Our ethos as designers and engineers is to develop sustainable buildings, and we specialise in low energy design. Our approach is to inform the conceptual design process so that the buildings are inherently sustainable using passive and active methods, which include:

Making the best use of daylight, so that demand for artificial lighting will be minimised. Our methods will include 3-D computer analysis to calculate daylight factors and solar penetration.

Providing thermal insulation and air tightness levels in excess of the latest Building Regulation requirements. We are increasingly designing buildings to the PassivHaus standard, which limits heating energy to a fraction of current good practice building design.

Designing a natural ventilation strategy and selecting building materials of high thermal mass to absorb internal heat gains, so that the need for mechanical ventilation and/or air conditioning is reduced or eliminated. Our methods will include computer analysis of air movement and thermal performance.

Developing energy efficient systems to minimise the energy consumption of the installed services, including CHP, low energy lighting and appropriate automatic controls

Selecting appropriate renewable energy technologies to meet planning requirements - solar water heating, photovoltaics, ground source heating, biomass and wind power. We assist in identifying grants and other available funding.

For the Stadhaus we used embodied energy calculations for alternative structural materials to replace the need for renewable technologies in a recent housing scheme in Hackney.