Traditional building techniques are not only beautiful. They are also environmentally soundTodor House from the time of the Spanish Armada
Tudor houses leak less energy. Using local materials they have a much better energy efficiency than many more recent buildings. Also an English survey from last year found that because wooden-beam buildings are more airtight due to the use of stones, wattle and daub, they have fewer carbon emissions. The smart way to save energy may be to live in a Tudor house and insulate the attic and repair the windows. Or just to live in a home built by local, traditional techniques and materials be it stones, wood or clay.
The result was presented last year by the English Company, IRT Surveys, which has specialized in surveying buildings through thermographic images infrared building surveys showing air and heat-leaking.
Such studies are important in connection with the current trend where homes and buildings are increasingly produced inside huge factories in former Eastern Europe and shipped as pre-packaged assembly-kits, to be pulled together on location by under-paid imported work gangs. This is currently the practical solution to a promise, which the major of Copenhagen, Rittt Bjerregaard, famously formulated at her election as "5000 flats at 5000 DKK/month within 5 years". From an economical point of view this may be a smart way to solve the housing problems in the huge mega-polis of the 21st century as many city based politicians believe and where building plots are scarce and expensive.
From an environmental point of view it seems to be a deplorable solution.
Read more about ITS Survey
Read more about the current housing problems in Europe
Visit the coordinating European site, fostering sustainable housing
Karen Schousboe
- 20. november 2007
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