This Modern Eco Housing Uses the Least Energy

Overview of the Eco-Housing Project

This eco-housing project completed in 2008 is located in the New Forest National Park, Hampshire. The replacement home is set in an 18.5-acre plot that is located next to ancient heath and woodland, within the New Forest National Park. The massing, form and the orientation of the new cabin building have been carefully conceived to minimize the impact on the building site and its surroundings. The main home and the guest building both have green roofs.

Innovative Energy Solutions

The buildings are orientated to maximize solar gain and to utilize the ground source heat pump technology and a log boiler for the heating and hot water requirements. Excavated building material from the new basement and the pool area has been re-used in the earth-berming to help provide a visual screen to the north and to help to reduce the sound impact of the nearby dual carriageway. The proposals for the eco-house also incorporate rainwater harvesting, a natural swimming pond to further increase the biodiversity within the site and greywater recycling. The building materials used throughout the eco-housing are durable, sustainable, and in harmony with the building site and its surroundings. This eco-housing project was awarded Best Residential Project in the United Kingdom in the 2010 Daily Telegraph, Home Building & Renovating Awards, and was also runner-up in the Grand Designs Awards 2010, and was shortlisted for the RIBA Awards in 2011.

Benefits of Green Roofs

There are several benefits to green roofs on your eco-housing design. Unlike traditional black tar roofs, green and living roofs reduce energy costs by absorbing the heat instead of attracting it and by providing natural insulation for eco-buildings. According to a study that was conducted by the National Research Council of Canada, even a six-inch extensive living roof can help to reduce summer energy demands by more than 75 percent. By lowering your air conditioning demand, living roofs can decrease the production of associated air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Living roofs help to reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect, which is a condition in which urban environments that absorb and trap heat. A green roof's plants help to remove air particulates, provide shade and produce oxygen.

Stormwater Management and Longevity

Additionally, the natural protection with a green roof against extreme heat enables green roofs to last twice as long as that of traditional rooftops. Another important benefit of living and green roofs is their ability to reduce and to slow down stormwater runoff in urban environments. Because the streets and rooftops in urban cities are hard surfaces, the velocity and volume of stormwater runoff increases tremendously and can be a source of pollution and flooding worldwide. Due to the nonporous surfaces like rooftops and pavement, a typical city block generates more than five times more runoff than that of a woodland area of the same size. The ability a living roof has to absorb and to filter water helps to lower the risk of sewer overflows and flash flooding. In the summer, living roofs retain up to 90 percent of the precipitation that falls onto them and up to 40 percent in the winter months.