The development of homes from single-roomed halls in which every household activity took place to multi-roomed houses is particularly fascinating. In the larger houses of the very wealthy, kitchens and dining rooms would be so far apart that one stately home owner resorted to installing a railway in his property in an effort to deliver food to the table while it was still warm.
Read MoreInsulate Magazine, Issue 18
After reviewing ecobuild in issue 17 - and noting a lot of school groups in attendance, as well as several stands with confusing technical detail - this month I decided to look at whether building physics and performance would be a useful addition to the school curriculum.
Read MoreMan Alive!
Our social groups should have a positive effect, not hold us back. We need to share our stories because we are individual. One of the big messages of Man Up is that we share experiences, not opinions. Bottling things up and being someone we’re not is unhealthy. We need to laugh and cry and feel things because we are human beings.
Read MoreInsulate Magazine, Issue 17
Also in issue 17, I take a look at the language of insulation, and ask whether the traditional model of manufacturers delivering CPD presentations really works. These topics never go out of fashion, and are ones I'd particularly like to encourage feedback on, from all readers.
Read MoreMaking Space(s) for Creativity
Sky-high land prices and poor quality existing building stock make it difficult for anybody to find healthy, comfortable and affordable places to live. For people in the creative industries, finding both places to live and studios or performance spaces that are fit for purpose is particularly difficult.
Read MoreBalancing Design and Specification
It should be second nature to check the age of 'news' these days, but I was too interested in the subject matter to immediately pay attention to the date of publication. As a piece on how buildings fail their users, it felt every bit a story made in 2018. To discover that it was actually written four and half years ago only served to show that performance gaps have been a problem for a long time, and lessons are slow in being learned.
Read MoreInsulate Magazine, Issue 16
Readers of the magazine will likely be familiar with conventional uses of insulation in construction, so this month I drew on experience of questions about more unusual applications for thermal insulation products. I also look at the new external wall insulation (EWI) system from Mauer UK, which uses offsite manufacturing techniques to make EWI installation a year-round possibility.
Read MoreWhat do you do if you see a spaceman?
This isn’t a minimalism blog. I’m not here to pass comment on how people live their lives. What I am interested in is: how much space do we actually need versus how much space we want?
Read MoreFlourishing Habitats for Wildlife and People
An article published last month on the CIAT website highlighted new guidelines - Homes for People and Wildlife - published by The Wildlife Trusts aimed at achieving a better balance between the needs of people and the needs of wildlife, amid the government's stated intention to build some 300,000 new homes a year.
Read MoreMaking the Leap: Three Months In
Three months since making the leap seemed like a good time to take stock and share some of what has interested me lately. If you get some value from any of these links, or come across something you think might interest me, let me know! Contact details are at the front of the site, and social media links are at the foot of every page. Here's to the next three months!
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