The earth’s oceans and biomass can absorb 13 to 14 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. If this ‘budget’ were equally distributed between the 5.8 billion inhabitants, each of us would have the right to discharge a little more than 2.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

About this web site
This website is based around a new autonomous building proposed to be built within the Snowdonia National Park, Wales.  As the building is proposed to be sited within this sensitive context the buildings use and its construction are to be examined closely, to ensure that the best possible example can be set, particularly as this building carries with it a very strong environmental agenda as stated in the brief.  The proposed building is a both a Youth Hostel and a visitor centre educating and catering for school children and the small numbers of visitors to the lakes.

This project has developed in response to the brief which stated that the building should not only be functional and useful to the immediate area, but that is should address global issues of pollution, exploitation and the environment at large further to being a architectural showcase.  Building consumes massive amounts of energy and in doing so pollutes on a truly massive scale, from material extraction to finished product the embodied energy levels in one material compared to the next can be very different.  The embodied energy content of buildings is growing as hi-tech materials and products are employed to bring down operating cost, the brief clearly states that the proposal should be born of low embodied energy materials and services at every stage and justified along the way.  In doing this the building exemplifies all that is sustainable in a modern world, providing a showcase of sustainable building and autonomous construction.

Why be autonomous?
The need to be self sufficient and autonomous is more evident every day.  The recent threats of Sadam Husaine to impose an oil embargo is just one of the more recent and obvious cases for a more localised and self sustaining existence. Our dependence upon other countries across the globe for goods and services, embroils the developed world into an unstable and fragile infrastructure of dependence and reliance, constantly under threat from world leaders who are not happy with their lot.  

  

This global trading creates massive amounts of pollution from the transportation of goods and services, which frequently cause untold damage to the environment, from the sheer volume of burnt fuel, or perhaps more obviously from oil spills into the seas around the globe.  The environment is coming under increasing strain from our exploitation of the world, and the pollution created in the process, mother nature is being rapped.  Unless things start to change soon the balance of nature may be upset for good!

How to use this site
Click on the navigation buttons to the left, explore and find out about:-

         The Project - Where you are now!
         The Site - The proposed site in Wales, animation and stills
         The Building - The proposed building, animations and stills
         Building Materials - Examine the materials used in the projects construction
         Materials Index - Compare other building products environmental impact
         Project Development - Explore the development of the project.
         Back to Index - Takes you to the Index page.
         Links - Resources used for this project and further sources of information


Product/Materials analysis
The analysis carried out here is the culmination of research carried into the environmental credentials of many materials and products specified daily within the building trade. The analysis and assessment under the following headings:

In production
    energy use
    resource depletion
    toxics
    pollution - acid rain
    photochemical oxidants
    other factors

In use
    energy use
    durability
    recyclability
    health
    other factors