AutomatedBuildings.com Article - Green Guy Goes Global

I'm off on a sabbatical for the next few months (or more!), starting in London, on the way to Shanghai. I'm shaping the trip around green and vernacular buildings and city planning efforts.

Ian Theaker
consulting engineer based in Vancouver, BC, Integral Design/Engineering specializes in reducing the energy consumption and environmental impacts of buildings.

As you may know, I left Vancouver June 19th, starting a long sabbatical through Europe, Southeast Asia and China, beginning with the UK. With our 'Santa Monica Green Building Design and Construction Guidelines' now complete, and the (many!) loose ends in Vancouver wrapped up, I finally set off on my long-anticipated 'wanderjahr'. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye personally to many of you, to my regret - but here at least is a way to contact me as I travel.

My rough itinerary in Europe is Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany; after that I'm off to Bangkok, my intended base for explorations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet Nam. Then I hope to explore the China coast, by train from Viet Nam to Shenzen and Hong Kong, then on to Shanghai and Beijing. Time is less of an issue than budget; and if I find an interesting project or two along the way, I'll stay awhile and learn what I can, before returning to Vancouver. (And I *will* be back home - sometime....)

This is the first of several letters, summarizing my meetings and tours of green buildings on my sabbatical. I've included you because I thought you'd be interested in the energy-and resource-efficient buildings and initiatives I find overseas. I hope this information (and gossip) is of some use to you; if you'd like more details, or contact information, please send me an email request, and I'll do my best to help.

Ian Theaker here, posting from Amsterdam, where I'll stay for a week or so. I actually wrote most of this letter on the ferry "Princess of Scandinavia", in transit from the Newcastle to the Norwegian port of Christiansand; and the hostel ship "Gustaf af Klimt" in Stockholm; and in Copenhagen.

Ian Theaker here, writing from Thailand. Here's my third post, covering the balance of my travels in northern Europe - Goteborg and Stockholm in Sweden, and Copenhagen and its environs in Denmark. I'm now working on the newsletter covering the Netherlands, which will come out as my 4th.

Ian Theaker here, again writing from Thailand. This my fourth post, covering my time in the Netherlands; you should have recently received my last one, which related my experiences in Sweden and Denmark. Originally I was going to send one letter on Northern Europe, but I decided to split them up; it was getting ridiculously long. In fact, I had to split this post on the Netherlands into two - That's what you get when you don't have a good editor....

Newsletter #4b - Netherlands follows ----- - - -- --- continued from Newsletter #4a - Netherlands

Greetings from Vancouver!

Since you last heard from me, I've been in Hong Kong for a week, Shanghai for a month, and in Beijing briefly for two days. Then I returned home to Canada to celebrate the Solstice with family and friends. Now I'm home, with fresh energy and perspective, and looking forward to a new start.

I've finally been able to nail down time, place and tools to bang out a letter covering places I've seen and people I met in Thailand. I've been somewhat slow in getting this one off; I prefer to have a little bit of perspective on a place before I write about it - but this can be difficult, especially when the next locale is as fascinating (frenetic?) as my time in Hong Kong and China have been. Not to mention some other issues....

One of the reasons this letter is going out ex-post-facto is the time needed for review of a draft, by the people I met with. I've incorporated some further information provided by Dr. Surapong Chirarattananon of the Asian Institute of Technology's Energy Program, who kindly pointed out some subtleties I missed regarding the air pollution problem in Bangkok.

Bill Gates hasn't helped, either. I'm now writing this letter on my laptop with Windows in "Safe" mode. (Hah! As if....) For those who haven't experienced this, my screen is now a throwback to the 1980s TRS-80 / Apple II days, with barely readable text. And, while I could probably get this fixed here in Shanghai, if I could find the right computer tech with good 'net access, I'd rather just wait till I return home, and have it fixed there. I've already wasted several days trying to fix it myself, and trying to get in touch with Dell tech support in Asia - which involved several calls back to Canada, believe it or not.

One other item potentially of interest to you: our Green Building Design and Construction Guidelines for the City of Santa Monica are now available online. If you'd like to browse them, or download a PDF version, point your web browser at http://greenbuildings.santa-monica.org/Main.htm

Ian Theaker past president of the AEE-BC Chapter recently completed "Green Building Design and Construction Guidelines" for the City of Santa Monica. They'll be modifying some 30-odd municipal ordinances over the summer, including (as far as I know) the first N.Am. muni energy conservation ordinance demanding higher performance of ICI buildings - typically 25% better than Title 24. The Guidelines doc will have a few small items added by the City folk (ordinance numbers, etc), and should be published this fall; they are planning to hang it on their Website for the world to see).

So, with Santa Monica complete, I'm off on a sabbatical for the next few months (or more!), starting in London, on the way to Shanghai. I'm shaping the trip around green and vernacular buildings and city planning efforts. If I find some interesting projects along the way, that can supplement my (tight) budget, then I'll take those on; I may have a gig in China this fall, doing the site investigation for two MURBs, one in Beijing and the other in Cheng Xio; and Santa Monica wants some hours helping them implement their Green Building Guidelines.

This is the first of several letters, summarising my meetings and tours of green buildings on my sabbatical. I've included you because I thought you'd be interested in the energy- and resource-efficient buildings and initiatives I find overseas. I hope this information (and gossip) is of some use to you; if you'd like more details, or contact information, please send me an email request, and I'll do my best to help.

If you'd prefer *not* to receive these posts, please let me know (again, by email), and I'll remove you from the distribution list.

I'm retaining my old email address (igt@wimsey.com), since you probably have that in your address book. However, while I'm travelling I'll be posting via iantheaker@netscape.net, which allows me to pick up email wherever I can access the World Wide Web. Email addressed to igt@wimsey.com is forwarded, and is my preferred receiving address. With luck, I'll be hitting an internet cafe every week or two, so replies won't be instantaneous, but I *will* respond if you email me something.

On arrival in England, I took the first couple of weeks for myself, to recharge the batteries, see something of southern England - and NOT think about buildings or planning (fat chance...). I've been in London several times before, but never had the opportunity to see the countryside; this trip is allowing me to see something besides city stone, asphalt and concrete.

I spent the summer solstice at Avebury, in the middle of the Salisbury Plain. Avebury is the largest stone circle in the UK, dating to the Iron Age, and enclosing most of a still-inhabited village. It was strange to see a (very active) pub, surrounded by stones set 5000 years ago right across the road and in the back yard. That night, I fell asleep under the stars, next to the 'Queen Stone' (no dreams that I recall), to drums and a pennywhistle chorus; late in the night I was amazed by several fire-swingers making fiery patterns in the dark with swinging torches.... The night was very clear, so I was able to witness both sunset and dawn, with several hundred others who'd come to recognise the turning of the season. The stones themselves are not as large as those at Stonehenge, and the Avebury circle doesn't have any stone lintels; but Stonehenge now has a fence and very limited access - which lead to *riots* the night of the 21st. Hence Avebury, which at least allowed overnight access and ceremony, without confrontations. Created as a meeting-place for travellers at the crossroads of two ancient paths, Avebury seemed appropriate for the start of my travels.

In the morning, I watched a crew rethatching an old (ca 1600s) stone barn. Apparently they've had a fair bit of trouble finding straw with long enough stems; new species introduced for machine harvesting have short stems and are unsuitable for thatching. There are enough thatched buildings in the UK to keep them very busy, but almost all of their work is on heritage buildings; smaller modern buildings generally use tile or slate roofs. Conspicuous by their absence are asphalt shingles or roll roofing - I've seen very little.

After spending some time in High Wycombe (just outside London), getting re-acquainted with my brothers and family, I set off to Cornwall, with a stop at the Glastonbury music festival. Here was housing of a different sort - over 100,000 people in tents, acres and acres of them, pitched with inches between, for three days of music and madness. The tents I saw were rather primitive compared to, say, the Outbound or Moss tents I'm used to in Canada. These were typically equipped with two hoops and depended on stakes to hold their shape; many were similar to the Coleman-type of canvas tent now only used for family car-camping, in North America.

The music was *excellent*, ranging from pop and world-beat to Celtic and even honky-tonk. Especially good were Sharon Shannon (4 fiddle-bearing women playing jigs and reels); Celtica, a local group playing a unique fusion of techno and Celtic; and Elephant Talk, African dance-beat. Sleep, however, was in short supply.... too much to see, too many friendly people to meet! I received several invitations to visit other places, from Aberdeen to Brighton, from other music-lovers.

Glastonbury was heavily funded by Greenpeace, who are campaigning strongly to reduce Britain's greenhouse gas emissions. They had several excellent infomercials, both on the large screens flanking the main stage and on the BBC broadcast each night of the festival. They are obviously taking public awareness of climate-change very seriously, with a hefty promotional budget. The festival site had two large areas devoted to green energy and living, with several pavilions powered by PV and wind generators. However, the proprietors told me that, as in N. Am., small-scale renewable energy installations are largely still limited to enthusiasts; though several utilities have serious wind-generation installations, and grid-connect is becoming more common. There were several companies devoted to renewable energy installation; and I picked up a resource list of companies, suppliers and organisations working in the green power field. Of interest was one company selling the best solar-electric bicycle rig I've seen - a small 12v electric motor /battery pack with a secondary chain drive, that could be charged either with a PV array, or by 'mains' power.

After Glastonbury, I headed off to Penzance and Land's End, using my BritRail pass. The countryside reminded me of Southern Ontario with hedgerows - gently rolling hills, mostly pasture and deciduous forests. On the way, the train passed a white horse cut into the hillside turf, revealing the white chalk subsoil. Typically over a hundred feet long, and visible for miles, there are several near Avebury and Stonehenge, one originally cut by the Druids, and others as recently as the 1700s. Their original purpose is lost in time, but they are delightful landscape art, and add an air of whimsy and mystery.

Penzance (of 'Pirates of Penzance' fame) is a village of perhaps 5000 population, whose main industry seems to be tourism, and some maintenance of fishing boats and pleasure craft. However, they've retained most of the charm; the houses are all stone or brick, with much excellent and intricate masonry. Narrow lanes wind between 2 to 4 storey buildings, and often terminate with a visual feature - a church, or a sea or country view. There seems to be less definite separation of residential, commercial and light industrial uses than I see in North America, with a great deal of mixing of the three. The typical street width is about 20 feet - and much narrower in places (I could touch the walls on both sides of several lanes I walked.) Cornish country lanes are especially narrow, 20-24 feet wide asphalt with a ditch but no shoulders, often closely flanked by tall hedges - a lesson that BC's Ministry of Highways could learn from, especially in the Gulf Islands. While these are no doubt scary for drivers in a foggy night, apparently the locals keep speeds down to the point that accidents are few, and those seldom fatal.

In Cornwall, I saw a presentation of Julius Caesar at the Minack Theatre, near Porthcurno. The Minack is a beautiful open-air theatre cut into the cliffside overlooking the Atlantic, with the Lizard (the southernmost point of Britain) on the horizon. It seats over two hundred on turf-topped terraces, overlooking a stone stage with its back to the ocean. The theatre looked as though it had weathered there from the native chalk and limestone, with Doric columns that seemed to grow from the cliff, they'd been integrated so well with the native stone. I pitied the actors - they had to compete with tremendous scenery, and the crash of surf from below - a real test of projection.

I was able to see several villages in Cornwall, distances being so compact, and well served by public buses. Some are no more than a pub with a couple of houses; others up to a few thousand inhabitants. Each is distinctly different, and has its own character - Penzance was bright and active; Sennen defined by a white-shell sand beach, with the cobbled High street just inland; and Porthleven still a working fishing village, with a tiny harbour filled with 40 foot seiners, surrounded by small stone houses and shops. The villages are seldom more than 2-4 miles apart, distinctly separated by farms and commons. The (numerous) military installations in Cornwall are mainly visible by their aerials, and many follow the British tradition of encouraging 'ramblers' to freely walk across their fields, and provide paths and stiles to climb the (typically stone or wood) fences.

So far in my travels, the British seem to have been very successful at limiting sprawl, and maintaining the character of their towns and villages, in the face of intense growth pressure. (Projections are for over dwellings for more than 10 million new inhabitants in the southeast, surrounding London, in the next decade!) Apparently town and village borders are fiercely protected by the local councils and the national government, so population growth is being handled by intensifying town/village centres, rather than by extending their margins. Infill is very much the trend, but there is widespread disdain for 'tower flats', or high-rise apartment buildings. The development locations preferred by local planners (tho not developers...) are brownfield sites - ex-industrial areas that have been abandoned over the years. There is sharp public controversy in newspapers about new housing 'estates' sited on greenfields or farmland. New buildings are typically 3-4 stories, and many older houses are being divided into several apartments, legally or otherwise (shades of Kitsilano...). In London, conversions of old industrial and warehouse buildings to residential loft use is a fashionable trend; though not as strong as it seems in Toronto and Santa Monica, as far as I can tell. There are quite a few cranes on the London horizon, but with a few notable exceptions, buildings seem to be limited to 10 or fewer stories.

The exceptions include the Millennium Dome, being built across the Thames from the Canary Wharf development; a huge ferris wheel being erected near the Tower Bridge, and the proposed London Authority building, among others.

The Millennium Dome is intended to show-off modern British industry, a la the Great Exhibition of the 1860s. A huge tensioned-fabric dome on the banks of the Thames, it will house technology exhibits of many large UK companies, in pavilions sited in the mechanically air-conditioned(!) shelter. There is a great deal of controversy as to whether it is worth the 1 billion pounds-plus cost, and what it will be used for after 2000. The plan is to keep it as a public attraction, but everyone I speak to about it doubts that anyone will pay the 20 pound entrance fee.

A ferris wheel the height of the Parliament Buildings is planned, with 20-person covered capsules. Apparently the view will be over 20 miles - most of London. It's to be competed in 2000.

A much more interesting building (to me anyway), is the proposed Greater London Authority building. Designed by Ken Shuttleworth of Foster & Partners, it's a 10-storey, 185,000 sq.ft. building for London's Council and administration sited across the river from the Tower of London. The proposed building resembles a streamlined glass egg floating on end; it is intended to be naturally ventilated, with large openings at its 'roof'. Walls are almost entirely glass, with the council chamber (close to ground level) at the bottom of a huge open volume, overlooked by a spiral public gallery around the glazed 'walls'. This walkway is shaped to shade the debating chamber and offices; and the building is obviously intended to be naturally day lit. The plan is to use groundwater for supplemental cooling, with heat exchangers and pumps powered by building-integrated photovoltaic panels. It's intended to use less than half the energy consumed by a typical London office building. Unfortunately, there are few numbers in the info I have; I hope to meet with the designers before I leave the London area.

From the renderings, it's one of the few large buildings I've seen whose form visually - and beautifully - reflects the local microclimate. It reminds me of Ken Yeang's work; the organic shape makes explicit the airflows and solar path that make it work. Being from Foster's office, the structural and mechanical systems float, exposed, within a very high-tech, transparent (and expensive?) skin. It echoes the new Berlin Reichstag in its integration of a glazed dome with public galleries designed for daylighting, emphasising openness of the political process. Nicely done!

After Cornwall, I headed East to Portsmouth, the home of the Royal Navy, and the Sovereign Housing Association development. This is one of two SUNH multi-family residential developments in the UK. "Solar Urban New Housing" project is creating demonstration passive solar buildings, funded by the European Commission's "Thermie" project, being built in Britain, France, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain and Portugal. The Sovereign site is being built in 2 phases; the first is a building with 24 flats for retirees. They're incorporating additional insulation, active solar water heaters, and Solarwall ventilation air preheat; and are intended to use half of the energy of a building designed just to code.

Next was Brighton, for the nightlife (excellent!) and a tour of the Royal Pavilion. A controversial building built for the Regent (later George the 4th), it's a renovation of a simple Georgian manor into a Moghul fantasy. Incredibly finished with a Chinese motif interior, the building is one of the first applications of central heating in Britain, and has excellent daylighting and natural ventilation design. The renovation process also trapped several gutters in the interior of the iron-reinforced timber frame envelope; and with the use of newfangled mastic finishes (which failed), repairs were later required to dry rot and water damage.

After Brighton, I went to visit Phillip Jones' Architectural Science Research Group, at the Welsh School of Architecture of the University of Cardiff. Phil and Don Alexander (a Canadian from Vancouver, though *not* from SFU) were kind enough to give me a tour of their research facilities, and discuss their current work. They recently commissioned the largest artificial sky I've seen, some 10 metres in diameter, and equipped with several hundred compact fluorescent lamps to simulate general sky illumination. Computer-controlled to allow simulation of passing clouds, it's equipped with a large turntable that allows a 3-minute long day cycle, at any latitude. Anticipated upgrades to their sensors and electronic cameras will allow instantaneous and time-averaged measurements and photos with up to 4096 different grayscale intensities - *within* the models. They've used it to aid daylighting design of a warehouse conversion, and are collaborating with Leicester University on Radiance software validations. They're also renting use of the facility to the private sector, for 1000 pounds a day, including technical help (negotiable, for the right projects).

Cardiff also has a large wind tunnel devoted to natural ventilation studies. It has a once-through, dual fan test chamber of ~1m high and 2.5m wide, with a 2.5 x 3m upwind section, allowing pressure coefficient measurements that include local terrain models. Currently they're investigating turbulence in pedestrian areas, and natural ventilation of common interior areas, of an archetypal ~30 storey residential tower in Hong Kong. The model itself is a meter tall, with several hundred pressure taps monitored with a PC data-gathering system. They're looking for fast-response pressure sensors that measure to fractions of a Pascal, to closely investigate turbulence effects in real-time.

Phillip is responsible for ongoing development of their "Energy & Environmental Prediction" model, similar to Sheltair's TIRA efforts. EEP is a MapInfo GIS-based computer program that allows scenario analysis of various town and regional planning alternatives. Both use building energy simulations of archetypal building models, and econometric models of industrial inputs and outputs, to understand energy and pollutant emissions from different planning options. EEP uses the SATURN transportation model, based on 'spatial analysis' work pioneered by Hillier and Penn, to predict pedestrian and vehicle flow, emissions and energy consumption from different road network designs. EEP is being used now to inform planning of the City of Cardiffand they are filling the databases for the Neath Port Talbot urban region. Future plans include addition of a pollutant dispersal model, a health model that indicates distribution of air-quality-related problems, and accessibility of public transportation; it is also funded for use in Belfast, Leicester and London.

Cities and towns in the UK here have been delegated major responsibility for implementation of the country's Kyoto commitments, and even more ambitious commitments by Parliament, and it sounds like they're currently wrestling with the implications of that. The Home Energy Conservation Act requires local authorities to improve housing energy efficiency by 30% by the year 2007, relative to the 1997 housing stock.

ECD Limited is one consulting firm that is helping urban planners meet sustainability challenges. The day after visiting Cardiff, I met with John Doggart, managing director of ECD, and one of his people, Loic Finlan. ECD advises cities on green planning policy, and design teams on green buildings; John was one of the authors of the first version of BREAM, the very successful building environmental assessment program that inspired our BEPAC work. Loic is their head energy simulator; the major tool he uses is TAS, an hour-by-hour program that incorporates a network-model natural ventilation and cooling algorithm similar to COMIS or CONTAM. Unfortunately, the current version does not include daylighting energy savings - but keep tuned for the next version. I'll be keeping my ears open on this one.

I next visited Nigel Howard, and his staff at the Building Research Establishment at Garston, Watford. They have been responsible for ongoing development of BREAM; they just released BREAM 98 for offices, which now includes both new and existing buildings. It has been extended to include life-cycle assessment of buildings, and credits and points awards have been updated to reflect changes in best practice that have now become mainstream. More importantly, it now incorporates a more rigorous assignment of weighting of environmental and resource issues. The BRE conducted several workshops to pull together priorities of green construction issues, to feed into their recently released "Green Guide to Specification" and their BREAM building enviro performance assessment packages. Typically they convened a group of 20-odd individuals involved in building design and construction, and presented them with a pre-prepared list of issues, covering the 3 legs of SD (they added a 4th, 'Resources', to the classical 'Enviro, Social, Economic').

The group is first asked to add or delete issues; most importantly, they *are not* given any guidance on semantics or definition of issues they find unclear, but must come to a common understanding of them - which is then documented. (Good approach - avoids imposed definitions & disputes with the hosts, but ensures near-consensus, so they're all working from the same page.)

Two rounds of questionnaires are then filled out by each individual (who can remain anonymous if they desire): first to indicate their own personal priorities for the 4 SD "legs"; and then on the SD issues. The questionnaires give the user some credits to 'spend' on the issues; all their credits can spent on one, or they can be distributed as desired. The kicker is: they have just a few fewer credits than issues, so they're forced to budget.

The first session included 60 "experts", including "... government policymakers, construction professionals, local authorities, materials producers, academics and researchers, activists and lobbyists, investors and developers ". The (enviro) issues of the Green Specification Guide, with their resulting weightings, were:

CO2 emissions 241.5 Primary energy used in extraction, production and transport 72 Oil feedstock consumption 72 VOC & NOX emissions 56.5 % of recycled materials in finished product 50.5 Toxic pollutants arising from manufacturing 42 Water consumption 33.5 Wastes generated 32.5 SO2 emissions 30 Mineral consumption 23 Reserves of raw materials 23 Toxic pollutants arising from combustion - Other recycling issues -

The BRE has now done this with ~10 groups (who were sceptical of the first's weightings) and apparently their issues ranking is very consistent from group to group, and exhibit only minor variations on their relative weightings. According to Nigel, "The last group were a mixed group working with hydraulics research, and they were within 2% of the average on all scores."

The BREs new "Green Guide to Specification" is one of the most useful materials and assemblies environmental guides I've seen; it rates several hundred wall, roof, interiors, and finishes on the list of environmental issues above. Designed to be simple for designers to use, it gives the assemblies an A, B or C rating on each of the issues, and an overall score based on the weightings listed.

I also had a tour of the BRE's Environmental Office building by Matt Grace, who's responsible for monitoring its performance. (The building was covered in more detail in the Green Building Challenge proceedings, so I won't cover the same ground again in detail. Briefly, it's - fully naturally ventilated and cooled office building, with *no* mechanical cooling, - shaped to take advantage of daylighting; with electronically-ballasted, continuous-dimming, daylight- and occupancy-sensor T5 lamps - better insulated than most UK buildings, and - equipped with efficient condensing boilers for heating

It's consuming more than anticipated for heating, largely due to air leakage; they used the new BREFAN to find the cracks, and found the roof/wall interface to be responsible for some 16% of the heating energy. They've since tried caulking and air-sealing, and hope that this winter it'll perform better. It is performing very well in cooling; the occupants are delighted, and my personal experience is on the hottest day of the summer to date the building was very comfortable at 5:30 in the evening. The main lesson Matt got from the building was "Keep It Simple, Stupid" - he feels that the complex EMCS controls may not be robust over years, and is difficult for the building operators to program easily. (Sound familiar?) That being said, it is one of the lowest CO2 emitting buildings in the UK, on a square foot of floor area, and on a per occupant basis.

Well, I must sign off now, to get this thing posted. Again, let me know if you'd like more details, or to be dropped from future posts. I intend to see the De Montford building, and several others in the next few weeks, so stay tuned if you're interested!

Having sorted out 'Net connections in Amsterdam, I've finally been able to get this off. So, here's my second long post, covering the balance of my travels in the UK. Coming soon - Goteborg and Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

This one is in three parts - first, this intro; then the tech stuff on green building and planning efforts (safely skimmed by non-techies); and finally, non-building news. Pick your poison....

Thanks to those who replied to my last email - it was very good to hear from friends in Canada and the States. And for those of you who were concerned (several), not to worry, I *am* relaxing. Can I help it if I find good buildings fascinating, and walking & talking about them fun? And, contrary to appearances, I do make time for fun and sightseeing.

Special thanks to those who've been keeping me up to speed on Vancouver City Councils' July meetings on Southeast False Creek. The area is still very much on my mind, and I greatly appreciate hearing of your efforts. Keep up the good work, folks! I urge anyone else with an interest in creating a model sustainable neighborhood in Vancouver to write, or make a presentation to City with your suggestions and support. The current version of the policy paper is available on the City website, and makes for some fascinating reading - for what is and is not included. I've written a letter to Mayor and Council with my thoughts; if you're interested, let me know and I'll send you a copy. Council will be meeting again in September - and a green SEFC is *not* yet a done deal.

Those of you with a feeling for Euro geography, and a memory of my last email, will realize that my itinerary has evolved somewhat. I started Europe with Sweden, visiting my friend Asa in Goteborg, and I 'm now in Amsterdam, after some time in Stockholm. Then, a week in Copenhaven, and now a week or so in Amsterdam.

Since my last email, I've had a relaxed, then active few weeks, between family time in High Wycombe (with my brothers) and wandering about London and northern Britain; and then R&R time in Sweden than Denmark.

People and places covered since my last post: - conversation with Susan Roaf, researcher at Oxford Brookes University and owner of the Oxford solar house - tour of Edinburgh Gate, a naturally-cooled and ventilated, daylit office building in Harlow, Essex - meeting with Koen Steemers and Nick Baker of Cambridge - tour of Wycombe Caves - meeting with John Berry, project engineer at Ove Arup & Partners - visit to Heritage Open-air museum in Buckinghamshire - photos of Parliament House, by Michael Hopkins & Partners & Ove Arup - meeting with Ken Shuttleworth, architect for Greater London Authority building, with Norman Foster - meeting with Guy Battle, of Battle McCarthy consulting engineers, London - tour of Nottingham University campus, under construction in Nottingham - tour of Queens' Building, at De Montford University in Leicester - visit to Leicester Inland Revenue Centre complex - wander about Staithes, my father's birthplace, and origin of the Theakers worldwide. - meetings with Joe Clark & Jon Hand of Energy Systems Research Unit in Strathclyde University, Glasgow - tour of Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings in Glasgow - visit to Asa Jonsson, and a visit to a new ecovillage outside of Goteborg. - meetings with Erik Hansen (client) and Henrik Torkelsen, architect of Denmarks' entry to GBC, the "Hojstrup Norreplatz"

Whew! It really hasn't been as hectic as it may sound - but it certainly has been educational, and a good time.

Oxford Solar House I had a chance to talk to Susan Roaf, architect and researcher at Oxford Brookes University, just before she took her own vacation. She is the owner of, and resides in an extraordinary house in Oxford.

The Oxford Solar house demonstrates building-integrated photovoltaics and energy-conserving construction for UK single-family dwellings. A 4 kW PV array replaced the masonry standard roof tiles on the south exposure, and is connected to the grid via dual meters. The house has high insulation levels (for the UK), with tight construction; is designed for passive solar heating; and has a solar DHW system for hot water preheat. The performance of the 233 sq.m house and its systems have been monitored for two years now; and requires only 10.7 kWh/sq.m/year on average for heating and DHW. The house is a net annual *exporter* of electricity to the grid - yet the loads include charging of an electric vehicle in addition to household electrical loads.

Cost of the PV system, as installed in 1995, cost 28,300 pounds; Susan estimates that it could currently be installed for 16,000.

Lessons learned: - overheating of the PV array reduced its efficiency, despite the array being mounted with a ventilated airspace below it. Susan would modify the mounting details to allow for more airflow and cooling. - Oversizing of the the PV system inverter resulted in unnecessary energy losses - The standard agreement for power sales to the utility had to be modified and simplified for small producers, particularly with regard to meter-reading visits. - Net metering (running the meter backwards) would result in greater capital and operating-cost savings than the current dual meter requirement

Edinburgh Gate, Harlow, Essex John Fessey, the facility manager for Edinburgh Gate, was kind enough to give me a tour of Addison Wesley Longman's 16,000 sq.m, five-storey building in Harlow, east of London. The building is especially notable for the robustness and user-control of its energy conserving strategies. It achieved 20/21 credits under the current BREAM assessment, one of the highest assessments done to date. Architects were the CD Partnership of London, with Cundall Johnston & Partners doing the services engineering.

The natural ventilation and cooling strategy is very simple: openable windows to perimeter offices on lower floors surround three central atria, which have BMS-operated windows at the top. The atria provide the height for stratification and stack effect, and the downwind windows at the atria tops are opened to provide additional negative pressure to induce inflow through occupant-operable windows. The office casement windows are particularly well-designed, with simple, strong operators and a satisfying 'thunk' as they close. Louvred sections at the top of office windows opening to the atrium allow airflow to pass through.

The atria also provide daylight for adjacent offices, but unlike many, are provided with windows rather than skylights, for solar control. Daylighting controls are especially simple: the BMS sweeps the lights off in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening when light levels are adequate inside the occupied spaces. The occupants can override the BMS control with local switches, but seldom do. Light levels are enhanced by lightshelves located about a quarter of the way down the high windows, separating vision sections that include the operable portions, from daylight-entry sections at the top. Floor-to-ceiling distances are typically 3.1m; the lack of ductwork and a 300mm raised floor for wiring and displacement ventilation allows the high ceilings, unobstructed by services. Lamps are T8 fluorescents with electronic ballasts and mounted on movable floor pedestals, with a very low (~8 W/sq.m) installed power density, providing 350 lux on average.

The building is not entirely naturally cooled; there are two 300 kW chillers supplying fan-coils that provide cooling for the top-floor restaurant, ground-floor cafe, and meeting rooms throughout the building, with an ice storage system for off-peak operation. Three condensing natural gas boilers provide hot water to perimeter radiation and under-slab radiant heating for the atria.

Key to the comfort of the building is the large thermal mass, mostly 300mm concrete floor slabs with the underside exposed to the floor below. John emphasized this point; apparently the building maintains temperatures within comfort envelope for up to three days with no HVAC plant operation, even under outdoor conditions. As well, occupants have the operation of the building explained to them, and the need for cooperation in establishing comfort levels using windows and lighting is emphasized.

I had the chance to ask several occupants what they thought of the building, after John returned to his regular work. All of them were very pleased with the conditions provided. Two minor complaints were noise migration through openings to the atria, which has hard surfaces throughout; and 'stuffiness' at times in summer in the mail room, where airflow paths were blocked by walls and storage. On further probing, all compared it very favourably to the previous buildings they had worked in.

The building cost 1.07 million pounds, about 5% less than a typical speculative office of the same size. Higher costs for the envelope, roof garden and structure were more than offset by elimination of separate ceiling assemblies.

Lessons learned: - a simple natural ventilation strategy, with high mass and robust windows under user control, works very well in providing comfort in UK conditions. - large exposed mass of exposed mass provide a long time constant, and aid control with minimal energy consumption. - design of atria for this natural ventilation strategy should closely consider noise attenuation.

While wandering the London waterfront, I walked past the new Parliamentary building currently being built next to Big Ben at Westminster. Designed in 1994 by Michael Hopkins and Partners and Ove Arup as the building service engineers, I'd say it's representative of green design in the UK today.

The building is 7 storeys of offices, committee rooms and Members accommodations above the Westminster Tube station, which has two lines running through it. The station is being extensively renovated at the same time, and made for a challenging structure.

The general plan is one of narrow perimeter offices surrounding a courtyard with a glazed roof at the second floor. The ground level of the courtyard houses restaurants, shops and common facilities; the upper floors house offices for the Members of Parliament. These typically flank a central corridor, with an exposed frontage of 3.6m to the outside, and 5.4m deep to allow daylighting, which is aided by internal lightshelves and external shades on the bay windows. Windows facing the streets are not operable to reduce noise; but those facing the courtyard open for natural ventilation. Stairs and elevator shafts are located at the corners of the building. Construction is stone veneer over a structural concrete frame.

The HVAC system is designed to facilitate natural stack flows, with vertical bronze air shafts expressed on the exterior of the building, and separating each office, rising to 14 air exhaust chimneys, each serving 8 shafts (four facing the street and four facing the courtyard). Each office has inlets to the stacks; and the exhaust chimneys are reminiscent of Victorian industrial chimneys, projecting some 10-15m above the roof, and are a dominant feature in the roofline.

The roofs and floors of the member's offices are similar to those at the BRE Environmental Office and the Inland Revenue complex (discussed next): pre-cast concrete barrel arches span the rooms, with the underside exposed to the room below, and the voids above used for under floor air distribution and night cooling. Each void is fed by air drawn from a heat recovery unit fed from an annular inlet below each exhaust stack; the void air is exhausted by an airshaft leading to the roof outlet.

Inland Revenue Complex, Nottingham The Inland Revenue complex was a design-build project, completed in 1996. The budget was tight, and so was the schedule; but even so a design competition resulted in selection of the team of Michael Hopkins and Ove Arup. While in Nottingham, I took the chance to wander around the complex, and get a feel for the designs.

The concept extended the pre-cast barrel vault concept first used in the BRE Environmental Building. Precast vault components, matched with prefabricated brick/concrete piers, aided greatly in keeping to budget and time constraints. The comfort strategy had four legs (common to many green designs): - high-performance envelope (good insulation, low-e, thermally-broken triple-glazing) - structural thermal mass for heat storage - careful design for daylighting, thermal and glare control - natural ventilation, supplemented by mechanical systems.

Stairwells in these buildings were used as solar thermal chimneys, with movable fabric roofs intended to induce air exhaust at the top, and fed from lower-floor corridors acting as airflow channels from the offices. Computational fluid dynamic modelling, confirmed by saline-tank studies done at Cambridge University, helped determine opening sizes and geometries for airflow and temperature. The modelling revealed that this strategy was sensitive to open windows close to base of the stairwells, which would short-circuit the flow and limit that from more remote rooms. To overcome this effect, small fans were located under each window to provide outdoor air to the offices.

Testing done after occupancy, during one of the hottest summers the UK has recently experienced, revealed the design's success. Lower floors had temperatures ranging from 22.5 to 26.5 deg.C, with outdoor temperatures peaking at 30 for over a week. Top floors, which were separately ventilated by ridge vents and operable windows, but did not have the concrete ceilings, were warmer.

University of Nottingham, Nottingham Mike Brizel, landscape architect from Battle McCarthy, and Glen Irwin of Ove Arup kindly gave me a tour of the Nottingham University campus, currently under construction. Due to be open for September, the campus has 6 buildings with a green agenda on a 1.8 ha site: - 3 classroom / office buildings - a post-graduate residence - a learning resource centre (what we once knew as a library...) These were designed by Michael Hopkins & Partners, and I talked with Jan Mackie, who was involved in the design from concept through to construction.

Several features of the site are of note; Battle McCarthy was responsible for the landscape design, and worked hard on integrating it with the neighborhood, protecting the existing nature vegetation, and to ensure no export of fill or topsoil from the site - a tough task on a tight site.

A wildlife belt of existing mature beeches on the south & west borders of the site was retained as wildlife habitat, and two new lakes are designed to buffer the area from pedestrian traffic, as well as providing creating a cool microclimate with evaporative cooling of the prevailing southwest breezes. Protecting the mature trees during construction was, as always, difficult; while the contractors were particularly warned that the trees were to be maintained, portions of the root zones were not fenced off, and were covered with subsoil removed to create the lakes. The trees also suffered minor damage from excavators, but Mike feels that they should recover.

The lakes are an integral part of a surface storm water management strategy, acting as retention ponds to slow storm water release to the municipal system. They are fed by all site storm water including that from the roads that lie to the north and east of the buildings, which front onto the lakes.

Each of the classroom/office buildings have two blocks that flank an atrium, which has motor-driven glass louvres facing the lakes, and on the opposite sides, to allow cross-flow natural ventilation. Sealing of the louvres are some of the best I've seen; each blade has a double rubber seal on the three lower edges.

These 3 storey buildings show the tight integration of architecture and mechanical systems, and how Hopkins' and Arups' thinking have evolved over the years. Each has classrooms flanking double-loaded corridors, and are equipped with occupant-operable windows. Large, acoustically-insulated transfer ducts from the classrooms to the corridors allow cross-flow in the rooms, while reducing cross-talk. Windows are equipped with lightshelves and shades; like all others I've seen here so far, they are fixed metal louvres; but in this case four of them reduce the extension required for shading.

The concrete slabs are exposed to the classrooms below, to act as thermal mass; but rather than the barrel vaults used in other projects, a raised floor above is used for displacement ventilation. The envelopes have high insulation values: 0.29 & 0.22 W/sq.m K for walls & roofs respectively; double that required by code. Wall panels are prefabricated offsite, and sheathed with clear western red cedar; Hopkins sent an architect to North America especially to source sustainably harvested wood, in the absence of credible labelling schemes. I've seldom seen such nice cedar; the intent is to allow it to weather to the familiar silver-grey.

The HVAC systems, designed by Ove Arup, are especially notable. Intended to require no net annual energy for fan power, they have been carefully designed to minimize static pressure losses, and to take advantage of wind pressure to assist the fans. The most visible features on the rooflines are large rotating wind cowls mounted at the top of each stairwell, which act as return air passages from the corridors. These cowls are designed to induce air exhaust, supplementing the high-efficiency axial fans; and after CFD modelling, a full-size prototype was tested in Farnsworth's large wind-tunnel facility. Supply air shafts flanking the stairwells, and the under floor passages that feed the classroom plenums are very large, by conventional standards, and the entire airflow path was designed for extremely low static pressure losses. These extraordinary fan systems are designed to have their power supplied by photovoltaic atrium glazing, sized to provide all the fan power needed over the course of the year. The 54 kWp PV arrays (made by BP) also shade the atria, providing dappled light.

The buildings are expected to consume ~83.6 kWh/sq.m each year - about half of the typical "good practice" consumption (191). Further, it is intended to emit 27 kg CO2/sq.m, as compared to 96 kg for "good practice". Of note is that every building I've seen or read of to date publishes their CO2 production. Very nice....

Queens Engineering Building, De Montford University, Leicester What can I say about the Queens Building that hasn't already been said elsewhere? Not much, I suspect - it's been very well documented, and is the subject of ongoing performance evaluation and monitoring. Jim Bisgrove, the University's energy manager kindly donated an afternoon to touring me through it - and then was late getting home, answering my questions. (Thanks much, Jim!)

Briefly, for those unfamiliar with it, the building is a landmark in natural ventilation in an urban site, halving energy costs at no additional cost. It's a thermally massive brick building, with natural ventilation elements such as inlets and exhaust towers integrated with the architecture, and used as features that echo and complement the Gothic design characteristic of historic Leicester. Several different natural ventilation strategies were used for different areas, and the two lecture theatres are particularly interesting in this respect, with acoustically-baffled brick inlet louvres leading to an under floor plenum, introduced to the room behind the steeply raked seats, and exhausted by 13.3m high dedicated towers. In winter, hot water radiators in the plenum are used to preheat the air; and a "Bogart fan" is installed in the towers to supplement the wind- and buoyancy-induced flow as necessary. Salt baths to simulate buoyancy (done at Cambridge) and computer thermal simulation modelling were used in design for the natural ventilation strategy.

Daylighting is used extensively throughout the building, with spaces primarily side lit with many small punched windows with deep reveals for solar control. The central concourse acts as both a exit path for hot air, and for daylight entry to the lower floors of the 10,000 sq.m main building.

The separate mechanical laboratory and workshop is designed for cross-flow ventilation, with brick inlet louvres leading to occupant-operable doors opening to the space, and the air exhausted at high level on the opposite side and in the skylights, which also provide daylight. High gable glazing also allows light entry, controlled with interior lightshelves.

The HVAC plant has two high-efficiency boilers, and a condensing boiler used for modulating heat control. A combined heat and power unit was installed, primarily for teaching purposes; but is designed for peak shaving (and is seldom run). Perimeter hot water radiators and convectors with local thermostatic valves are predominantly used, except for some high radiant panels in the mechanical lab.

Lighting is primarily compact fluorescent lamps and T8 tubes, with HPS in the concourse. Passive infrared detectors tied to the building energy management computers were used for occupancy control; but the lamps are not switched or dimmed with higher daylight levels.

Lessons learned: - indoor air temperatures in the lecture theatres were found to be stable and comfortable between 20 & 23 deg.C, with outdoor temperatures up to 32 deg.C outdoors. - annual energy consumption is less than half of a comparable building, at 114 kWh/sq.m for heating (gas) and 43 kWh/sq.m for electricity, and CO2 emissions of 53 kg/sq.m. This was achieved at a cost of 855 UK pounds per sq.m (~214 CDN$/sq.ft.). Cost savings due to reduced mechanical equipment were ~9% of the contract value. - commissioning is (again!) critical; schedule pressures lead to a compressed commissioning, with the result that one of the roof ventilator openers was omitted in construction; and a broken heating water valve was omitted, preventing isolation of the heating circuit. - there were *no* complaints of overheating by occupants during the summer of 1995, one of the hottest on record; in fact, the Chief Engineer found it to be his favourite building on campus to escape the heat. - design of skylight operators should be simple and robust. Current operators for gang skylights have broken several times, and repair and routing maintenance is difficult. - skylight opening mechanisms should be installed so they are visible by the operators, a limit switch or a local position indicator installed to prevent over winding. - doors for natural ventilation must be placed so they do not interfere with occupants daily tasks. The doors in the mechanical laboratory are located so that they interfere with equipment on benches, so they are seldom opened - defeating their purpose. - access to air distribution plenums must be provided to ease regular cleaning. - industrial health and safety regulations prevented the use of electric lamp dimmers in the mechanical laboratory. - the occupancy sensors controlling the HPS lamps were often overridden by occupants, due to the delays in firing the lamps and in the BMS.

Meetings with UK Designers and Researchers I took the opportunity to meet with several designers and researchers in Britain, including - Koen Steemers and Nick Baker of Cambridge - John Berry, Ove Arup & Partners, London - Ken Shuttleworth, Norman Foster, London - Guy Battle, Battle McCarthy consulting engineers, London - Joe Clark & Jon Hand, Energy Systems Research Unit, Strathclyde University, Glasgow

General impressions I've carried away from talking with these people: - aspects of green design, while not completely dominant, are now part of the program for 30-40% of new buildings in the UK, and growing. The most common aspects are energy-efficiency (in most new buildings); and selection of materials for lower ecological impact. - daylighting is a central program element in most practices; with use of heliodons and artificial skies quite common - the designers I met with are often using Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's "Radiance" as a daylighting design tool, even with its input difficulties - natural ventilation is incorporated in most 'green-field" building designs; and in many designs in city-centres - the most common HVAC system designs for green buildings in the UK are mixed systems, that allow natural ventilation and cooling throughout most of the year, but have mechanical systems that assure ventilation and cooling under peak conditions, or when stack and wind are insufficient. - natural ventilation design is shifting emphasis to wind effects; with design for stack effect for those few times when there is no wind. - natural ventilation design in city-centres is seen as the next challenge, especially how to deal with noise attenuation and air pollution due to street traffic. - night ventilation of thermal mass incorporated in the structure is becoming a common cooling strategy, having been found to be effective in many buildings.

One of the reasons for my visit to the UK was to see the state-of-the-art in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as applied to building natural ventilation and cooling; several of the people I met are leaders in the field, and I wanted to benefit from their experience.

I found that CFD is not yet commonly used by the general design industry, except by experienced consultants and researchers with particular problems to solve. There are two main reasons for this: - current CFD programs require a great deal of input to create useful models, and detailed understanding of underlying algrothims to ensure the results are meaningful and trustworthy - there is still a great deal of uncertainty on "boundary conditions" for CFD models, due to the lack of local, site-specific wind data, especially on the effects of surrounding buildings and topography. This requires educated guesswork on wind patterns and speeds at the building walls, or wind tunnel testing of models to establish pressure coefficients.

Further, current CFD models are typically static situations - "snapshots" - not dynamically changing with time as real winds do. Dynamic modelling is a great deal more complex, and thus time consuming and difficult.

While CFD is not currently widespread, rapid progress in the usability and power of computers makes most users I met feel these programs will be far more useful in a very few years. With easy programs will come the ability to create and model at a neighborhood scale, and to run many models to bound performance and airflows in a wide variety of wind conditions. Dynamic modelling, however, will require another order-of-magnitude advance in research and tool development.

The trick currently is to match the tool to the need. In most cases, network airflow models, such as COMIS, CONTAM and in ESP-R, can establish general cooling effects of natural ventilation for rooms within a building. For larger spaces where stratification is intended, such as atria, or wind & thermal chimneys, CFD may be a better tool.

However, lack of skilled and sophisticated designers and analysts is likely to limit their application - and may lead to their future misuse. Guy Battle noted that Battle McCarthy is continuously looking for skilled staff, both at entry and senior levels. (Note that "entry-level" for CFD use is typically a Masters in Engineering....)

Yes, I have indeed spent much of my time *not* thinking of buildings, but simply enjoying my travels.

Spending time in High Wycombe with my brothers and nieces was fun - I may have managed to hook two little girls on frisbee. As well, we went to see the UK debut of Star Wars (they *made* me do it, dragged me kicking and screaming all the way - honest....) Actually, if you view the Star Wars series as modern fairy tales, complete with ogres, giants, dragons and a moral kicker, they're pretty good (or am I just rationalizing?)

I did get a few chances to see the surrounding countryside. Especially memorable was a walk in the Chiltern hills overlooking the Thames valley, through meadows, fields, pine and beech forests. An excellent afternoon, punctuated with a ploughman's lunch and a pint at a pub built in the 1600s.

While in Wycombe (and Britain, for that matter) the weather has been excellent - sunny, hot, and sneezy. The pollen counts were such that I was often simultaneously weeping and blowing my nose - a very good way to make an impression on people you've never met before. After several weeks of enduring this, I broke down and resorted to antihistamines on the worst days.

We also explored the Wycombe caves, dug (by hand) into the flint and chalk of south England. These were created as an unemployment relief effort by the local lord in the Regency era, when a depression caused great unemployment in the area. He hired (at his own expense) several hundred unemployed furniture makers and peasants to excavate chalk to make roads. The caves run almost 100 meters deep below a hillside, cut out of the wet chalk with picks and shovels. The chalk is very soft - I could pick it with a fingernail - but was interspersed with flint, hard and glass-like. And if you think soft chalk is easier to dig, you should understand that it doesn't break off in chunks, but must be extracted spoonful by spoonful....

Lest you think that the local gentry was completely benign, the same lord was also founder of the "Hellfire" club, which held its meetings in the caves complete with costumes, paid female sexual entertainment, gambling, and much drinking. A wine cellar log displayed in the caves records some 17 bottles of wine of various sorts consumed by two(!) peers of the realm in one night.... The Earl of Sandwich is reputed to have invented his hand food at one of their gambling parties; which also entertained Benjamin Franklin while he was in England lobbying for tax relief.

My many trips to London from Wycombe were a treat - not enough megalopolis to stale, but sufficient to sense the energy of the place. London is booming, with a self-confidence that can be smelt (along with the diesel fumes). Of course, it's a tourist town - in the streets I walked on, the chance of any random stranger on the street being from somewhere else was about half. And it's a tourist town for good reason - it's an exciting place to be, but one that is sucking the economic life of the country toward the southeast.

All of the surrounding counties are experiencing very fast growth, and the housing prices show it. As does the transit - I was often late to meetings due to breakdowns or delays on the long-neglected subways. They're now paying the price; the Circle line and part of the Northern line are shut down for maintenance and renovations, adding to the chaos in the roads above. Apparently, average trip time in London is now the same as in the 1800s...

I often felt a bit strange in the UK, since all the faces were white. I've become used to Vancouver's and Toronto's visible ethnic mix, and I felt very comfortable in London's Camden Town (visiting the offices of Ove Arup) where there was a very dynamic mix of races and classes. That being said, it suffers from all of the problems of modern megalopolis - focus on money (it's *very* expensive), conspicuous consumerism = status, air pollution, and grey, stressed faces on the Tube - but for all that, it's a damn exciting place, with incredible diversity and much excellence.

After finishing in Wycombe, I headed north toward Staithes, on the Yorkshire coast; stopping at Leeds, Leicester and Nottingham along the way to see some buildings. Each of the cities had a common, very welcome, feature - a town centre created for human beings, not for cars. That being said, these areas were almost entirely devoted to retail, business and entertainment, with very few (or no) places for people to live. The result is very convenient for pub-crawling, since you can walk from pub to pub. Of course, this makes for a pretty rowdy downtown at closing time, as you might imagine.... Better than having them driving all over town, I suppose - but a mix of uses would keep some more civilisation in the streets, perhaps.

Nottingham's town centre in particular is excellent - the entire district is closed to cars. The streets are winding (not a grid in sight in the UK, as far as my travels went), and lined with 4 to 6 storey buildings of red sandstone and brick. Oddly, the entrance to the downtown district from the rail station is through a mall that would look quite at home in Surrey or Mississauga.

Leeds is shopper's heaven, the result of a conscious revival of the downtown streets, and their closure to car traffic. Leeds seems to be the retail centre of Yorkshire, with the usual high global culture: the Gap, McDonalds, Yves St. Laurent and Gucci, along with a massive Marks and Sparks that spans several blocks. It's not all modern consumer heaven (hell?) however: I was most impressed with several covered shopping streets, and the City Market, dating to the Victorian era with stained glass and cast iron roofs over old shops and cafes. Very reminiscent of Milan. (Damn - see, I do enjoy buildings and urban form - can't get away from it.)

Staithes was a trip to roots for me. This tiny fishing village on the north Yorkshire coast is where all the Theakers in the world hail from, as far as I can tell. It's divided into two parts: the upper village, created in the 1800s to house miners of coal and shale; and the lower village, encrusted on the rocks surrounding the Beck. This is a tiny harbour formed by a creek; the village was founded in the 1300s by fishermen, and seemingly unchanged since. Most of the houses date back several hundred years, and remind me of a Greek coastal village, tumbling down the hills, and dominated by two cliffs on either side.

Most of the 600+ inhabitants were Theakers, Featherstones, Verrils or Coles - and has been for several centuries; but now the population is rising with refugees from city life, with their summer cottages and bed & breakfasts. However, when I enquired at the Cod & Lobster (the third since the 1700s) for people who might remember my grandparents, I was referred to Margaret Theaker. She served me tea and reminiscences of her husband in the RAF, and then passed me along to her brother Eddie and his wife Dorothy; who then referred me to Eileen Huby, who's been researching genealogy; who then... well, you get the picture. Within three days, I met half the Theakers and Verrils in town, with somewhat overwhelming hospitality and much tea.

As a child, I was raised with a model of a wooden fishing boat with beautiful lines that lived on the mantelpiece, which I was strictly forbidden to play with (a great temptation...). It was a 'coble', an extremely seaworthy sailing/rowing boat, evolved over the centuries to be beached on the Staithes beach in high seas, and to bring in a living from the North Sea. While in Staithes, I had a chance to take the tiller of Steve Cook's coble, one of the few left still being used for fishing on the coast. They're no longer being made, another victim of offshore trawlers and depletion of the Atlantic cod - a tragedy, I think, since cobles are part of the best heritage Britain has produced.

I've now gained some insight as to my roots on the English side - and this trip should give me a chance to explore my Chinese side as well. That alone makes this sabbatical worthwhile....

After Staithes, I headed off to Glasgow, to meet with the Strathclyde folks, and to worship at the Glasgow School of Art. Charles Rennie Macintosh has always been a demi-god on my pantheon; and I had a chance to see not just his art school, but several of his other buildings as well. His touch with light and decoration is incredible - words cannot do his work justice. I hope my slides turn out....

Glasgow was about the end of this experience in the UK, and I then took the Newcastle ferry to Goteborg, and Scandinavia. More about that in my next letter....

Ian Theaker here, writing from Thailand. Here's my third post, covering the balance of my travels in northern Europe - Goteborg and Stockholm in Sweden and Copenhagen and its environs in Denmark. I'm now working on the newsletter covering the Netherlands, which will come out as my 4th.

Unlike my last post, I've mixed the tech stuff on green building and planning efforts with non-building news. Don't worry, I won't be offended it you skim and read what interests you, but many of my observations are really inseparable - as has been much of my life and travel.

A rough itinerary of my time in Northern Europe: - a week+ in Goteborg, mostly visiting with old and new friends - three days in Stockholm, essentially being a tourist - a week in Copenhagen and its surrounding towns, exploring the city and surveying Danish green design and planning initiatives - a week in Amsterdam and surroundings, exploring, meeting with designers and researchers, seeing green buildings and developments, and joining the tourist hordes.

After my time in the UK, I felt that I deserved some time off from the technical side of my life, so in Sweden I did very little of that. My scanty notes on green design efforts in Sweden should *not* be taken as an indication that they are not doing excellent work in the field - in fact, they are leaders in several areas, especially life-cycle analysis of construction products, "eco-village" initiatives, and with several *very* interesting building products. However, I didn't spend a lot of time pursuing these; instead I had concentrated on having an excellent time visiting with friends, getting to know Goteborg and Stockholm, and soaking up Swedish ambience.

After a couple of weeks away from it, I was looking forward to seeing green design projects in Denmark and the Netherlands - and I was not disappointed.

Goteborg Eco-village & Straw-bale House One initiative I did take the time to see in Sweden was a budding eco-village near Goteborg. Stefan Wallner, one of the founders, and a PhD candidate at Chalmers University's architecture school, kindly gave a tour of his home and development to Asa Jonsson, Anna (another friend), and I.

In many ways, the Goteborg effort is characteristic of a new direction for development in Northern Europe, continuing their long tradition of cooperative self-help. "Eco-villages" gather like-minded people who pool their resources to build new communities that allow a more environmentally-responsible lives. In 1991, Stefan, his wife and three other couples agreed to work together to create a home in keeping with their ideals and pocketbooks. They spread the word, and found ten others willing to commit their time and money, and formed a non-profit company.

They approached the farmer where Stefan was already renting, to purchase some land for their effort; and the farmer was interested enough to take a financial stake in the development as well. The joint non-profit company staked out several hectares of mixed farmland, wetland and boreal forest, with financing from a local credit union. In the process, several initial participants dropped out, and others bought in; so there are now 12 households as joint shareholders of the non-profit company.

From the beginning, the group decided on several common principles to guide design of the new village: - participants must have a financial stake in the company, owning the land in common - partners and occupants of the community should be diverse - in age, home tenure, occupation and financial position - existing vegetation and habitat should be protected - movement should be primarily pedestrian-orientated, with automobile roads limited to the minimum necessary - households should be largely independent, unlike the co-housing model where many residents eat together in a common dining room - joint facilities - roads, shops and buildings - should be built to cement the community - each household should be responsible for building their own home in their own timing and financing.

Once the land was secured, the future residents delegated the task of drafting development plans to Stefan and another design professional member. Draft site plans were submitted to meetings of all residents, and modified in accordance with their comments. Once the residents were satisfied with them, they were submitted to the local planning authority - who were enthusiastic. A novel feature of the plan was that it included four dwelling units for renters, owned by the farmer whose land had been purchased.

Clearing for the main access road to the individual building sites started in 1997, and will be completed as necessary to access the sites yet to build. Two ponds were also dug, with a channel between them, to create a small constructed wetland in the village.

Stefan and others started salvaging windows, wood and other construction materials once the land was secured, and now have a large stockpile for future use; all the windows used on Stefan's home were salvaged, and much of the lumber. Construction started on Stefan's home, four rental homes in a row-house configuration and another single family dwelling immediately; while the other two buildings were built by contractors, Stefan and his wife took on the task of building their own home.

Stefans' home is one of the first straw-bale houses in the Sweden, which now boasts several. Working from "The Straw Bale Home" and with advice from the straw bale email listserv, the house has an independent structural timber frame. I'd guess that the 3-bedroom, split-level house is approximately 120 sq.m in floor area. The family moved in last fall, with the building weathered in, but still under construction.

The bales were plastered outside with the traditional mixture of straw, cow dung and local clay; and with lime plaster on the interior. The outside had the first two scratch coats applied when we were there, and is awaiting the final finish. Originally, bales were intended to come from the adjacent farm, but a poor year for straw made it necessary to source them from several farms around the region - a bit of a scramble, according to Stefan.

Walls are thick - some 45-60 cm - which makes for deep-set window ledges on the interiors, useful for plants and other items. Stefan has rounded the sides and tops of window openings on the interior; incoming light reveals and models the curves, emphasizing the wall thickness, and daylight is distributed throughout the rooms, with little contrast glare.

All the salvaged windows used in the house are double glazed; though without low-e coatings. Eave overhangs extend horizontally about the half the height of the windows, to exclude high-elevation summer sun while admitting it for winter solar heating. The largest windows are on the south elevation for passive solar gain, and my rough estimate is that windows constitute about 10-15% of the total wall area.

The roof is insulated with recycled cellulose, with a butyl "rubber" membrane covered with soil lightened with perlite as a growth medium for local grasses. After a year, these are already well-established, without any deliberate seeding.

Heating is with a central masonry stove, using local wood; last winter the household used less than two cubic metres of wood. A solar hot water heater, and possibly a PV system, are planned as finances allow.

It is worth noting that the climate and vegetation around Goteborg is similar to that of much of Canada - in fact, the drive out to the budding village reminded me strongly of Northern Alberta, with jackpine and paper-birch boreal forest and many small lakes. We ended our visit with a refreshing (!?!) swim in the lake adjacent to the village.

Goteborg and Stockholm While I wasn't specifically seeking green building and planning efforts while in Sweden, I couldn't help but observe some common elements.

First, the traditional pedestrian-oriented city centres, as in the UK, have served well to create cities not completely dependant on cars, as we are in North America. Both Goteborg's city centre and Stockholm's Old Town restrict or ban car entry. Arterial streets are in general of asphalt; but most other streets are narrow and almost entirely cobbled - and bicycles and pedestrians rule, since cars are slowed by the narrowness of the streets. This should not be seen as an inevitable with European city development; London is an excellent example of planning (or the lack of it) that failed to control cars, with continual gridlock, noise and air pollution as the result.

Goteborg has a very well-developed bicycle lane system, with bike lanes on almost all arterials, separated from both cars and pedestrians by curbs and differentiated with larger cobbles, or different-coloured asphalt. (Not yet being used to bike lanes, I was always getting in the way of the cyclists - but the residents don't seem to have the same difficulty.) I found it very easy and safe to get around by bicycle, or on foot.

Pedestrian sidewalks in Sweden were typically cobbled, with different sized and coloured stones than the roads. Almost all of the sidewalks had smooth-surfaced parallel paving stones, about 30cm x 60cm laid with ~30 cm between them. These formed "wheel lanes" for baby buggies, carts and dollies, and presented a much smoother rolling surface than the ~15cm, curved-topped stones that made up the bulk of the sidewalk surfaces. I don't know if this was deliberate (neither did the people I asked), but it worked too well to be an accident. As well, each downspout terminates above a grooved stone that carries the rainwater to the stone street curbs, rather than flooding the sidewalk.

Goteborg also has an excellent electric tram system - quiet, emitting no local pollution, and with tracks running throughout the city. Tram service was frequent, clean, comfortable and efficient; typically I didn't pay any attention to schedules, and waited less than 10 minutes. As well, many trams had well-used bike racks. The city is currently spending a lot of money extending and upgrading their tram network; I spent a fascinating time at a sidewalk cafe watching workers use rubber rollers to texture the red-coloured concrete pavement between the tracks to look like cobbles.

The result is that it is quite feasible for many residents to get by quite well without owning cars, which were generally viewed as expensive luxuries rather than necessities. For cars, *all* on-street parking requires hefty payments at the ubiquitous electronic meters, which dispense tickets displayed on dashboards. Almost none of the buildings in the city cores (where I spent most of my time) had surface parking lots, but dedicated - and expensive - multi-storey parking structures dotted throughout the city. When combined with gasoline costing 3 to 4 times as much as Vancouver - mostly taxes - it is obvious that the government is actively discouraging automobile use, and dedicating large revenues toward alternatives.

The Swedes I met live very well indeed, with very high-quality furnishings and consumer goods, and luxuries quite the equivalent (or better) than the average Canadian or American. With average salaries much the same as those in North America, but *much* higher taxes (60% income tax, starting at 209,200 SKr, or 28,000 US$; and 25% general sales tax!), the actual material standard of living was at least the equivalent of Canada and the US. Of course, health care and old-age pensions have much better government support than we see (though this is waning); but part of the reason for this quality of life, I suspect, is that many Swedes do not need to support a car. (Asa subsequently has told me that in fact most Swedes own and operate their own cars. Damn - another brilliant graduate thesis blown by inconvenient reality....)

While in Goteborg I stayed with my friend Asa Jonsson and her brother Mats, who was looking for his own apartment. His criteria, and conversations about the search, were very illuminating. While he owns a car, and uses it for commuting to his engineering job at Volvo, he was looking for an apartment close to the central core, ideally high up on a hill. This was not just for the view, as it would be in Vancouver, but largely for better air quality. This in the centre of a city with far less air pollution than the City of Vancouver, and incomparably better than say, Toronto, Los Angeles or Vancouver's surrounding suburbs; and by a person who does not view himself as an environmentalist.

Mats' search also told me volumes about urban housing in Sweden. Apparently, a few very large companies own the majority of the apartment buildings in the cities, and are able to charge very high rents (1/3-1/2 the average salary) in a tight market. He was looking for a one-bedroom apartment, leased directly from one of these companies; many people sub-let, since most are reluctant to give up their direct lease even if they don't live in the suite.

The great majority of the housing I saw in urban Sweden is in the form of 4- to 6-storey apartment buildings, with no setback from the sidewalk or from side or rear property lines. Often the ground floor is devoted to retail or commercial use, with apartments above.

The shops, offices and apartments typically have two faces, one onto the street and the other to a common courtyard, entered through one or more gates or doors to the street. Several stairwells from the courtyard serve stacked apartments; elevators are uncommon. This design provides each apartment with exposure to the outdoors on two sides, for cross-ventilation with windows. As well, it makes for secure common courtyards where people meet, typically cobbled and often planted with a few trees, a small garden, or a play area - and populated by *many* bicycles.

Walls of larger older buildings are typically made of uninsulated stone, or brick with stone framing the windows, though many buildings of 4 storeys or less were built with wood stick-framing and vertical board and batten wood siding. (In Goteborg a 17th-century building code provision prohibited stick framing higher than 2 storeys for fire prevention - and lead to a hybrid construction of bricks below 2 storeys of wood-framing at the top. The result has become characteristic of buildings in old areas of the town.) In new buildings, insulation is now required by code, and construction is typically double-wythe brick or block, with rock-wool insulation in the void. The bricks and blocks typically have ~1cm voids formed into them, both to save on materials and for the insulation value.

Windows have traditionally been single-glazed with exterior storm windows; a very popular renovation is installing *excellent* windows. New Scandinavian windows typically have low-e, thermally-broken double- or triple-glazing in a metal-clad wood or vinyl frame; and large side-hung "tilt and turn" openable sections that allow for easy cleaning. They have extremely robust hinges, closures, and excellent seals and weather-stripping. Openable sections were large enough that I often saw people sitting in them, whiling away some time with a tea or coffee and idly watching people in the street. I wish that such good windows were generally available in Canada!

The roofs of these buildings enclose an attic accessible at the top of the stairwells, and used for bulk storage by residents. The one in Asa's building (and apparently quite typically) was uninsulated, with wood structures exposed to the attic, and almost exclusively had masonry shingles.

Heating is typically hot-water radiators, fed by a central heat distribution system serving entire neighborhoods. Apparently, many of these central plants are being upgraded to use natural gas, or waste heat from combined-cycle gas turbines generating electricity; and with deregulation of energy services, many of these plants are now privately-owned and operated. Each stack of apartments is served by one or more central exhaust shafts, topped with a continuously-operating rooftop fan; locally-switched exhaust fans in kitchens and bathrooms connect to the depressurized shafts. In Asa's kitchen, the stove hood had a section that pivoted down to better trap steam and cooking fumes - which worked much better than most hoods available in Canada or the States.

I found energy-efficient compact-fluorescent lamps, T8s and circular tubes were about as widespread as incandescent lamps. However, several people I spoke to preferred the warmer colours and better colour-rendering of incandescents. Street lighting almost exclusively used high-pressure sodium lamps; rather than separate lamp standards, they were hung from cables attached to the buildings.

Water-conserving plumbing fixtures seem to be universal; toilets typically use 6 litres per flush. Their operation puts North American (and even more so, UK) toilets to shame; *one* press of the button at the top of the tank makes for a positive, high-velocity, effective flush.

The clothes washers I saw were also of far better quality than most North American appliances. With horizontal drums and no agitators, they use less water (and energy), and are gentler on the clothes. As well, I saw an appliance I'd never seen before - a high-speed centrifuge to wring even more water out of the clothes before drying. The washers already resulted in dryer clothes than I typically get from those at my laundromat in Vancouver; with the centrifuge they came out virtually dry.

Each building has both a garbage room, and a recyclables storage room; glass, cardboard, plastics, and compostables are separated by residents and collected by the city. The city provides bio-degradable unbleached paper bags for kitchen waste; and roll-away plastic bins, a little larger than the typical North American garbage can. No backaches from lifting dented metal garbage cans in Sweden; the standard bins are designed to be lifted hydraulically by devices on the garbage trucks.

Denmark From Stockholm, I took the overnight train South to Copenhagen, and after a sleepless night, met with Erik Hansen, project manager for the Danish Defense Construction Service, and Henrik Terkelsen of Hou & Partners, architects for Denmark's 1998 Green Building Challenge entry. This was an administration and training facility for the defense forces, called "H�jstrup �velsplads". While the project has not proceeded to construction, according to both Erik and Henrik it is representative of current Danish thinking on green design on the commercial / institutional side.

The focus in H�jstrup was on materials selection for health and lower life-cycle impacts. A low-rise building complex laid out in an T-shape, it has 3200 sq.m gross floor area, with two storeys above grade and a below-grade auditorium opening onto a patio on one side for entry and daylight access. The building emphasizes the horizontal with a low-pitched roof and large overhanging eaves, shading a strip window around the second floor; smaller punched windows provide light and ventilation for ground floor rooms. Central double-loaded corridors are flanked by offices and other rooms; the main entry of the building is through an atrium located at junction of the three wings. Interiors were finished with water-based paints and low-emission carpets.

Energy conservation efforts were limited to those required by Danish building regulations. In the walls, 100mm of mineral wool insulation was located between the interior masonry blocks and the brick exterior finish. The roof was designed for wood framing sheathed with plywood, also insulated with mineral wool. Windows were double-glazed with a low-emissivity coating, and wood frames with aluminum sheathing for durability.

The hydronic heating system was to be controlled by a central EMCS with outdoor air temperature sensors, and each room is equipped with a setback thermostat. No mechanical cooling was installed, and mechanical ventilation provided only for meeting rooms. All electric lighting used high-efficiency lamps. The design was projected to use 0.576 GJ/sq.m/year, compared to the average of 0.646 for this type of Danish building.

Both Erik and Henrik emphasized how much they learned in the course of the design. Originally the new headquarters of the Danish equivalent of BC's Association of Professional Engineers was to be Denmark's entry to GBC, but this fell through when the program of the building lost many green elements, so the H�jstrup project was selected as a replacement late in the process.

The Danish government had just published an extensive guide to green design, the "Milj�rigtig Projektering" (principal author: C.F. Moliers Tegnestue Arkitektirmaet), as the design was being completed. A binder almost 5cm thick, it was found to be rather unwieldy for a design that was already well-advanced; a shorter "Cole's Notes" version is now being prepared. As well, the Architectural Academy is now offering a 12 week course on green design, starting in October, which Henrik is planning to attend. Currently, environmental and resource issues are being addressed largely by engineers and specialized consultants, with commercial architects focusing on their traditional strengths - integrating liveability and utility issues with esthetics.

It seems that, as in Canada, Danish commercial and institutional design is still catching up on environmental and resource issues, and according the Henrik there seems to be little awareness or demand for them by commercial clients.

However, I found that on the residential side, architects and engineers are very conscious of these concerns, and well-advanced in addressing them. Danish residential designers are at the forefront of learning how to renovate traditional European residential buildings for energy conservation - one of the most important areas to be addressed, with far more existing buildings requiring retrofit than new projects, if the EUs' ambitious greenhouse gas emission targets are to be met.

KMEK Just two blocks from the hostel I stayed at in Copenhagen, I stumbled across the offices of KMEK, the K�benhavns Milj�- og Energikontor. KMEK is Copenhaven's equivalent of Toronto's Energy Probe, researching and lobbying governments for environmental, energy and resource conservation, waste reduction, and renewable energy generation. More than just a lobby group, they provide consulting services, public seminars and advice on green building design, community recycling efforts and renewable energy projects. KMEK has some 8 full-time staff, and an extensive network of contract help and fellow activists. They are one of the most effective NGOs on the energy/environmental side I've ever seen. I had a lively lunch with them (at least, those I wasn't grilling had a chance to eat); sharing a daily common meal together is one the elements that cements them as an effective group.

With technical staff dedicated to renewable energy production, KMEK has been in the forefront of the effort that lead Denmark to renounce nuclear energy, and shift toward wind generators. Denmark now has a target of 20% of its' power generation from wind, and is a global leader in the field, exporting generators around the world. Currently, KMEK staff are consulting on the design of an offshore wind generation installation with some of the largest generators existing, over 1MW each. A measure of their success is that wind generators are seldom out of sight in Denmark; farmers are finding them an excellent cash crop, and are financing their own private installations in their fields. I lost count of the number of wind generators I saw travelling in Denmark by rail; they are ubiquitous. I took a wonderfully iconic photograph of Copenhagen's Little Mermaid; in the background, across the harbour, is a central heat/electricity plant - and seven wind-generators.

In fact, a major factor in wind-generator placement in Denmark is that they are viewed by many as visual pollution. New wind-generator sites on public lands must undergo public hearings, and this is always raised as an issue, and is a central concern in their siting. One issue that the Danes have found to be mythical is danger of bird kills - a bugaboo still raised with most new wind-generator installations in North America. Personally, I find windmills rather beautiful, just as a glider has sensuous curves derived from aerodynamics; though I recognize that there are definitely places they are inappropriate. Rather wind generators than smog, acid rain and nuclear waste - but hey, I'm an engineer, none of whom have any esthetic sense at all, do we?

At KMEK, I also had the great pleasure of talking with Ann Vikkelso, who has just completed a project with a Copenhagen residential neighborhood, inventorying their waste flows and setting up initiatives to reduce them. She and her colleague went to great efforts to put numbers to the source, type, amount and destination of household waste. Ann and her colleague created a computer spreadsheet tool for resident associations to use in reducing their waste generation, and track it over time for continued improvements. Ann had just returned from a tour of North America, studying and speaking on renewable energy efforts on behalf of the International Network for Sustainable Energy (INFORSE). Ann gave me several copies of the "Sustainable Energy News", a monthly newsmagazine published by INFORSE, an international organization working on sustainable energy issues throughout the world. The August issue has given me many contacts throughout Southeast Asia and China that I hope to visit - many thanks, Ann!

As well, KMEK provided me with an *excellent* English-language book listing some of the many green residential designs and projects in the greater Copenhagen area. The "By�kologisk Guide - K�benhavn & omegn" (Urban Ecology Guide - Greater Copenhagen, ISBN 87-87487-993) by Nina Munkstrup & Jakob Lindberg, was published in 1996. With an updated version due soon, the book summarizes the green features of 45 projects, with photos, contact information, topical discussions, maps, guidance on public transit, further information sources and references. It became my constant companion in my travels around Copenhagen, leading me to many of the projects I toured; and I heartily recommend it to anyone travelling in Denmark with similar interests to mine. It can be obtained from the:

Dansk Byplanlaboratorium (Danish Town Planning Institute) Peder Skrams Gade 2 B, 1054 K�benhavn K Denmark tel: +45-33-13-72-81 fax: +45-33-14-34-35 eml: dantown@inet.uni-c.dk

Christiania One of the communities I'd heard of on the way to Denmark, and mentioned in the Urban Ecology Guide, is Christiania. Christiania is a self-declared "Free State", started by squatters who occupied an abandoned military base in the centre of Copenhagen. It was originally founded in the early 70s, dedicated to personal freedom and environmental conservation through individual and community action, in a context of non-violent, direct self-rule by residents. After many years of continuous harassment by Copenhagen and national governments, in 1997 the Danish parliament declared it a "social experiment", recognizing a reality that it could neither ignore nor suppress. And, unlike most intentional communities, it *works*, and the impression I got from my brief visit, it works quite well, thank you very much.

Christiania is the closest approach to the vision of San Francisco's 1968 "Summer of Love" I've seen. Governed by consensus at a monthly meeting of all mature residents, the 900 adult inhabitants have created a green oasis in the heart of an already environmentally- conscious urban centre. The site was once a military base dating to the 17th century, and has many existing wood, stone and brick buildings of a wide variety of ages, surrounded by a high stone wall on three sides, and a canal on the fourth. Squatters occupied the abandoned buildings seeking free shelter, and created a self- governing "outlaw area", where the existing Copenhagen building codes (and other laws...) are simply ignored.

Christiania (and Denmark!) has benefited from unregulated experimentation with solar, rainwater collection and biological waste treatment. Since originally there were no washing facilities, the early residents built a common bath-house, collecting rainwater and heating it with solar domestic water heaters integrated into the roof; it is still in use. All of the large buildings in Christiania recover rainwater for clothes washing and toilets; and a volunteer group of residents monitors and repairs the often ancient plumbing, fixing dripping taps and leaks.

Many of the residents now make their living at Christiania's recycling centre. Not only do Christiania residents recycle household waste, including paper, glass, plastic, cardboard and organics, but an important economic activity is salvage, resale and reuse of construction materials. Originally started as a resource for residents salvaging and using materials from Christiania, it now recycles materials from Copenhagen as well, offering them for resale to both residents and non-residents at a large warehouse. With automobiles banned from the community, most materials are moved around with pushcarts and bicycle carts. [An excellent version of bicycle carts are now built by a business founded in the community (Christiania Bikes), and sold throughout Denmark.]

Many of Christiania's homes are scattered throughout the green areas surrounding the canal, built or moved there by residents. In the eighties, the railway service retired many old wheeled train cars that had served as mobile barracks for rail workers. Many of these were salvaged by Christians, and the intent is to move them periodically, to allow the land to regenerate. Other small, funky owner-built houses have been located in the woods, on the shoreline, or on piles over the water - some very beautiful, in a homey, homespun way. (Yes, Susan, I *do* have photos!)

With no central water supply or sewage system, several common composting toilets were set up to serve these households, and grey-water treatment is ubiquitous with these homes. I had the opportunity to speak to one of the pioneers of Christianias' water-treatment efforts, Claus Van Deurs. Claus quietly and proudly showed me several of these systems, and talked about the lessons he'd learned in fifteen years of experience.

Clivus composting toilets have now been in operation in outdoor toilets for over a decade, maintained by volunteers, with *no* problems. I can testify that they are smell- and pest-free, and in fact are pastorally located amid the trees - far more pleasant than *many* public toilets. The maintenance work is not particularly onerous, requiring less than an hour a every two weeks or so; toilet paper is burned, the compost is turned, and the bins emptied annually. The clean, odourless compost is spread in the surrounding vegetation, to return the nutrients to the soil. The compost looks, smells and feels like excellent topsoil or fine potting soil. Each toilet serves from 7 to 10 households, and many passersby enjoying a walk through the green areas.

Claus showed me several grey-water treatment systems, all home-built. They fell into two types: container systems, and in-ground plant systems. The container systems started with kitchen sink or shower drains piped to the bottom of an open container, to separate out hair and solids. An overflow pipe was fed to two cascading sand-filters; each of these had the inlet at the bottom and the outlet at the top, and had been colonized by volunteer native plants. The final step was polishing by local plants in a large planter; all of the containers I saw were salvaged buckets or tanks. A system for a single kitchen occupied about 1-1/2 square meters.

The other system I saw consisted of an in-ground reed bed with a clay bottom, filled with sand. The sink waste was fed directly into the bottom, with the clay bed sloping from the inlet toward an overflow outlet. This system occupied an area about one meter wide and about 2-1/2 meters long, and was virtually indistinguishable from the nearby natural marsh.

One of the best features of Christiania is their reclamation of the adjacent canal. Originally, it was typical of others in Copenhagen, heavily polluted with storm water runoff from streets and paved areas, and essentially dead. Christiania volunteers, such as Claus, planted reeds, cat-tails and other marsh plants at portions of the shoreline, and these have since taken over the entire margin. Current plans are to install PV- and wind-powered fountains, to aerate the water and help treat storm water pollution, following a charming fountain Claus installed in a tiny natural pond near his home. When the sun shines, a single PV panel powers a small pump, which spurts a small jet into the air, oxygenating the water, treating pollutants - and reminding him of the sun and natural regeneration processes. The canal and its surrounding semi-wilderness now forms one of most natural areas in Copenhagen, which otherwise is mostly stone, pavement and buildings.

Claus was emphatic that nature has tremendous powers of recovery, and that only a little human intervention is necessary. He is especially proud of an aquarium he installed several years ago in Christiania's ecology learning centre, established by the community to educate residents' and Copenhagen's children. Claus continued to stock the aquarium with a variety of plants, snails and small fish from the regenerated canal, and he told me that after a year and a half of effort, it has now required no feeding or aeration for several years. He has succeeded in creating a tiny, *self-sufficient* ecosystem, simply by continued introduction of a variety of local plants and animals. His main points to me were: "Learn by doing"; and "Nature wins in the end" - and they've since provided me with a lot of food for thought for my personal future direction.

Any discussion of the green efforts of Christiania must have some explanation of its' context of economy and governance.

There is a characteristic pattern in Christiania - initiatives and problems are identified and dealt with by volunteers. If they are important to the entire community, or require commitment of common resources or an ongoing effort, the issue is raised with the standing volunteer committee delegated by the collective. If they can't deal with it, it is raised at the monthly general meeting of all residents for consideration and resolution. Each of the major buildings and areas also has a smaller resident's committee to deal with issues that range from who can live there, roof leaks, to domestic disputes and expenditures on renovations. Standing committees have evolved for external relations, energy, water, waste, and several other common concerns.

After prolonged pressure and negotiations, Christiania now collectively pays Copenhagen for its water and energy consumption, and the equivalent of municipal taxes for its residents. They have a common fund (running at a small surplus!) for expenditures, and levy fees from long-term residents - but are extremely conscious of the fact that most of its occupants have very low cash incomes.

A major part of Christiania's economy comes from the sale of soft drugs; one of the "downtown" streets is known as "Pusher Street", and marijuana and hashish are openly displayed and sold at many small booths - but *not* hard drugs.

Christiania had to deal with severe problems with heroin and cocaine at the beginning of the 80's, with dealers openly pursuing their business, and both covert and open battles between the undercover and riot police and the junkies and pushers. It was finally dealt with by the residents themselves, with a very successful campaign against hard drug use; prominent among the prolific graffiti are the campaigns' logo, a fist smashing a hypodermic.

Hard drug users were offered treatment; dealers were banned by consensus of the residents; they were expelled mostly by public verbal abuse; all gates except the main one were sealed to control their re-entry; and large four-colour posters with photographs of hard-drug dealers, taken by residents, identified them to one and all - including the Copenhagen police.

Now, hard drug use is no more prevalent than the rest of Copenhagen, according to several residents I spoke to. Their approach might well have lessons for Vancouver's Downtown East Side....

As you might expect, Christiania has a bustling tourist trade, with over ten thousand(!?!) visitors a day in peak summer seasons. They come not only to buy recreational drugs, but for the music (excellent, and running till the wee hours of the morning), guided tours of the community and its green design efforts, and to enjoy the extensive green areas that make up much of Christiania. Tourism seems to be a major contributor to their money economy - but in the main, it is volunteers and trading among residents that form its economic core.

Recently, Christiania created its own "Green Plan", as a foil to an official plan from Copenhagen's planners. The City's plan separated residential areas from park areas; which Christiania residents object to. A summary of the community's plan, and much other information on Christiania, can be found on their website, and is well worth looking at, for both techies and others.

Copenhagen I found Copenhagen delightful. I stayed in a hostel just north of the Sortedams lake for a week, and every day was a new pleasure. It's basically a flat, low-rise city, with few buildings over ten stories, so the skyline is still dominated by cathedral spires, many of which are architectural and structural tours-de-force.

I climbed the one of the highest spires to get an overall impression of the city - the Vor Frelsers Kirke, located near Christiania on an island south of central Copenhagen. The spire has been a landmark since its construction in 1752, with its gilded spiral stair along the outside that runs to the bottom of the golden ball at the top. While climbing to the exterior stair, you pass through the timber frame structure, up a narrow, twisting stairs past the bells and the dusty mechanical works of the clock, with shafts of sunlight picking out the dust motes dancing in the air.

The city centre of Copenhagen is defined by water; to the northwest by a long lake, the Sortedams, with five rectangular sections divided by bridges; and to the southeast by the port, Gasvaerksnavnen, which opens at the north end to the Baltic. The port has several canals leading from it; the Palace district, Christiansborg, in the downtown area is surrounded by one; and the island with Christiania and Vor Frelser's Kirke has two canal loops that split it, and a seawater inlet forming the island. The entrance to the port is guarded by a formidable moated fortress, the Kastellet, crowned by a windmill that pumped well-water - a stark reminder of wars with Britain, Sweden and France, and the very real necessity of guarding the economic heart of Denmark.

I took several canal boats; one of the boat services is essentially a bus service, allowing passengers to alight and re-board at will over the course of a day. The boats pass under some incredibly low bridges; you can reach up and touch the structure while sitting in your seat under several. Several of the canals are lined with fishing and pleasure boats; a tourists' delight, flanked by cobbled streets and sidewalk cafes. Many of the traditional wood boats are varnished, rather than painted, to show off the quality of the wood and beautiful lines of the planking - which was an interesting to me, having just studied the cobles (fishing boats) of Staithes.

Copenhagen is also an industrial city. Looking either way up or down the Gasvaerksnavnen, the view is terminated by combined heat and power plants serving most of the city's buildings. Their stacks, once belching black coal smoke, are now emitting mostly steam and carbon dioxide; most have been converted to natural gas, with gas combined-cycle gas turbines a rapidly growing trend. On the outskirts of the city, many factory stacks define the horizon - which gives the city an gritty feel that echoes the down-to-earth, practical character of the Danes I met.

Stone and brick gives the city centre a solid, if somber feel; there are few street trees, with vegetation confined mostly to parks. But the parks are beautiful; many are the grounds of palaces like the Frederiksborg, and the mature landscaping frames some extraordinary views.

Copenhagen's bike paths are the best I've ever seen, bar none. As in Goteborg and Stockholm, the 2 to 3m wide bike lanes are mostly separated from car and pedestrian traffic by curbs and elevation changes; but have smooth asphalt surfaces that makes riding a pleasure; while the wide sidewalks and most side streets are cobbled. *All* the arterial streets are lined with bike paths, equipped with dedicated stoplights for bicycles and pedestrians, mostly equipped with switches for both cyclists and walkers, and audible signals.

The bike lanes are *very* well-used; apparently one-third of the trips in the city are made by bicycle. Three-wheeled Christiania bike carts are everywhere, carrying everything from flowers to refrigerators, and are especially popular with mothers - children can often be seen peeping out from under the Conestoga-wagon-like canopies many are equipped with. Again, cyclists have the de-facto right-of-way; but by this time I had gotten used to that. (At least, I don't *think* I caused any accidents....) Sidewalks are lined with parked bicycles; most Danish bikes are usually locked twice, with a cable or horseshoe lock, and with a small lock bolted to the bike that places a shackle through the rear-wheels' spokes. No, they have no bike-theft problem....

The major shopping streets are devoted solely to pedestrian traffic, and bikes are walked - a good thing, too, since the streets are full and more than lively. Several subway lines feed the downtown, and are integrated with the train system, and busses and trams are frequent. Again, the transit accommodates bicycles with racks, large doors and "lobbies" in the subway cars, and ramps up and down stairwells at the side of the stairs. The emphasis on transit, bicycles and pedestrians has made the city very livable: good air quality, quiet and safe streets.

The city's buildings follow the Scandinavian pattern: 4- to 6-storey buildings surrounding central courtyards. I saw much brick and stone, but no stick-frame such as in Sweden, except for a few smaller buildings in the countryside. Tile roofs were the most common, though many metal roofs can be seen. Again, the buildings typically had no setback from the sidewalks.

The Danes have some of the most progressive environmental and resource conservation attitudes and initiatives in Europe, according to surveys I've seen. However, the people I met are practical and matter-of-fact about these issues; they are part of everyday life, not the political issue-of-the-day. Having made very ambitious commitments to greenhouse gas reduction, abandoned nuclear power generation entirely, and with a polluted water table due to over-drawing their aquifers, Danes are now facing the necessity of renovating their existing building stock, while preserving the architectural heritage they are so proud of. Several of the housing projects I saw were attempts to resolve this difficult problem.

FDF Huset FDF is a Christian organization similar to the Scouts or Guides, which offers Danish children a chance to build character through public service, "wilderness" experiences with camps and hikes - and for those who live outside Copenhagen, a chance to visit the city. FDF Huset is their Copenhagen headquarters, with both offices and dormitory-like accommodations for groups of children experiencing city life.

Jacob Overby gave me a tour of the building, which recovers and treats rainwater for toilet-flushing and clothes washing. The building dates to the turn of the century, and has 12 low-flush toilets and an efficient washing machine.

Water is collected from the 450 sq.m masonry tile roof; gutters from the four roof slopes are gathered into two vertical rainwater leaders mounted on the exterior, and capped with leaf strainers. The downspouts lead to 8 galvanized-steel tanks in the ground floor, each of 1 cu.m capacity. From the tanks, a pressure-operated pump feeds the (rather elaborate) filtration system: an initial sand filter, then a fabric filter, and finally a cartridge filter, resulting in removal of particles larger than 5 microns. The water fed to the system is metered, as is the auxiliary municipal supply, to allow monitoring of water saved.

Jacob changes the filters every three months or so, and the tanks are cleaned every few years. The resulting water is clear and clean, though not potable (addition of an ultraviolet or ozone treatment system would make it so, I suspect).

Lessons Learned The system collects about 225,000 litres of water a year - the annual consumption of the average Danish family of four, for a cost-savings of 6000 DKr. It cost 125,000 DKr, so it is obvious that it would not be "cost-effective" in North American terms. But the aquifers feeding Copenhagen are becoming increasingly contaminated with urban and rural "non-point source pollution", and growing demands continue to draw it down. To FDF, the system has educational value for their kids, greatly reduces the amount of municipal water they consume - and consequently is worth every kroner.

Initially, the mechanical room housing the tanks, pump and filter had no floor drain, or curb at the door. This presented a problem when cleaning the tanks, and changing filters; once the floor of the adjacent room was flooded due to a piping leak. They have since added a drain and a curb, and have had no problems since.

Godthabsvej 11-13 I had the opportunity of meeting with Niels Herskind and Jens Harild of Byens Tegnestue, an architectural firm specialising in green housing, especially renovations. They designed the very interesting renovation of several apartment blocks in Godthabsvej, Copenhagen, and are one of the leading architects in energy-efficient renovations in Denmark. The Godthabsvej project was financed by the European Union and the Danish Ministry of Energy.

In the Godthabsvej demonstration project, they added glazed balconies to the non-north walls facing the courtyards on several existing 4- and 5- storey buildings. Niels and Jens went to a great deal of effort to optimize designs to reduce first costs and maximize life-cycle energy savings. The renovation's program also included adding penthouse flats in the former storage attics, and washrooms to the existing commercial leases on the ground floor; and connected the building to the district heating plant.

The benefits of the balconies are not just in energy terms, but in the new finish they give to the building envelopes, which often require serious maintenance; with glazed balconies these can then be minimal and esthetic only. The balconies do change the appearance of the buildings however, and are limited in their application, since Copenhagen's planning department forbids changing the appearance of street facades in most districts.

The glazed balcony design they arrived at is very ingenious; they obviously thought long and hard about it. Each balcony stack has an independent structure, in this case of concrete, responding to inflammability requirements of the building code. The unheated balconies are single-glazed, and the window system is sturdy and well thought out. Windows consist of a centre section with self-balancing double-hung windows that open simultaneously up and down; a lower section w