Pressure testing buildings to so-called Passivhaus standards is a frustrating business involving a lot of crawling and scrambling about inspecting junctions and interfaces for the tiniest gaps and cracks. The theory is that with mechanical ventilation and heat recovery there is no reason why the fabric should leak conditioned air, and therefore energy. With a huge jacket of insulation surrounding the building, including the floor, even the heat from the toaster is not wasted.
I visited an early example of a super efficient house near Nottingham once, and Bill Dunster’s Zero Carbon housing estate in Croydon. Apart from a sort of cave-like feeling, the windows being set deep in the surrounding insulation, it was pleasant enough inside these dwellings. No heating, or at most some top up arrangement involving wood burning, but apparently still comfortable through the winter. I have to say it was nicer sitting in the red pavilion by the Serpentine gallery in glorious October sunshine. It was more of a tent than a building and we really enjoyed the loose inside/outside spatial definition.
These projects sit either side of a line; two hardly use any energy at all, the third would require a constant injection of transient heat to keep it toasty - as profligate as a patio heater. As an energy efficiency engineer, I’m not predisposed to taking the red pavilion seriously as a habitable building, and to be fair it would make a better bar than a dwelling, but if the energy used to heat it was renewable and carbon neutral, well, would it matter how energy inefficient the space was?
Actual heat escaping from buildings isn’t the primary cause of global warming, right? It’s greenhouse gases and the sun. Are we then destined to return to cave dwelling? What can I say when I liked sitting in the red pavilion so much, sipping coffee and watching life pass by. Poz loved it too, he made a friend and they pinballed off the fabric and furnishings, neither properly inside nor out. Maybe caves are for sleeping in and tents for going out, it’s rarely all one way.
Being two means Poz has occasional meltdowns, the source of which can be hard to discern. The slightest thing can set him off which is frustrating for all, especially him. We think a lot of it is his frustration with understanding his own emotions and screwy communication with us on this delicate subject. When he’s in a real state, nothing is right, even if he gets what we think it is that he wants. You try not to laugh but it’s hard, we’ve all been there, and sooner or later you’ve got to let it go. Rage burns bright but it’s totally unsustainable.
Recently after a bout of crying Jane asked him, “Poz, are you having a bit of a negative moment?”
“No, no, no,” the little boy sobbed.
It’s not easy being two.
