The Local Planet - Taking Responsibility

Sunday, 05 February 2012

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Interview

Taking Responsibility

Tuesday, 30 November 2004

Duncan Stewart, the popular presenter of a number of TV programmes hardly needs an introduction to Irish people. Our roving reporter (or should that be ‘raving reporter’!) Catherine Rountree finally cornered Duncan one evening as he arrived in Portlaoise to make a program for his current series. Duncan had just arrived with his crew from filming in Wicklow. The previous day he was in Galway and Clare and ever courteous, he apologised for bringing our reporter as far as Portlaoise! Duncan may be famous but there is no fear of him getting above himself. Now if only we could harness all his enthusiasm we could soon meet our Kyoto requirements for alternative energy sources!

Is there a benefit ecologically or health wise to renovating old build buildings?
Is there a benefit sustainably - from recycling a building, even if you can spend as much on making an old building habitable?

D. Absolutely. I would say the there is a value to old buildings. Heritage and historical values, links to the past, buildings that sit into the landscape.
Pulling down and demolishing is in my view a huge waste adding to the waste problems that we already have. And then having to replace that with new construction - when you look at the lifecycle implications of a new building as opposed to the lifecycle implications of an old building.

What are the impacts of an old building going on into the future as opposed to a new building where you are starting from scratch?
D. A new building is obviously going to be much much higher, with all the materials all the products all the construction and embodied energy that goes into these products. The finite resources that are being used in the materials etc. So if you take it that on one level it’s the historic, heritage, emotional side of an old building, and then you take what are the emissions what are the implications with a new building? So if we are building a new building we have to say how best do we build new to minimise these impacts and to get the positive benefits of a new building like energy efficiency and healthy construction methods with renewable sources of materials coming to the construction.
The benefits of timber are that as long as it’s from sustainably managed forests and preferably FSC certified timber it is a renewable resource. Secondly timber soaks up carbon dioxide over its life when it’s growing. When we use timber we are storing carbon for the life of the building.

You mentioned earlier the 20th century improvements that can create problems. I think that for people that have an old house and are trying to do the right thing for themselves and the building that it can be an incredible obstacle course of trying to find the right builder or architect. They’ll get loads of people with loads of quick solutions but it’s very difficult to find the right ones. There is the Heritage Council, which can give you guidance, but if you are not a professional it is hard to know the right questions. What would you recommend to people that are in that situation?

D. Well, it is important to find the right professional. I would say that there are certain architects and professionals who are good at restoration and understand the value of how to maintain buildings like that by good living practices. Its how you use and occupy the building that makes it healthy for you and for the building.

For people with newer houses, what can they do to make their building more sustainable or ecologically sound?

D. I suppose that of the 4 million homes out there today they are typically all badly insulated and draft proofed, even the ones being built today! That’s different to the point I made earlier about ventilation. We need our buildings to be draft sealed, but we don’t want to create unhealthy conditions. Typically buildings in the 20th century are bad. Old buildings at least had thermic capacity with their thick walls. Once you kept that building topped up with heat you had certain comfort levels. The walls could store this. With modern buildings it’s a question of insulation. They are so badly insulated. For example a house built in the 1970’s would typically have 6 to 7 times the rate of heat loss of a well-insulated house today. With that situation the heat losses are very high and secondly the conditions are prone to condensation. And other factors become very high. Thirdly also the heating appliances are probably going to be very inefficient. An open fire is only 20% efficient, when you could have other appliances that could be 95% efficient. There are wood pellet boilers up to that sort of performance. You have oil-fired boilers in older buildings that are extremely inefficient. The efficiency of a lot of those are down to 40% efficiency, so that means that 60% emissions are going up the chimney, when today that should be down to 5 or 10 %.

Are you saying that we are a little bit flippant today with how we are throwing our money away?

D. Absolutely. It’s just flowing up the chimney and flues, through our boilers and fireplaces!

I’ve heard a lot of people saying that our future heating will be coming from a combination of solar and biomass (Firewood). Would you agree with that?

D. Yeah as our energy costs go higher of course we are now going to move much more towards solar. Solar is there all the time, and we are getting benefits all the time through our windows especially where a home has a southerly aspect. Where window sizes are fixed you can use roof collectors to get the benefits of solar energy.

So you would say that it is worthwhile for people to install solar panels?

D. Oh yeah! It’s not just the environmental benefits, a renewable free energy, but also the free energy. Once you install it, it is totally free. So if you put solar collectors on your roof, say they cost ?5000 as a system to install, and you look at the payback and savings of energy over the life of the collectors over 20 years, and then you compare that with oil. The cost of heating oil, or the cost of electric for heating water, and look at it over 20 years you will see very quickly that solar collectors have a cut off point where you’ve made your investment and after that it will be totally free.

So in a new build situation, as we’ve looked at old build briefly, how do you approach an architect and build a good relationship with them? If you want to build a more ecological or sustainable house can you ask an architect to design in Hemp and Lime, or cobb?

D. I think most architects haven’t a clue about these more alternative technologies. They are not trained in the schools of architecture in how to build with these materials. In a situation if you are looking to go to that extreme of say straw bale or hemp’n’lime or cobb you are depending on a few architects who have actually gone down that road and learned those sort of skills, outside of their normal training. The same applies to engineers and other trades people that have made the effort to go down that road. I would say that there are probably only 1% of the architects in Ireland competent to advise on these technologies. That’s a sad situation. That’s where you are pushing technology to the extreme of being extremely ‘green.’ Mainstream there is still an awful lot you can do that still gets the benefit of those purist approaches but that will still comply with the building regulations. I do think that there is a huge need for more architects and engineers and trades people to get into that technology of the mainstream solution that offers really high performance: the low environmental, high health impact solutions. We are seeing a lot of them coming into Ireland now. For example, the Griffner Coillte method of construction, which would be quite close to that technology.

People looking at programmes like your own or reading magazines like Construct Ireland can maybe get ideas and approach their architect and say, ‘I’m interested in this’

D. I think a lot of the problem is this; there are a lot of people that want to do the right thing but it’s very hard for them to get the right advice and it’s very hard for them to get professionals that will deliver that technology all the way. There are a few architects out there and they are very good but just not enough of them. There is a need for this way of sourcing information and sourcing data, knowing where to find the experts for various bits that you are looking for. That can be all the way from designers, specifiers, and tradesmen, everybody that is involved in the process. There is a need for more ways of knowing where to source and knowing that those that you source are competent. It is hit and miss who you get. They might seem okay, but who’s to know how competent they are? They are not assessed in any way. You can be very lucky but you can also be very unlucky. The same applies with materials. It’s not just in the skills area. Very often there are products on the market and they claim to be ‘eco’ this and high performance that, but very often they are not and you’ve been mislead by product manufacturers.

You are saying that we are still pioneers?

D. Yeah. We’ve got through a lot of those changes over the last 25yrs. We have come a long way and a lot of these technologies are out there and well proven.

So, you shouldn’t be afraid to shop around for the right professional and say no thank you if it’s not working?

D. You need someone who is excited by your project You’ve got to make sure that you’ve made the right decision for who your architect is going to be and that they are going to be helpful and positive and proactive and not the sort of person who’s going to be arrogant or disinterested. You want them to not just treat it as just another job with a quick fee. Ireland has got very greedy where there is far too much of that attitude of it’s all a production line. With all that you need to be able to pay that person too because you are taking a lot of their time and that needs to be reflected. It is important that they are experienced in this and that they have the contacts too. There is a lot you can do yourself and then minimise what the architect has to do. Knowing what you want and having seen and explored different options. Not changing your mind once you have decided. The family will have thought it out and come as close as possible to what they think is the right solution. And looking long enough into the future for their needs. You are planning for the long-term needs for that family and the implications for the building design.

What do you think of the current policy and planning for housing across Ireland? Could we do better and where does the onus lie?

D. I think it is appalling. We are going through a terrible time in Ireland. The Celtic Tiger period is unfortunate really. We came through a lean period before of not being able to afford things and money wasn’t available. Now there is a splash out and money is available.

There’s no excuses really, are there?

D. No. The problem is that there are huge profits being made at all levels of the building industry and there is very little of it going back in. It’s a one-way flow. Those that are making profits go out and buy more land and then control more again of the development. They are controlling the destiny for so many people in Ireland. It’s so unfair because they are so greedy. They are doing it in such a selfish way, without the concerns of the occupants and they are let do it. The house costs have gone up, but nothing has gone into the quality of these homes.

Are you saying that the builders and developers have some questions to answer on their policy?

D. It’s the whole building industry. The trouble is our government are doing nothing about it. They are leaving them go and do what they want. It’s like a free for all. I think there is too much of developers and builders in cahoots with politicians. There is corruption here at all levels too.

We could look at this from the bigger picture too, that even though many of us cannot choose where we live because of work commitment that dictate where we can look for a house, we still voted in the government, didn’t we?

D. Unfortunately we do have to vote in politicians, but we have to ask questions. Are these politicians acting in our interests? Have they in any way a vision of where we are going? Are they trying to lead us, or look after our needs, or are they looking after the selfish interests of those that fund them and the commercial interests that look after their interests. That seems to be what is happening.

Are you are saying that we really don’t seem to be led by anybody?

D. I have no confidence in our political system. None. I have disregard for most of our politicians, and that’s not just in the government. There are some good people, but they are a minority. There are others that mean well, but don’t know. And there are a huge number of politicians that are actually doing us a huge disservice in their actions. Against the common good. A bit like what’s going on with the Bush administration. We’re not that far off the type of problems that are going on. At a smaller level, but they are going on right across the country. It’s not just the quality and design and the technology that is going into our buildings. It’s the ecological implications of what we are doing. The way we are damaging our towns and villages and suburbs with faceless buildings that we will regret in the future.

We are not developing a real living vernacular architecture in Ireland, something that we can be proud of in the same way as out Georgian or Victorian heritage.
What would you offer as a model as to how and where we should build?

D. We need to cluster our developments, whether that’s sustainable clusters in rural villages and towns. It’s important that those clusters still keep life in them. That we keep a rural Ireland alive by doing it the right way. Cluster in a sustainable way so that our services are close. Not that we are scattered so that schools are miles away in one direction and work is miles away in another direction. Transport becomes a big issue. Services for wastewater become major problems. We need to look at these and how we can make the buildings themselves work ecologically too that they will get the benefits of passive solar energy, that they are well insulated, that they use materials that are sustainable and renewable. That they have a long term capability of adapting to needs down the road in 20, 30, 40, 50 yrs. time. That they have the capabilities of adapting to the needs of the future, and that at the same time they have aesthetics and design and character. We need more variety and more personal expression in our buildings. Personal expression that has a harmony with the whole. Not one building jarring with another, which is what is going on at the moment. We need a cohesive way of making our buildings have that individuality but at the same time have something that makes all the buildings tie together as a composition. That’s not happening.

Where would you see it happening?

D. France Sweden, Denmark, Austria. All those countries have well proven solutions.

All those countries have also got tendencies to have very good high quality flat developments with a lot of nature and trees close to them so that you can feel that you are in the country when you are in an urban centre. Do we Irish need to look at our love affair with the detached and semidetached house?

D. We do. We have an obsession with it and of course that’s what developers feed off. There is this demand for houses that are the suburban type image of what a home should be. Other countries would have a totally different view of what a home is like
and don’t have this madness of wanting what the semi-d. delivers. For the basic ingredients of what make a home work, they look to other things, wanting to live in tighter clusters in higher densities where they still have all the facilities close by and they can walk and cycle to all their facilities and do all their things and yet have the countryside on their doorstep.

Do you think in Ireland that we are trying to have an idea of space and personal space but that we are actually designing in problems for ourselves? We are commuting to work because we are looking for a brown or green field site to build our house. We are further away from family, from schools. We have gardens that we haven’t got time to use so we have to pay someone else. Do you think that if we changed what we accepted in house design, that we could design out a lot of problems and expenses in our lives socially and communally?

D. Absolutely, you’ve got it.

Who is going to start us out on a better or new way?

D. Well it’s not going to be our politicians. That’s certain. I don’t think we are capable of having politicians in Ireland of that calibre. They haven’t got the vision. They haven’t got the knowledge and they have the wrong objectives. We need to get it from the people of the areas. As we become more educated which luckily we are. There are a lot of young people who are gaining the right skills and hopefully those skills will go back into those communities and not go abroad. I think it is important for those skills to be recognised and to be fostered and to be given credibility in those local areas.

Which skills do you mean?

D. I’m talking in terms of design skills, in terms of technological and ecological skills. Of course it also takes the social side, there’s a whole clustering of different types of skills needed to create that wholistic solution. You need this interaction to come up with the solution.

You’re saying that in some ways the onus, the responsibility comes back round to us the consumers. The people who want the houses, the communities, the social initiatives, maybe we need to be a bit more creative, like they’ve been there in Ringsend, building affordable housing for local residents.

D. I think there are good people in local authorities too. We are lucky to have good people. Really there are some people in local authorities, the planners, county architects, and heritage officers, conservation officers who do desire to do the right thing. There is a lot of good there. We often look at local authorities as negative bureaucratic people, but there are some really good people in those organisations.

Is it a question of us learning how to talk to them, and learning how to ask questions where they can say yes?

D. Yes!
. . . I think people are not actually taking enough responsibility for their own decisions and actions. We tend to take the lazy way and often we feel it’s not our role to do things. But if we are building or extending a home we have to take a very pro-active role in that project. It’s our project, our investment, our home for the future, so we need to lead that project, we need to take a very active role in bringing that home from concept to development of concept, including the technology we put into that design.

Our sincere thanks to Duncan for taking the time out of his busy schedule to participate in this interview.

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