Sustainability

1st Architects is committed to designing and implementing projects to appropriate levels of sustainability, to meet your own expectations and environmental regulations. Accommodating the principles of good sustainable design at an early stage need not automatically increase your project costs particularly when lifecycle costs are considered.

As far as possible we will design to minimise solar gain in summer, and maximise the potential for natural cooling and ventilation. We accommodate good levels of insulation and airtightness to minimise the requirement for heating which, of course, has financial advantages going forward.

Accommodating the principles of good sustainable design at an early stage need not automatically increase your project costs

Ever stricter planning and building regulations now require new build houses and commercial developments to be designed with an active mens of reducing energy consumption, for example solar water heating or photovoltaic installation. We have integrated these requirements on many occasions in the past as well as ground source heating and cooling, air source heating and cooling, and heat recovery ventilation.

We recently designed a new build Code 4 (Code for Sustainable Homes) house that was successfully completed, constructed from Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF). The Code for Sustainable Homes for gauges the whole lifecycle environmental impact of the materials used, amongst other factors.