that can be important though if it is near the sea is to ensure that the steel is galvanised, which will stop it from eroding too quickly.
– I was assuming it’d also make sense to have no or minimal exposed steel.How Eco-Friendly Is Steel?
Possible erosion is one of only very few downsides to building with steel. However, another is its lack of green qualities. Compared to timber, steel is not as environmentally friendly. A spokesperson for eco homes and sustainable development portal www.whatgreenhome.com says, ‘Whichever way you look at it, steel can’t be considered a “green” material. Making it requires burning fossil fuel bi-products at extremely high temperatures, which uses large amounts of energy and releases CO2 into the atmosphere.’
Kane notes that compared to building with timber, steel constructions don’t require cutting down trees. It is a fair point – if indiscriminate or illegal felling is practised – but from an environmental perspective, when trees are forested (managed) and only used from FSC sources they are beyond compare because no CO2, which is the major greenhouse gas that causes climate change is emitted when trees are felled.
What Does Steel Cost?
On the issue of price Kane says steel costs less than either masonry or brickwork. ‘There isn’t really an approximate cost, though. It really depends on the size of the building as it is priced per tonne and the amount used in any one building may not be the same as any other. It is a very cost-effective material though, which is another reason it is used in the construction of so many modern skyscrapers. Another benefit is that it can help to keep labour costs low because the work can be done so quickly.’
Thanks to Simon, I ended up at a great evening at the Eden Project on Wednesday. It was run by the Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust. Some great speakers including Charlie Luxton who covered a lot of items I already knew about (it’s always great to get confirmation from somebody with heaps more experience than yourself thought !), and quite a few I didn’t.
For instance, modern washing machines have a single water inlet, for cold water. But what this means is that these modern washing machines are using electricity to heat the water to the desired temp for the selected wash. Eeeeek, we all know that due to (not only) transmission from power stations for most people, the efficiency of heating water by electricity is shocking (see figures below *).
How about making sure that there are mixer taps to give warm water eg 20 degrees into the back of your washing machine.
He also mentioned that instead of cement (environmentally horrible stuff) go for GGBS +/or fly ash cement. It seems these are cements made up from the by products of already in place (and here to stay for a while) industries such as blast furnaces and coal burning.
These figures are taken from an eco building book, the Green Building Bible (Volume 1):
So 100 becomes 22 (or 35 if you have 100% efficient use, through good appliances, voltage regulation etc.)