Q&A with sustainability champion, Samuel Warn

Projects can take anywhere between a year and a decade from design to completion. I certified as a passive house designer as it’s a scientifically proven method for producing net zero carbon buildings to ensure the projects we work on are set up to reduce carbon emissions dramatically. Motivation arises from ensuring we get the best results out of design, making sure no opportunities slip through the net and in doing so producing high quality buildings which result in great spaces to occupy.

The biggest challenge is weighing up sustainability with functional aspects of the client brief. BDP works on some very challenging sites and these often present the best opportunities as they require a new way of thinking and sometimes the greatest results. People often view sustainable design as a one off passive house in the country side, perfectly orientated south. A lot of the sites we design for include existing masterplans/ infrastructures in which the solution isn’t so obvious. Our interdisciplinary approach works through these sites holistically, finding ways to embed sustainability at the core of the design response and resulting in a rounded response.

The passive house planning package requires a heavy data input which works brilliantly for small domestic projects. I am looking to develop workflow between PHPP and Revit to ensure flow of data between the softwares can help our passive house workflow develop efficiently.

Our interdisciplinary approach is a great opportunity for tackling complicated projects in which sustainable solutions aren’t so obvious. As opposed to just designing the building in isolation, we hold early design reviews focused on net zero carbon opportunities allowing for the site/masterplan to be developed holistically. Whether it’s our urbanism/landscape team designing for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) or suggesting rootball depths on green roofs, the engineers assessing the structural frame’s embodied carbon through calculations or architects testing orientation and form factor; we develop ideas based off human centred environments.

Sustainability doesn’t have to be high tech new builds with multi-use facades; the most sustainable projects coming out of our studio at the moment involve retrofitting existing buildings such as the Grade II listed Welsh School of Architecture which looks to reinstate the passive design strategy. This approach caps embodied carbon to the existing and retrofit whilst improving the operational costs of the building for the rest of its working life.