Grand Designs Live: Richard Hawkes Discusses Crossway
Kevin McCloud poses a question to the audience, “Who here likes this house?” 99% agree they like it. There is one dissenting voice in the crowd, and McCloud asks why. “I like the traditional look”, comes back the answer. This is a good place to begin a discussion of Richard Hawkes’ Crossway house as featured in the latest series of Grand Designs.How do we approach the design of a home? Do you pursue the vernacular tradition of the local area or do you push the boundaries? Do you make a statement? Do you pay head to planning? Maybe you do all these things. McCloud is keen to remain ever populist in his answer to his own question. He lives in an old house with its own character and he wouldn’t have it any other way. However here is the point. Whether it is the Hall house, a Georgian Townhouse or a grandiose Victorian pile, the house has always set its own typology. The 21st century house of now need be no different. Like those classic examples the house of today should give a nod to its contemporaries without resorting to mimicry.
Crossway. Photo by James Brittain from Crossway website
Crossway is a striking design for a home in this quiet corner of Kent. It stands in open countryside and says here I am, and yet it is almost as if it has always been here. In my opinion every house should be generated as a response to the place in which it is built. In this instance old materials from the local area are used, but in an innovative way. Brick is reappropriated to form a striking arch that envelopes the building.
Crossway in context. Photo by James Brittain from Crossway website
This arch lends a landmark quality to the building. Based on a 500 year old principle the parabolic form consists of hundreds of tiny clay tiles cemented together. The impressive thing about the arch is that it is entirely freestanding unsupported by the rest of the house.
Crossway in context. Photo by James Brittain from Crossway website
With a home, the user must also be considered when approaching a design. Of course this is easier said a done when the end user is not known. In this instance Hawkes was designing for himself. The desire to build a new home grew from a desire for lifestyle change. Hawkes explained that this first started with a change in eating habits. He chose only to buy British food and this led to eating food on a seasonal basis. At this point McCloud and Hawkes broke off to discuss the best of British. They recommend Sharpham Sparkling Wine from Devon (of course!) amongst other things.
This desire to review ones behaviour and to change behaviour intrigues me. It may seem idealistic to believe in a lifestyle change in these difficult times however I think Hawkes presents a strong argument. A move out of London eventually came and the design for an ecological sustainable building became reality.
The environmental strategy is based on a hybridised ‘Passiv Haus’ principal. The ‘Passiv Haus’ approach is based on highly insulated sealed lightweight box that is ventilated mechanically and harnesses the warmth from solar gain. Because temperatures are maintained by the air then the standard heating system is not required.
In the case of Crossway the clay brick arch acts as thermal heat sink around sealed timber boxes. A foot of insulation in the floor slab and recycled newspaper insulation in the walls prevents heat loss. Additional thermal mass comes in the form of a paraffin wax phase change material. The wax has 3-4 times more thermal capacity than water. A 35W Heat Recovery and Ventilation (HRV) unit is used to heat and ventilate the house instead of the conventional boiler and the need for trickle vents. Air is drawn into the house and is warmed by the exchange in heat from the exhaust air.
This strategy is reportedly very healthy. Every 20 minutes an air change occurs within the house. This leads to an interesting question from the audience. Do you live in a vacuum? The answer to this question begins with the origins of the Passiv Haus principle. It is popular in Scandinavian countries which are colder than the temperate UK climate. So in those countries it is akin to living in a vacuum. In this case Hawkes is keen to stress that the HVR can be turned off in summer and he can open up the windows and doors and let the fresh air in. In winter the windows can be close and the HVR can run quietly and efficiently maintaining the thermal comfort of the house.
In terms of the energy hierarchy Hawkes has succeeded in reducing energy consumption by design alone. To supplement the reduction he has specified renewable systems in the form of a 26m² Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) array. This is an innovation which arose from a flaw in the design of the standard photovoltaics (PV). Perversly a PV is inefficient when it gets too hot. However combining the PV with solar thermal collectors means that fluid will cool the PV. This makes the PVT 25% more efficient than standard PVs. In fact the combination of good design and technology means that the house can actually pay back to the grid. It has the capacity to generate £1800 of excess energy per year.
There are several ways to monitor the success of a building. Monitoring is very important as it will lead to a calibration of the building system resulting in efficient operations and comfortable living environment. The house has 40 sensors that each monitors the house. At the end of each month a set of results is produced for analysis by Hawkes and Cambridge University.
Photo by Jesper Knapton from Crossway website
A home’s success can be monitored and its success can be registered as data for building physics. The ordinary home owner will just want a successful environment. Hawkes response to his new home is very positive. This is probably the greatest vote of confidence.
To visit Crossway click here
8 Responses to “Grand Designs Live: Richard Hawkes Discusses Crossway”
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Mark Ellery on May 9th, 2009
great blog!
i would like to visit and photograph this building, it seems interesting.
I think the person in the audience who said they like traditional houses is right to have said so – there is nothing wrong with tradition and anyone who wants a traditional building should have one.
BUT this does not mean we should still be building them! Victorian houses are one hundred years old, they are good, but they have had their time – we should learn from them and move on now. We dont still drive cars that are a hundred years old do we?! And we dont still design them to try and LOOK a hundred years old do we?!
Contempory architecture needs to be a bit more aggressive – we need to stop bending over backwards for history, stop “respecting the context” and using it to justify building outdated and boring “noddy homes”… They are simply uninspiring buildings that developers understand and can build cheaply without being challenged.
As Rob pointed out – many homes are an adaptation of tudor / georgin / victorian, with many parts added as the years go on,,,, This is not bad, this is a visual and historical time line. We should be adding our own contemporary parts to old buildings, not copying what was already there and making “fake” history.
Lets hope the recession inspires new innovation and design and we see a stop to this boring mass housing trickery
Robert Pike on May 9th, 2009
http://www.festivalofarchitecture.org/event/view/47
You may wish to follow this link if you wish to visit and photograph it. I will definitely go.
Might the reason the person said no to liking new buildings be because contemporary housing has been dross led by mass house builders?
I like your comparison of the car and the house. It is very good. We do not drive Model T Fords around as the car industry has evolved to what it is today with new production techniques and green technologies. Why shouldn’t homes be the same? Good design will always shine through. The sucess of Crossway is that it is a good design and it is built to last.
Mark Ellery on May 9th, 2009
i have written lots of articles about new projects, some by developers , here is one at – http://www.boidus.co.uk/?p=452
i agree, we are not pushing developers hard enough, just look at how good europe is in comparison with england, but we are catching up and i plan on writing about th hanham hall scheme by barrat
Robert Pike on May 10th, 2009
How do you think developers should be pushed to produce better homes? As a one off, this house is very good but it wouldn’t transfer to amass produced option as it is. The technologies work and can be applied elsewhere.
What are good examples from Europe? Perhaps you could just post a few images under the title of sucessful European housing examples?
I am keen to hear about Hanham Hall.
killion on May 14th, 2009
Good work guys. I agree with your above discusion on encouraging developers to build better homes. I should say though that in most cases the CLient needs to be educated on the benefits of good design and good projects development. This is where the root of the poor development really lies.
Too many client put their trust on developers not because they trust them but sometimes because they lack the basic knowledge of what to expect from developers apart from saving money and early delivery.
…and by clients here i mean also share holders and investors who make the devlelopers do what they do.
Robert Pike on May 14th, 2009
Mark and I are actually going to see this house. I have already told the Architect that we researching his building and so hopefully we can write more.
Mark Ellery on May 15th, 2009
Q)
how should developers be pushed to produce better homes?
A)
- homes that receive a CSH (code for sustainable homes) rating of lower than 6 should not be awarded planing permission – simples
The current (academic) project that I am working on is trying to prove that contemporary, sustainable, affordable housing is possible at a mass produced large scale and at a reasonable density (117 dwellings per hectare), this is above the average london density (105 dph) and also relates to the urban grain of london – 50% of london is private external gardens, in my project i achieve over 50% of the site as green space (for crop production – urban architecture)
http://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/events/event_diary_details.asp?id=445 – this is a very good free exhibition if you are interested in inner city crop production
I will be publishing my prototype studies as part of the “original boidus content” for free download in the future. in it i am discussing prototype homes such as accordia, hanham hall (barrat CSH level 6 scheme – the first mass produced csh 6 scheme in britain) and others
I focus mainly on contemporary housing in britian, but i will also include some examples from europe and some historical examples. though these are less relevant because european expectations are very different to english ones:
for example, a typical english person expects to own their own home, whereas on th continent people are satisfied with RENTED apartment living for their whole life
this is something that requires further research, I plan to learn more about english social status and expectations of living over the summer months
Robert Pike on May 15th, 2009
Funnily enough I was going to ask you about that exhibition LOL! I’ll go next Friday!