Zero Ambitions Podcast

Part two of our series on shading, this time with a return appearance from Tom Dollard of Pollard Thomas Edwards who joined us in January 2023 to talk about lazy thinking. Ostensibly, this time we met to talk about the Good Homes Alliance design guide for shading, as a follow-up to December's episode with Zoe De Grussa.  On reflection we realised that the guide does a good enough job without us disecting it, so we spent more time discussing why such a guide is necessary, how the industry needs to change, and why it’s struggling to do so (culture, economics, and politics…the usual).Content warning: it is a very rambling episode but in spite of its very loose sense of direction the conversation does cover a lot.  The warning is just because we only really talk about shading 20 minutes in, so heads-up if you read this before you start listening.Also, it’s a very UK-heavy discussion because those were the conditions in which the research was created, but they’re pretty-much analogous for a great deal of Ireland, North America, and probably great swathes of Europe too. Please check the link below, download the PDF, read it, and share it - it’s a brilliant piece of work.Notes from the showTom on LinkedInThe Pollard Thomas Edwards websiteShading for housing: Design guide for a changing climate, published by the Good Homes Alliance in collaboration with the BBSA**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

With us this week is new friend, Kelly Alvarez Doran, via an introduction from Lloyd to talk about his experiences at COP28 and his carbon reduction consultancy Ha/f Climate Design that's challenged itself to reduce Canadian construction's emissions by half.We get sidetracked almost immediately while we talk about Kelly's background as an architect, working in mining, and the big changes to philosophy on building after working in Rwanda. In spite of the early diversion, we spent the whole conversation consistently hitting the same key themes themes:Embodied carbon and life cycle analysis Designing for the end of Oil-Age architectureRethinking the role of building design in the age of embodied carbon Kelly's great. He'll be back. Hopefully without any sound issues next time (it gets better after a bit).Also, XPS = Extruded polystyrene insulation.Notes from the showKelly on LinkedinConversations on the phasing out of oil felt paradoxical amidst the Dubai backdrop (The Architect's Newspaper, January 2024), Kelly's original view from COP28Embodied Embodied carbon values of common insulation materials (Canadian Architect, April 2021) i.e. the article with the chart that names brand names alongside embodied carbon values and egregious payback lead times for common insulation materialsThe YouTube video of the Straw Panel vs. Conventional Construction Burn Test that Kelly refers toThe Ha/f Climate Design websiteBuilding LCA for Architects Online Course (OneClick) a free primer course for architects by KellyThe UK Government Flood Risk Tool **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

This one is about conservation-led retrofit and the retrofit of commercial (or institutional) building stock. We were invited to see a recent Iarnród Éireann (Irish Railway) retrofit project and meet with Heidi Hopper-Duffy (Environmental & Sustainability Manager) and its architect David Hughes (Senior Conservation Architect & Energy Specialist).Ostensibly, we're talking about energy efficiency and conservation of built heritage. The project was led by David, a retrofit of a historic building shared between Iarnród Éireann and the Chief Medical Officer's (CMO) office. We talk about it but you'll get to see the works in much more detail when Jeff features it in the pages of Passive House Plus. In this case, the railway, guided by David and Heidi's experience, can be lauded as a leader in its field and these sorts of projects are illustrative of the challenges and opportunities that come with working in a large company or institution.We also cover broader bits: design for deconstruction, BERs, what should we be quantifying i.e. carbon or energy, or what?Mind the background noise - we had a few unexpected background interruptions from an occasionally boisterous meeting room next door. Notes from the showIarnród Éireann and sustainabilityDavid Hughes on LinkedinHeidi Hopper-Duffy on LinkedInThe Train Drivers' building, as it appears in Passive House PlusThe National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) for Ireland websiteThat awful retrofit cut out that Fionn Stevenson posted aboutThe Passive House Association of IrelandICOMOS Ireland (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) **SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

The first of our Dublin field recordings is with Archie O'Donnell a long-time face green building in Ireland, a fella who Jeff has a lot of time for, and someone Alex and I hadn't met yet. It was a good call. Originally trained as an architect, Archie has worked his way through the industry, recently joining Danish/Irish consultancy KOSMOS, so there was plenty of scope for the conversation to meander from observations on how the green building industry has changed and is changing, to costing sustainability, accounting for language, the impact of the EU taxonomy and imminent evolutions in energy rating.Interestingly, we didn't recognise the significance of Jeff's Calvinball analogy though, so listen out for that. In Calvinball nature of the game was to make the rules up as you go along, so you're never really held accountable, you can't lose, and the game you're playing can't be brought to an end. This definitely echoes the nature of our fossil fuel, ESG, and sustainability accounting systems. Notes from the showArchie on LinkedInThe KOSMOS websiteCalvinball - check it, Jeff may have stumbled onto something there**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

This week we have Lloyd's latest Passive House Plus Revisited, a conversation with passive house heads Alan Clarke and Nick Grant about the passive house archive project that left Lloyd so smitten when he visited it last summer.That we’re discussing archive systems shouldn’t put folk off - the point is about thinking differently, about what the challenge really is, recognising the reality of systems, the elevation of simplicity, and reclaiming the phrase “value engineering”.Notes from the showFollow Nick Grant on Twitter and Bluesky Follow Alan Clarke on Twitter and BlueskyThe Passive House Plus article that inspired the episode: Hereford archive chooses passive preservation, by Kate de SelincourtElemental Solutions, their practiceThe Conservation Physics website that we mention**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Happy new year! This week's episode brings you a conversation with Ethan Wadsworth of DiscreteHeat the manufacturers of our new favourite energy efficient (non-radiator and non underfloor) based heating system ThermaSkirt. We're not there to bang on about a product we like, what we found interesting about this one is that it’s an overnight, award-winning success that took fifteen years to bring to fruition. This means that our conversation is mainly about what’s changed in the heating and building space to enable the growing demand for ThermaSkirt, and what that can tell us about the broader market for products related to sustainability and decarbonisation. Ethan had a lot to say about why the product is relevant now, not just what it does and how it works.There's a lot that folk in the decarbonisation sector could learn from these guys because they’ve really considered the customer experience of both the end consumer, the distributor, and the installer. This is proper business strategy using analysis of all user journeys and experiences, so we love it. We also talk about heating design for a bit too.Notes from the showThe ThermaSkirt websiteEthan Wadsworth on LinkedInThermodul vs Thermaskirt® – Skirting Heating Systems Compared, the Thermodul-produced article we start talking aboutThe ThermaSkirt YouTube channelThermaSkirt on Instagram**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Happy post-Christmas day, hope you made it through OK. Today we have part two of the latest Passive House Plus revisited, looking at Lloyd Alter's favourite article of 2021: Seeing the wood for the trees - Placing ecology at the heart of construction.Again, we're joined by authors Lenny Antonelli and Andy Simmonds talking about mass timber, embodied carbon, why we should just use less and, unexpectedly, the place of AI.It turned out to be an extra long one but it felt deserving of the space, so rather than butcher the conversation we thought we'd just cut it in two and let you hear the lot. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.Notes from the showThe PH+ article: Seeing the wood for the trees - Placing ecology at the heart of constructionLenny Antonelli on LinkedinAndy Simmonds on LinkedInAn article with the 'just do less pyramid' from Treehugger: Can Architects Survive in a World Where We Have to Build Less?Another article with the 'just do less pyramid' from Treehugger: The Key to Green Building Is to Use Less StuffA link to the Half earth paper: Protecting half of the planet could directly affect over one billion peopleThe AECB Youtube channelBiomass - a burning issue, the AECB-commissioned article by Nick Grant and Alan Clarke (only the cached version appears to exist online now)The Guardian article about the 10% contributing the most carbon emissions  The Finnish paper Lloyd references: The sufficiency perspective in climate policy: How to recompose consumption**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

Merry Christmas!This week we have a Passive House Plus revisited two-parter for you, led by our occasional co-host Lloyd Alter, looking at his favourite article of 2021: Seeing the wood for the trees - Placing ecology at the heart of construction.We're joined by authors Lenny Antonelli and Andy Simmonds and the conversation wheels around, covering the place of mass timber as a solution to construction's problems, embodied carbon, why we should just use less, and why it's so hard to use less, amongst lots of other things.It turned out to be an extra long one but it felt deserving of the space, so rather than butcher the conversation we thought we'd just cut it in two and let you hear the lot. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.Notes from the showThe PH+ article: Seeing the wood for the trees - Placing ecology at the heart of constructionLenny Antonelli on LinkedinAndy Simmonds on LinkedInAn article with the 'just do less pyramid' from Treehugger: Can Architects Survive in a World Where We Have to Build Less?Another article with the 'just do less pyramid' from Treehugger: The Key to Green Building Is to Use Less StuffA link to the Half earth paper: Protecting half of the planet could directly affect over one billion peopleThe AECB Youtube channelBiomass - a burning issue, the AECB-commissioned article by Nick Grant and Alan Clarke (only the cached version appears to exist online now)The Guardian article about the 10% contributing the most carbon emissions  The Finnish paper Lloyd references: The sufficiency perspective in climate policy: How to recompose consumption**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

It's all about shading, overheating, and solar gain with Zoe De Grussa this week. She's the author of that infamous Camden overheating case study that Jeff always references and, at the time of writing, is technical and sustainability consultant at the British Blind and Shutter Association (BBSA).We cover Camden, but perhaps more interesting is the conversation around the difficulties in modeling shading, and the consequent difficulty in communicating its value to a project. Despite shading measures being 3-4 times cheaper to install at the point of a building's origination, rather than retrofitting it when there's a problem, it's all too often one of the first things value-engineered out of the specification.Notes from the showZoe on LinkedInThe BBSA websiteThe Home Energy Modeling ConsultationZoe's infamous academic paper: Overheating Camden Case Study. A London Residential Retrofit Case Study: Evaluating passive mitigation methods of reducing risk to overheating through the use of solar shading combined with night-time ventilation. (You can pay for a version here too, if you want.) A BBSA video of the Camden case studySome new research from the Blinds Make Better Campaign, in collaboration with the University of Salford Energy House Labs The Good Homes Alliance shading guide: Shading for Housing Design Guide for a Changing Climate**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**

We are joined by Loreana Padron to talk about what it is that a Head of Sustainability does and, more broadly, the value of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) to all the stakeholders in a retrofit project.Loreana tells us about the path she's taken to becoming Head of Sustainability at Architecture firm ECD, a leading sustainability-focused practice, and we take some time to revisit the Wilmcote House project which we featured way back in 2021. This time, we're more focused on the POE aspect, in part, driven by the inclusion of the Wilmcote House project in Marion Baeli's 10 retrofits revisited project which we featured back in April.Some listeners may want to go back to episode, 23 EnerPHit at Scale with James Traynor of ECD Architects. It's a very old one, so please bear in mind that as badly produced as this podcast may be now (still) we've got a lot better. The content is excellent still though because James is brilliant and it's an amazing project. Listen out for news about the retrofit design course she's been editing and the 'secret' group of heads of sustainability, something that should be a much more common model for sharing knowledge, providing an opportunity for bigger practices who can invest in research to share it with smaller practices to further the cause.Notes from the showLoreana Padron on LinkedInWilmcote House on ZAP in 2021 (e23): EnerPHit at Scale with James Traynor of ECD ArchitectsECD's page on Wilmcote HousePassive House Plus on Wilmcote HouseThat canary air monitor that Jeff mentions: Canairi**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.Follow us on the Zero Ambitions LinkedIn pageJeff, Alex, and Dan about websites, branding, and communications - zap@eiux.agency; Everything is User ExperienceSubscribe and advertise with Passive House Plus (UK edition here too)Check Lloyd's Substack: Carbon UpfrontJoin ACANJoin the AECB Join the IGBCCheck out Her Own Space, the renovation and retrofit platform for women (but not in a patronizing way)**END OF SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**