Part L 2021 has been introduced specifically as a stepping stone, intended to help people prepare for the Future Homes and Buildings Standards in 2025. Having a better understanding of learning curves, however, suggests that the benefit of any preparation is likely to be lost when people are left playing catch-up with the next change.
Read MoreThe future ain't what it used to be: Designing and constructing buildings for the long term
We're really only just getting to grips with these things, when they're an essential part of a lower carbon, less resource intensive future. If we don't do them, and do them quickly, what will remain for us to deal with? Maybe not nuclear waste, but what other costs - economic and social - might we have to bear? And for how long will we have to bear them?
Read MoreWhat billions can buy you in home renovations
In my former life employed in architectural practice, I once worked with a client who wanted a wine cellar below his newly remodelled kitchen. Jeff Bezos, it turns out, has had a similar sort of wine room installed in his mansion in Washington, D.C. That, however, is where any similarities end with the house in Cheshire that I worked on.
Read MoreHighlighting dangerous social housing conditions
Sadly, the extent to which people live in dangerous and unhealthy homes was not surprising. That apologies from landlords and housing providers were only forthcoming once a national television network had highlighted the issue was also not surprising.
Read MoreThe best thing I read in 2021
Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig is a highly-readable and relatable collection of thoughts and essays on how we can deal with rapid shifts in society that, from an evolutionary perspective, we’re simply not equipped to cope with.
Read MoreNew year, new blog subscription service
It looks like the most hackneyed writer’s trick you can imagine: restart a blogging habit on new year’s day and see how long it lasts for. In this case, however, appearances are deceiving.
Read MoreWhat are the 'right' technical qualifications for construction?
Talking to designers, specifiers, contractors, members of the public and the staff in builder’s merchants built my knowledge in a way that no qualification could. So we need to be careful when describing people as ‘qualified’ or ‘having no technical qualifications’.
Read MoreWhen construction marketing talks about reversing climate change
Glib suggestions that ‘specifying and installing product X’ could help to reverse climate change - could contribute to cooling a planet with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than a human has ever experienced - really, really frustrate me.
Read MoreWhat now? Reflections on an Up Men writing workshop
We are not heads of state and nobody will change anything based on what we said or wrote, but still it felt like a summit; a creative peak of a barren year to remind us of what can be achieved when people commune, share, listen and explore what the events of the year have meant individually.
Read MoreDown to earth with a bump: feeling let down by Zac Efron
Efron’s sparkling observations about the role of hydration in human health is as far as I’m going to get. The bonfire of my enthusiasm has been extinguished, had water poured on it, in little over an hour of programming. Who watched the final versions of these episodes prior to broadcast and said, “Yep, that’s exactly what we’re aiming for”?
Read MoreFly, you fools? The unbearable flightlessness of being
By not flying in 2019, I’m trying to make myself feel better about not pledging to go flightless next year. It’s either that or I try to copy Greta Thunberg. How much work could I get done on a two week catamaran journey across the Atlantic…?
Read MoreSound good? Singing in a group and the Up Men programme
I can share what it’s like to have a broad smile on my face during every session. I can offer a glimpse of what it’s like to be there for the moment that happens during the learning of every new song, when we perform the different harmonies together well, and there’s a collective sense of achievement and satisfaction in the room.
Read MoreBegin again: meditation and the art of being in the moment
Because it is easy to make meditation sound like a cult-ish thing. I’m aware that this post could easily make for strange or even uncomfortable reading. The first few times I tried meditation, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at times, just because of how weird the whole thing felt.
Read MoreActions Speak Louder Than Words: How Do I Make a Difference?
We preserve our routines because it makes life easier, and because we don’t see the effect of inaction clearly enough. When it comes to expressing my own view, finding the voice is a start but it can’t be the whole thing. In which case: what’s next? What can I do differently?
Read MoreCreating a Dream Home: The Retrofit Dilemma
I never truly believed I had a shot at bidding for something offering so much potential. And I wasn’t really surprised that somebody could afford to pay at least 164% of the guide price and still turn it into a profit-making opportunity. Even so, the extent to which I didn’t stand chance was still rather demoralising.
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