The Renewable House
Built at the BRE Innovation Park for Insite 2009, this is a new demonstration house designed to illustrate that low cost and low carbon are compatible.
The detached three bedroom home was designed by C-Zero and Archial architects to meet Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, with a build cost of £75,000.
Unlike many other houses that meet Code Level 4, the Renewable House features very few additional technologies. Instead the performance of the house has been made possible through the ingenious use of materials which have been used to create a thermally efficient and low carbon building envelope. In this case we used Hemcrete® - a material made from natural and renewable hemp and lime, provided by partner Lime Technology.
By avoiding limited technologies - which can have a short life span, therefore require on-going replacement, upgrading or maintenance - the house has also clearly demonstrated cost efficiencies.
However, the flexible design enables the concept to be developed to create a variety of house types including town houses, terraced and semi detached. The design also enables the house to be enhanced to meet level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
In building the Renewable House, C-Zero and its client - the National Non Food Crop Council - wanted to show that a sustainable house could look like a normal house in which people would actually want to live. Unlike other houses at the BRE - which are more technology demonstrators than houses - the Renewable House sits happily alongside traditional buildings.