Our Approach

For about twenty years now we’ve been working on how to combine energy efficiency with beauty in building villages. We travel around the world visiting mainly old places that have been built over time and on a human scale. We take note of what we like in the architecture and the patterns of the streets, and then we incorporate these elements in the design of our houses and villages.

DESIGN FOR BEAUTY
From the start of Living Villages in 1993, we’ve worked on the principle that a building or place will only be sustainable in the long term if people enjoy living in it. If people love where they live they will care for it, adapt it and continue to improve or make it more appropriate for their needs over many generations. Buildings and places that are not loved will eventually fall into disrepair, no matter how iconic in design, and that’s a big waste of resources.

DESIGN FOR CONVIVIALITY
We have found out that the real gains in energy use come from things that are outside of the specification of the buildings. Things like growing your own food, working from home and sharing resources are actually much more effective in reducing carbon footprints than any of the ‘eco-add-ons’ like photovoltaics or CHP systems; especially when put into the context of carbon saved per £ spent.

Therefore it is much more important to design places that stimulate human interaction; places that have surprise and delight, and that encourage people to stop and chat with the neighbours.

We learn from existing communities by looking at how the houses relate to each other; looking at why they have been successful in surviving and the reasons they are the most desirable of places, often attracting a price premium.

We use this information in our design of new buildings and in our use of materials.

DESIGN FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Today we have access to technologies, methods and materials that our ancestors didn’t have. New buildings should use these, but be mindful of how they are to be repaired, adapted and modified in the future. The greatest efficiencies in energy use are from good insulation and paying attention to air-tightness rather than the ‘eco-bling’ that tends to be most prominent in magazine articles. Having designed a good, solid, energy-efficient house we then look at how heat recovery systems and renewable energy can be provided. When we design a range of houses for a given project we think about how these buildings can be flexible and adapted as needs and lifestyles change in the future.

^ back to top