Meet the Authors and Contrbutors of Volume 1

Adam and Katy completed an apprenticeship in natural building with the Cob Cottage Company, Oregon, USA. Adam is from the US and Katy from the UK. On returning to the UK they started their company, Cob in Cornwall, specialising in the new build and restoration of earth structures in the south-west of England. In 2003 they won a ‘Pioneers to the Nation’ award for their work with cob.

Adrian originally trained as a chartered building surveyor and for over 15 years worked in various architects and building surveying firms in London and Bristol, managing new-build and refurbishment projects in all property sectors. He now heads the Building Surveying courses at the University of the West of England. In addition to teaching and research in the field of sustainable design and construction, he also provides consultancy advice to individuals and organisations seeking to design, construct or refurbish buildings in a sustainable way. Current projects include a village shop/cafe/business centre in Brockweir, Glos and a nursery school in Llandogo, Monmouthshire.

Anita has an architecture degree from Liverpool University. She regularly reviews books for ‘Building for a Future’ magazine. Her particular interests are electro-pollution and geopathic stress. She is currently investigating sustainability issues regarding the built environment.

Ben is an author who specialises in both clinical psychology and architectural literature, which reflect his interests in a wide variety of other subjects, including politics and religion as well as works of fiction. He also has an interest in graphic design and computer generated art.

Cath is an expert in sustainable water strategies formed from a background of 14 years experience in the conventional plumbing industry and 10 years in environmental building. She uses her extensive experience of conventional and sustainable building services to successfully incorporate both water efficient and carbon efficient systems into the built environment, working with councils, developers, housing associations, architects and engineers. She lectures extensively on the sustainable use of water and carbon efficient energy systems, both in the UK and abroad.

Chris is one of the leading solar engineers in the UK. With a wide experience in all aspects of the building trade and a variety of environmental and ecological projects, Chris is a fellow of the Institute of Domestic heating and Environmental Engineers (Chair of renewable group), CORGI/HETAS registered installer, SHINE21 trained solar installer and active in the National standards committees. His articles are regularly published in technical and environmental publications and he is experienced in the media of television & radio.

Chris gained 2 first class degrees in architecture at Newcastle University before working both as a builder and architect. He gained experience with Christopher Day in Wales, Malcolm Newton in Northumberland, working on the Earth Balance project, across New Zealand and, from 1997 to 2004, with Gaia Architects in Edinburgh. At Gaia, Chris was responsible for a number of projects, including the Glencoe Visitor Centre. In 2004, Chris set up Locate Architects to continue work on ecological design projects and sustainable development related consultancy, research and teaching. The practice aims always for innovative and contemporary design, with particular expertise in healthy specification, timber and other low impact material based construction, low energy solutions and a desire to ‘locate’ buildings more fully into their surroundings. Chris has qualifications in permaculture and building biology and is accredited by the RIAS to a 3* level in sustainable design.

Clive has been a journalist for nearly 40 years and specialises in self-build and architectural subjects. He has lived with his family in a thatched cottage in Oxfordshire for 31 years and this has led to a keen interest in traditional building materials – cob, thatch and daub in particular. He is the author of two books on church architecture.

Dave has worked in sustainable energy for over 12 years, and is an expert on product marketing, project management and policy development with recent experience on utility, local authority and fuel poverty programmes. Dave’s interests include building and transport technologies, sustainable communities, natural systems, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) principles, creative problem solving and helping people and organisations reduce their environmental impact whilst addressing core values. Prior to setting up his own consulting company, Impetus, Dave worked as an associate for the Energy Saving Trust , where he helped to manage the HECAction programme as well as assisting EST in fuel poverty and other policy areas. Before this, Dave worked at BRE for nearly 5 years on the Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme. Dave has worked in marketing and business development for four private companies, developing existing markets and moving into other markets. He has also managed a number of public and private sector Research and Development projects.

Dave has written extensively on renewable energy issues over the years. His book, ‘Energy, Society and Environment’, now in its second edition, combines an analytical overview of the policy issues, with assessments of the practical deployment opportunities and problems. In his contributions to Building for a Future magazine he has focused on the latter, looking at examples of successful initiatives and programmes in the domestic housing and built environment field. He is director of the Open University Energy and Environment Research Unit and editor of Renew, the journal on renewable energy policy and developments.

David is principal of Energy Advisory Associates. He is an energy consultant specialising in the efficient use of energy in buildings. He has helped to design many energy-efficient buildings, including several with record low energy bills for the UK. He is also the author of numerous reports and papers on the subject and gives regular lectures to seminars and conferences.

Doug started his own construction company 40 years ago and has a BSc in Building Processes. He is very interested in environmental issues and as Director of DGS Construction, has been pioneering the construction of genuinely sustainable buildings. DGS Construction was shortlisted for the Building Magazine Sustainability Award and in 2005 and was awarded a Caradon Council Design Award for the construction of an energy efficient and environmentally friendly super–e home in Cornwall. Another recent project was the extensive rebuilding of a 16th century timber frame cottage in Buckinghamshire, which is also being considered for an architectural award.

Gavin is a professional author who has written a number of titles including ‘Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius’. He will shortly be writing ‘Domestic Solar Energy’. Gavin is currently finishing an MSc: Architecture Advanced Environmental & Energy Studies at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth. He is an affiliate member of the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers and a Science and Engineering Ambassador for the SETNET group.

Gavin is Senior Researcher at Lower Carbon Futures, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University Centre for the Environment. Gavin’s MSc thesis was on the prospects for sustainable energy use in English housing, addressing what is required to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the domestic sector by 60% by 2050. Gavin has worked for 9 years in the voluntary and public sector on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in urban areas. Gavin’s research interests include the social and economic policy changes that are implicit in the climate change agenda. His refurbishment of a terraced house in Oxford helped reduce energy consumption by 50%.

Gideon has, over the past ten plus years, advised companies, organisations and individuals on ways to maximise their resources and profits as a management consultant. With a Diploma in Management Studies and an HND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Gideon started his career as a project manager in the passenger lift industry. He moved on to have successful posts as a regional sales manager and business development manager, before starting Consulting With A Purpose in 1996. Gideon currently sits on a number of European Standards Working Groups for TC335 Solid Biofuels and TC343 Solid Recovered Fuels and is the chair of the British Standards Institute’s PTI/17 mirror committee for TC335 and TC343. He is also on the executive board of The British Pellet Club and a Trustee of the charity CREATE (Create for Research Education and Training in Energy).

Howard is principal in the Scottish/ Norwegian Ecological Design practice Gaia Architects, and visiting Professor at Oslo University. He is the RIAS Sustainability spokesman and a principal adviser to the Scottish Executive on Sustainability. Primarily he is a practising architect with many international award winning projects to his name, but he is also an author of original think-piece articles, runs CPD courses throughout the UK for the RIBA and lectures and acts as a consultant on eco-building and urban ecology worldwide.

Iain is a City & Guilds qualified heating & ventilation engineer with 28 years experience in the solar thermal industry. Iain is a director of Secon Solar Limited, which imports and distributes a range of solar thermal products. He has extensive knowledge of both sealed and pressurised and drainback systems, mostly with flat plate collectors but also experience of heat pipe and direct flow vacuum tube collectors. Iain is a director of the Solar Trade Association and, with fellow directors, has represented the Association on various technical issues.

Isabel is a fully qualified architect; she is an EcoHomes assessor and accredited to provide SAP ratings. She holds an MSc in Environmental Design and Engineering.She runs CA Sustainable Architecture, an architecture practice combining architecture, sustainability consultancy and research. Isabel is interested in the real outcome of architecture, both in terms of energy performance in use, and the user’s appreciation of the building, including comfort. She is convinced of the need for more and better feedback on buildings, and published in Building Research and Information the article ‘Architects need Feedback’. Her research in sustainability includes an ‘Environmental Management System for Designers’ for an architect’s firm, and ‘A scoping study for developing the criteria for sustainability in commercial buildings’ for DTI in collaboration with the Usable Building Trust and British Property Federation.

Jay was introduced to sustainable technologies (photovoltaics, windmills and anaerobic digestion) as a member of his university’s ‘Alternative Research Group’. His interest in ‘waste to energy’ technology was furthered by postgraduate work on anaerobic digestion. He gained experience of a wide range of conventional ‘energy-intensive’ treatment processes within the wastewater treatment industry. Following a Permaculture Design Course he established his company, Biologic Design’ to create WET systems; multi-species constructed wetlands for sustainable wastewater purification. His company views wastewater not as a problem to be disposed of, but as an unused resource, purifying wastewater with minimal non-renewable energy use, creating a species-rich wildlife habitat and biomass resource (the coppiced willow can be used in both traditional and contemporary crafts and as a fuel for ceramic and other types of stove. Biologic Design is a home-based business, which, having no mains services, is run on renewable systems - a windmill, photovolatics, wood burner and WET system.

Jerry has had a long interest in matters environmental, developing a concern for endangered wildlife as a child during the sixties. He spent many years as a cabinet-maker, and injected his environmental concerns into which timbers and finishes were used, often turning down commissions where the customer insisted on the use of an inappropriate timber. Latterly Jerry has gained a first class honours degree in Environmental Sciences and put a lot of his new-found knowledge into practise while creating a super-insulated, eco-home on a smallholding in Wales. He works on a freelance basis, that includes work for the Green Building Press. He is now in Cornwall where he lives in a multi-generation house with his wife, daughter and father (his son has long since flown the nest). Other interests include listening to music (mostly loud), and kayaking around the estuaries and coasts of Cornwall.

John set up John Cantor Heat Pumps in 1980 and in the early days had close links with The Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. Since then his company has designed, manufactured and installed a wide variety of water-to-water heat pumps with power-output capabilities from 1kW to 70kW.

John has been in the insulation manufacturing industry for seventeen years and is currently Marketing Director at Kingspan Insulation Ltd. He has worked for manufacturers of mineral wool, extruded polystyrene, rigid urethane and phenolic insulation. He is widely respected in the field for his technical expertise and has played a major role in the UK Government’s consultation process for the next revision to Approved Document L of Building Regulations for England & Wales. In his role at Kingspan Insulation, John has been responsible for steering the business into carrying out the first independently certified Ecoprofile for any insulation material (via BRE) and the first independent three pillar sustainability appraisal for the manufacture of a building material to be published (using Arup’s SPeAR tool). John was also instrumental in the publishing of the ground breaking work ‘Insulation for Sustainability’ by sustainability consultants XCO2. With a BA Hons in Natural Science from Cambridge University, and a Masters in Earth Sciences from the University of Minnesota, John is an avid environmentalist in his private life and has family membership of Friends of the Earth. He is professionally and personally interested in the topic of sustainability and believes with a passion that manufacturers need to be open and honest about what they do, and that they should be responsible about what they make and how they make it.

Jon is an architect specialising in low energy housing, sustainable construction, timber frame construction and prefabrication. He wrote ‘The Self Build Home’ with Brian Richardson back in 1991 and his most recent book is ‘The Green Self-Build Book’. He has self-built two of his own houses. For many years he was a Director of Architype and now he runs his own consultancy specialising in sustainable construction. He is a regular contributor to ‘Housing & the Environment’, published by the Chartered Institute of Housing.

John Shore graduated from the Architectural Association, specialising in Ecological Design and Renewable Energy. He was responsible for designing, building and monitoring the Integrated Solar Dwelling at Brighton in the 1970s – the UK’s first Self-Sufficient, Zero-Heat House. He has been involved with pioneering research, development and demonstration with sustainable buildings and energy systems since the l960s. As well as writing extensively on self-building and sustainable design and running the wind and solar energy company Aerodyn Shorepower, he has lectured at schools of architecture and worked at Croydon College of Art, Brighton Polytechnic and Somerset College of Arts and Technology. Current projects include designing low-cost, zero-heat sustainable housing and workspace schemes.

Judith worked at the Centre for Alternative Technology for 5 years, focusing largely on water and sewage systems. She now works part time as a lecturer on CAT’s MSc in Architecture and part time as a water and waste management consultant. Judith is author of ‘The Water Book’, a guide to small scale water supply systems and has worked on a wide range of small scale water and sewage treatment systems.

Keith completed a three year City & Guilds apprenticeship in carpentry and joinery way back in 1974! In the early 1980s he formed his own building business that included general building, renovation and new housing. In 1988 he became concerned about environmental issues, particularly the use of unsustainable tropical timber. From that concern he launched a magazine called Building for a Future and founded the Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) in an effort to promote the concept of green and sustainable building. In 1990 he established the Green Building Press, a business dedicated to promoting and providing information about eco and healthy building. He is now Editor of both Building for a Future magazine and the Green Building Bible. He has designed and built many sustainable building projects.

Kevin has worked at a company called Sustain, an energy and environmental consultancy in Bristol since January 2006, in the role of Senior Technical Consultant. He is involved primarily in carrying out detail design as well as sustainable energy feasibility and scoping studies for clients in the social housing sector and commercial sectors. Kevin is degree qualified in Mechanical Engineering and worked previously as a Senior Consultant at BRE, managing projects for the Governments Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme. He has written and project managed publications on sustainable energy, and was instrumental in developing new Best Practice Standards for new housing in the light of tighter Building Regulations.

Louise specialises in sustainable garden design, particularly integrating house with garden, sustainable materials and ecological planting. Work includes complete design services, rejuvenation and consultancy. Louise is an experienced writer and lecturer. Changing career after 10 years in fashion design and marketing, Louise brings her eye for colour, texture and form to garden design. Louise and her husband live in Twickenham.

Mark is an Associate Professor at the School of Architectural Science at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, where he recently moved from the UK. Mark is a fully qualified architect in the UK who has worked for many years as an environmental consultant in the UK construction industry. He has worked on a wide variety of research projects for government, local authorities, housing associations, private developers, materials producers and others, focusing on sustainable construction issues and new technologies and processes. He has published widely on construction technology and environmental issues. Mark is a past chair of the AECB.

Michael is a natural landscape architect and environmental planner with extensive experience of successfully designing and implementing sustainable land use projects. His mission has been the introduction of ecological design and planning into the mainstream and is founded on years of practice in a wide variety of situations, landscapes, climates and uses of land for public and private amenities on scales ranging from the residential garden to a village or town. His outstanding international reputation derives from work over many years in England Wales, Australia New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Greece and Portugal. His clients have included national, regional and local governments, landowners, developers, schools, colleges and universities, farms and estates. Michael is the author of several publications, including a series of technical books on Landscape Detailing, covering all aspects of construction, also a Guide to the Maintenance and Management of School Grounds. He has also produced several posters and calendars on Organic Gardening and a series of brochures covering his concepts of the Forest Village, Forest Farm Forest School and Forest Home/Garden to promote sustainable self sufficiency by communities and individuals.

Michael is a mechanical engineer and chartered information professional, working for NBS as an information specialist on the Information Services Team. His responsibilities include: an editorial role on the Construction Information Service (CIS) and the RIBA Office Library Service products. Michael also edits and maintains the information content of Green Construction (a stand alone green building website) and Green Construction Round-Up (a twice monthly newsletter).

Mike has more than twenty years experience in the construction industry, having trained as a plasterer and progressing to building maintenance and small building works. In 2004 he obtained a first class honours degree in Architectural Technology from Glamorgan University, where he now works as a Lecturer in the thermal analysis of buildings, and 3D architectural CAD.

Mischa has always had a passion for the environment. For the last 3 years he has been working on the Earthship Brighton project, a pioneering ‘green’ development in Brighton to build a sustainable community centre. Prior to this he worked in Finance. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and composing classical music. He has just started writing a book about earthships in the UK which will be published early next year.

Oliver runs the green cultural review, Fourth Door Review - www.fourthdoor.co.uk - the annual cross-disciplinary art, architecture, design and craft, new music and new media journal. He co-ordinates the Cycle Station Project, as part of Fourth Door Research. He writes regularly for Building for a Future, as well as many other magazines. The Fourth Door web-magazine, Unstructured, can be found at www.unstructured.co.uk. He is also currently working on a book on twenty first century timberbuild.

Olwyn is on-line news editor for the Green Building Press, and occasional contributor to Building for a Future magazine. She has a varied background including some time spent experiencing social housing, community living, low impact living and a long standing interest in green issues. She is interested in buildings and architecture generally, is a competent handywoman and dreams of one day building the ultimate low impact, energy efficient and funky home for herself.

Paola is a partner of Sassi Chamberlain Architects and a lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University. She is the author of ‘Strategies for Sustainable Architecture’ published by Taylor & Francis Group, an illustrated overview of sustainable design approaches and technologies exemplified through 60 case study buildings in UK, US, Australia, Germany and Austria.

Paul studied Engineering Design & Appropriate Technology at Warwick where he developed an interest in energy and sustainability. He provided technical support to the local welfare rights advice centre. He went on to do a Masters in Energy Resources Management at South Bank. He has been testing ever since and has carried out over 10,000 tests upon buildings and parts thereof for a wide range of applications, particularly energy efficiency (both Building Regulations Part L and the more demanding green and eco standards, such as Canadian Super-E housing), checking advanced ventilation systems, testing for fire separation and containment. Paul has tested across the UK and overseas, including Europe, Africa and the Middle and Far East for a vast range of clients. He has also delivered numerous presentations to builders, architects, local authorities and insurance bodies. Specific buildings that he has tested include the AtEIC building at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Sue Roaf’s Oxford Solar House and the Nottingham Eco-house.

Peter had developed a keen interest in the environment over many years. After completing two house renovations this naturally moved into the area of renovation and self build. A high interest in green roofs has grown after completing the MSc in Architecture, Advanced Environmental and Energy studies at the Centre of Alternative Technology with UEL. For the Past two years Peter has been conducting experiments on green roof run off, and is also a qualified EcoHomes assessor.

Rachel lives in a straw bale home in woodland near Pembrokeshire with her partner Ravi. She has been living in the woodland for ten years, growing herbs, making flower essences, jewellery and exploring natural healing. Since self building and project managing her house, she has set up the ‘Quiet Earth Project’ and started to give tours, consultations and courses in straw bale and natural building.

Richard is an applied physicist who began his career in buildings as a research assistant engaged in field trials of low energy houses and condensing boiler heating systems. He then spent time in industry as an energy manager with the role of reducing the energy and water consumption of a large group of local authority buildings. He is currently a senior lecturer in the department of Architecture, Huddersfield University, where he teaches environment and services to all undergraduate and postgraduate pathways and is course leader for the MSc. in Sustainable Architecture. Writing credits include the book ’Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning’ and editor of the website
www.info4study.co.uk

Richard is a chartered surveyor and an independent historic building’s consultant with RICs Diploma in building conservation. He is RICs accredited in Building Conservation. He has an active interest in developing the link between sustainability and historic buildings. He lectures widely on this subject and is author of the book, ‘Survey and Repair of Traditional Buildings’.

Rob studied as a student on the UEL/ CAT MSc Architecture: Advanced Environmental Energy Studies course. He wrote a paper titled ‘Ordinary Portland Cement- Extraordinarily high CO2 Emissions’ which assessed the cumulative effects of growing CO2 emissions from the cement industry and practical alternatives that might help this sector maintain Kyoto targets.

In 1989 Sally co-founded the AECB (the sustainable building organisation). She still works for this organisation on a part-time and voluntary basis. She has many years experience of practical eco-building and renovating, writing for Building for a Future and other publications. She worked full time in finance and personnel management until 1996 when she downshifted to live a more sustainable life on a 140 acre farm in West Wales . Here she helps run the farm which is managed mainly for wildlife using organic principles. She helps care for a diverse range of habitats, including ancient woodland, marshland, traditional hay meadows, orchard and ponds. Her passion is wildlife and conservation and she undertakes regular surveying work for the British Trust for Ornithology.

Stephen is a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years experience working as a Building Services Engineer. During this time he has worked for some of the UK’s top services design and energy consultancy organisations and has been involved in a variety of projects in both the private and public sectors in the UK and Europe. Stephen has extensive experience in undertaking designs for low energy buildings that optimise the utilisation of natural ventilation and passive solar heating, as well as engineered schemes encompassing biofueled community heating systems, small-scale combined heat and power (CHP) and solar / wind powered rain water harvesting systems.

Steve runs a successful hemp building consultancy in Kerry, Ireland. He has enthusiastically pioneered the use of hemp in building for the last 10 years & is the author of ‘Building with Hemp’ 2005. He was a director of Hemp Ireland Ltd. (1998-2003) which was set up to research and develop a hemp processing facility in Ireland.

As Technical Manager of REID architecture Stuart is responsible for sustainable & environmental support and initiatives within the company across a wide range of commercial sectors. Stuart has overseen the development of their Environmental Management System for Designing Buildings and was also responsible for delivering the refurbishment of their natural ventilated offices at West End House located in central London. A study of occupants’ perceptions of comfort resulted in the publication of a joint paper on how adaptive comfort opportunities might influence refurbishment strategies at a 2006 conference organized by the Network for Comfort & Energy Use in Buildings (NCEUB) and the Low Energy Architecture Research Unit (LEARN). Additional research work has included being part of the steering group for developing a protocol for encouraging office buildings to operate more efficiently and with greater occupant satisfaction (BRE Digest 474) and the Building Sustainable Communities programme led by University College London.

Sue is currently working as a private Consultant with the Green Consultancy and the Carbon Trust, and in research and teaching with Arizona State University and in association with the Open University. She s an author, an Oxford City Councillor for Wolvercote ward, holds a number of honorary positions for a range of organisations and charities, and is occasionally engaged to design eco-buildings. She is Chair of the 2008 Oxford Conference on Resetting the Agenda for Architectural Education and in 2006 Chaired the 2nd International Conference on Solar Cites.

Tom has spent many years in the construction industry, from design to completion; working as a contractor in UK, Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Azerbaijan and Ireland. Projects have included restoration of a Welsh longhouse, sustainable tourism resorts, dry stone walling, design of a straw-bale school and restoration of a Spanish village house. All of these projects involved the use of natural, local materials and processes learned from local craftsmen, which have been adapted for modern applications and needs. In recent years, Tom has specialized in Straw bale and timber-frame construction, developing a system of straw panels to enable precision engineering of straw and widening its potential as a construction material in larger projects. Tom founded Uncle Tom’s Cabins and has developed a number of innovations for the use of natural materials in quirky ways to suit modern living.