Scottish Ecological Design Association
The Executive offered the Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) Sustainable Action Grant of £23,250 per year for the three years 2004-07 for the publication of three "Green Detailing Guides" for building designers on deconstruction; air-tightness and minimising organic chemical content in the fabric of buildings. The guides were to encourage the design of buildings making better use of physical resources and help reduce energy consumption in use - to promote construction best practice in relation to sustainable development and human well-being.
Each guide would contain guidance on common building types to target the greatest 'quantity' of current construction in Scotland, with cost guidance approved by independent defects liability insurers so that busy professionals could rely on the alternative details without a significant input of research, and additional liability.
A lack of resources to undertake the research required and a fear of exposure to litigation from building failure can inhibit the adoption of more environmentally benign and health promoting forms of construction. As a consequence there has been reliance on tried and tested solutions, mostly learned from standard manuals - not necessarily taking account of either sustainability or environmental justice - which can be detrimental to both the environment and the users of buildings.
With membership including leading authorities on sustainable design, SEDA brought together current best practice to produce three "Green Detailing Guides".
- 'Design and Detailing for Deconstruction' - designing buildings to be easily and cheaply adapted, maintained, disassembled and elements re-used.
- 'Design and Detailing for Airtightness' - designing buildings to be airtight, avoiding draughts and reducing energy whilst ensuring proper levels of moisture control.
- 'Design and Detailing for Chemical Reduction in Buildings' - finding alternatives to the high number of unhealthy and polluting chemicals and chemical additives in conventional building materials and components.
Design and Detailing for Deconstruction
The construction industry is responsible for vast quantities of waste. Professor Fleming of the Envirocentre in Glasgow considers that for every 15 houses built, a 16th could be built from the waste, yet buildings designed for deconstruction can be wholly adapted, maintained, disassembled and the materials re-used so that virtually no waste is created.
This Guide, dealing with the refurbishment and demolition of buildings, was completed and launched in April 2005. It gives common detail areas of different construction. It aims to improve the performance of the construction industry in Scotland with relatively little change in practice.
Design and Detailing for Airtightness
Fuel poverty, ill health and high energy use can be attributed partly to the lack of control users have over unwanted draughts in buildings which airtight detailing can prevent. High levels of building fabric insulation are now enshrined in the Scottish Building Regulations, but these do not extend to the crucial role that airtightness plays in the external envelope, second only in significance to fabric insulation levels.
The Guide draws on links with Scandinavian best practice and the expertise which already exists in Scotland to develop costed, approved and relevant details.
Then Deputy Minister for Environment and Rural Development Rhona Brankin launched the second guide, Design and Detailing for Airtightness, in March 2006 and emphasised the important role that the design, construction and maintenance of the built environment must play in creating a more sustainable future. Speaking to a SEDA seminar in Edinburgh, she said: "The new guide has an obvious and important role to play in support of Scottish Ministers' policies on energy use, the environment and sustainable development. The energy used for heating, providing hot water, cooling and lighting our homes accounts for about a third of our total energy consumption and a third of our greenhouse gas emissions." Ms Brankin emphasised the need for a sustainable approach as an integral and necessary part of good design.
Design and Detailing for Chemical Reduction in Buildings
Current trends towards low ventilation levels in homes, the ubiquitous presence of ever more synthesised chemicals in the built environment and an increasingly sedentary life style have major health implications. The effects are most noticeable in Scotland 's youth, who suffer high rates of asthma.
This guide - completed with some delay in 2008 - examines in detail the nature of the problems surrounding modern construction materials and products and looks to an alternative approach in order to reduce the chemical load on building occupants. It has the capacity in the long term to reduce the endemic rise of chemicals in the built environment and so effect considerable benefits to health in Scotland.
The publications are available on the website shown below.
Contact
Scottish Ecological Design Association
c/o Gill Pemberton, SEDA Administrator
The Library Wing
Abbey St Bathans
Duns
Berwickshire
TD11 3TX
Website: www.seda2.org