Prologue... Introducing

With the imperative to drastically reduce carbon emissions and with the UK facing a social housing shortage, the construction industry has been presented with an opportunity to alter the way that housing is delivered in the UK. Rather than building with an emphasis only on housing density and share-holder return, concepts such as 'Place-Making' are gaining more weight. It is more important than ever for the construction industry to engage with the communities to increase awareness and ease integration of sustainable technologies allowing a transition to communities independent of fossil fuels.

As an Architectural Technologist, with over 7 years experience in the construction industry throughout the UK and in Germany, I have gained a strong insight into a range of developments as well as building up technical knowledge. Energy performance and sustainable construction/design was a thread I attempted to follow throughout my bachelors, resulting in my dissertation topic on the introduction of Swedish Building Standards in Scotland. This was unfortunately, a thread that I struggled to take into my professional life, both through a lack of experience and technical knowledge, without the full confidence required to argue the case for incorporating sustainable technologies and technique with clients. Having found myself on the sharp end of the most biting recession supposedly since the great depression, I intend on using this experience as an opportunity to focus my energies towards sustainability within the construction industry, and to increase my knowledge of not only greener building technologies, but also how we can design communities holistically, addressing environmental concerns whilst acknowledging time and cost restraints. Having recently been accepted to study Sustainable Community Design at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, it is my hope that I will no longer have to wait for another economic bubble to appear before I am able to combine my existing skills and knowledge with this new specialism and start to work on a number of exciting sustainable projects.

.... and so to the purpose of this blog.

It is my intention to highlight existing and new technologies, design methods and case studies that demonstrate that the international building industry is not only capable of meeting the challenges of the future, but is already, and has already provided prospective clients with several examples of how this can be done. This blog will hopefully provide clear and easily comprehensible descriptions that can be understood by individuals not normally associated with the construction industry, or perhaps as they are better known, clients. After all, one of the main obstacles to a sustainable future is the inability to sufficiently communicate with clients and the public in general about the benefits to be had. And somewhere along the way, I will also hopefully be improving my essay writing skills which should come in handy for the masters. Incidentally, this is the first year that Sustainable Community Design has been offered at Heriot Watt University so this blog may hopefully provide an insight into the course for any prospective students or indeed employers.