Eco-pioneers: We know we have to change our habits, but how do we go about it? Here are but a few pioneers showing the way:
SALLY STARBUCK, ARCHITECT
Sally Starbuck trained as an architect but works for a firm of "ecotects". "Archi in Greek means the master - and the dominance of nature - but we're working within systems that already exist on a site, such as the microclimate and so on," says Starbuck, a director at Paul Leech GAIA Ecotecture, where she has worked for 13 years.
The Yorkshirewoman says that there are a surprising number of her fellow county people in the environmental world. "Yorkshire people are used to being social pariahs and telling people things they don't want to hear," she says, laughing. "My first job was in Yorkshire, for a local firm which was doing modern architecture with local materials in response to the landscape." The interest in regional materials and craftsmanship has stayed with her.
"High-quality construction - which the people making it put their heart and soul into because they're interested in it - is equally as important as solar panels. In fact there's a whole school of thought that says: 'Don't bother with the solar panels, just build correctly with good insulation and draught proofing and you'll do as much good as if you bolted any number of things on the roof.' "
Projects by Paul Leech GAIA Ecotecture, which was set up 27 years ago, tend to be for owner-occupiers, which has resulted in commissions for projects from private houses to credit unions.The latest credit union is in Navan; the firm presented its design for the building, which uses natural ventilation and solar heating, at the recent World Sustainable Building conference in Tokyo.
Its better for a building's owner to use it rather than let it out; otherwise, says Starbuck: "The owner isn't worried about running costs and the tenant isn't worried about installation, maintenance and repair costs: if you put the two together people make better decisions. Since oil prices went up in the summer, though, tenants have begun to worry more about running air conditioning."
One project she is working on is in the Village, an eco-community of more than 100 homes in Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary. Starbuck is designing a community centre there, and another eco-architecture practice, Solearth, is designing the masterplan and some of the other buildings. "My building is mainly timber and it will be clad in either render or lovely green slates that we've used on other projects."
Wood-fired heating will be supplied to all of the homes from a central source and the solar panels to heat everyone's water will also be grouped together. "Having things centralised rather than having one on each house is more efficient," says Starbuck.
"People need to take control and responsibility. Members of the Village didn't want the standard builder's house so they've gone about making an alternative. It's entirely open to anyone else to do that. If you have a monoculture in any ecological system - whether it be agriculture or whatever - it just skews the picture and all the little creatures have no hope. We need more diversity.
The market seems to think there's a choice between an apartment in the city or a house on the outskirts. So people are pushed into weird life patterns of driving too far or for too long."
Emma Cullinan
Irish Times 2007
