In the media
Houzz
Global Snapshot: Challenges to Building a Sustainable Future
April 03, 2020
In a special report, Houzz editors outline the challenges their countries face to promote sustainable building practices
Place Northwest
SPECIAL REPORT | Buildings ‘must respond to climate crisis’
February 11, 2020
Extinction Rebellion member and Sheppard Robson architect Jasmin Eastwood speaks to Place Northwest about how to address climate change in the built environment, giving the example of the Zetland Passive House
RIBA: Professional Feature
How hard is it to retrofit a house to zero carbon levels?
January 16, 2020
It's one thing to design and construct new, exemplary zero-carbon buildings, but quite another to tackle the huge carbon footprint of the existing built environment. RIBA's Professional Feature writer Neal Morris interviews Kit Knowles.
Reclaim
Inside the UK's Greenest Victorian Home
December 12, 2019
Sustainability specialist Kit Knowles transforms a period property into an eco-friendly world first.
Houzz
Will These Be the Top Design Trends of 2020?
December 12, 2019
We’ve searched through Houzz data, browsed hundreds of interiors photos, and interviewed professional designers to bring you this collection of materials, colours and other home design ideas that you can expect to see a lot more of in 2020.
Blueprint Magazine
Ay-up? Manchester
July 16, 2019
Manchester is booming with so many city centre developments that the sky is a forest of construction cranes. But caution and chill are tempering the city’s confidence. What does the proliferation of residential projects say about Manchester’s future?
Words by Herbert Wright
The Modern House
Insight Report: sustainable living at home
June 02, 2019
Modern House magazine looks at how the idea of sustainable living at home is coming to the fore of multiple fields, keeping designers, architects, developers, and homeowners’ minds busy with how to reduce emissions, cut energy needs and, in some cases, achieve rarefied ‘carbon negative’ status.
House Beautiful
Property: Eco Victorian
April 30, 2019
New-builds are usually thought of as warm, fuel-efficient and ecofriendly, while period homes are seen as cold, draughty and expensive to heat. But now there's a way of renovating older homes to make them as efficient as their younger neighbours - so much so, they don't even need central heating. Words by Jayne Dowle.
Architecture Today
Taking Stock: A pair of Victorian semis have been renovated to the Enerphit Plus standard by Guy Taylor Associates and Ecospheric
February 14, 2019
Kit Knowles, founder of eco consultant Ecospheric bought two adjoining semi-detached houses, then divided into flats and dilapidated, in Chorlton, Manchester. His ambition was to create an exemplary pilot project using old building stock.
Metro
Property: You can teach an old home new tricks…
February 11, 2019
PERIOD features and groundbreaking eco technology might seem strange bedfellows, but they’re exactly what you’ll find in a pair of Victorian townhouses in Zetland Road in the exclusive Manchester suburb of Chorlton. By Andrea Dean.
East Anglian Daily Times
Environmentally-friendly conversion requires no central heating
January 29, 2019
Could this be the future for the country’s old housing stock? A pair of Victorian semis, in Manchester has been converted into passive houses - meeting the world’s toughest performance standards. By David Vincent.
The Fifth Estate
Graphene stars in Passivhaus retrofit of Victorian townhouses
January 22, 2019
Passivehaus homes often have a distinctive look but with the help of a few new technologies and materials such as graphene there’s now more variation in shape and style than ever before – even Victorian-era townhouses are getting the Passivehaus treatment.
Passive House+
Industrial Revolution: Manchester retrofit may be the greenest ever
December 21, 2018
With obsessive attention to preserving and restoring the original fabric of these two Victorian
townhouses, and a commitment to shunning petrochemicals and using only natural materials, could
this be the most wildly ambitious and sustainable passive retrofit ever undertaken in the UK?
Passivhaus Trust
Victorian homes enter 21st century with EnerPHit Plus certification
December 17, 2018
A pair of Victorian semi-detached houses in Zetland Road, Manchester, have just received EnerPHit Pluscertification – the first in the UK to do so – and they’ve done it in style.
BBC R4 Beyond Today
Can Manchester mend the planet?
December 03, 2018
World leaders are meeting in Poland for the latest round of United Nations-sponsored climate talks. The meeting is the most critical on climate change since the 2015 Paris agreement. Since the US pulled out of that deal the scale of the problem can seem overwhelming – as we hear in this episode the Swedes call it “climate angst” and have some radical solutions to address it. But there are plenty of more practical solutions to tackling climate change much closer to home. We travel to Manchester, which plans to go carbon neutral in the next twenty years.
Manchester Evening News
The Chorlton homes which generate their own electricity and require no gas or central heating
March 30, 2018
On completion, later this summer, they will be Europe’s first-ever ‘Passive House Plus’ homes - an ecologically-friendly property which is so firmly insulated and tight it doesn’t need a centralised heating system
Renovations: An Inspirational Design Primer
RIBA publishing. By Richard Wilcock.
May 31, 2016
The UK’s housing stock has proved to be remarkably durable, as houses from the 18th and 19th centuries are still adaptable to the requirements of modern living. However, the need to respect the environment and to reduce energy costs presents a new set of challenges for the owners of period properties.
In Renovations, Richard Wilcock analyses a host of cutting-edge projects to examine the challenges of adapting traditional house types; retaining historic features whilst introducing modern interventions. The book brings together more than two decades of research to showcase the best examples of domestic extensions and internal remodelling in the UK today.
Greenbuilding Magazine
SuperHomers embrace passive solar
August 31, 2012
Passive solar design is no longer limited to Passivhaus and new-build housing projects. It is creeping its way into domestic retrofit too. Homeowners, with the freedom to extend their properties and glaze a south facing façade, are starting to take greater advantage of the sun’s light and warmth. This is reducing the need for artificial lighting, heating and cooling in their homes. Gordon Glass reports ...
