Keen to get started! If only I could find an architect...

[jno]

Hi there!

I’ve been perusing BuildHub these last week’s, gathering up informative titbits and receiving a few helpful comments to a couple of my questions.

 

Why the interest? Well, I’m in the fortunate position of having a family member with an oversized/unused garden who has agreed to sell me a modest chunk of the land, should we manage to get full planning permission.

 

We have in mind a 3-bed detached, 1 or 1.5 storey design. The idea is to be fairly involved with the project management of the self-build, eventually becoming owner-occupiers (we being myself, partner and our young son).

 

The main constraints we’re working with are a fairly narrow plot (34mx14m) and existing detached houses on north, east and west sides. On the other hand, most other aspects such as planning history/access/services/flooding all seem very favourable. This won’t be a ‘forever home’ and we’re open-eyed about the need to design something that’s readably saleable and attractive to lenders.

 

Over the last months, I’ve filled my head with self-build resources, (particularly from BH). I’ve done plenty of research on build methods, planning considerations etc., and have even made several simple Sketch-up models of possible designs.

 

However, I’m well aware that to progress to the next step (likely getting some drawings down and testing the water with a pre-application to the local authority), I’m in need of an architect!

 

We are aspiring to Passiv-like performance, though are realistic about what we might achieve with our tight budget.

I’ve done a fairly thorough internet search for possible designers, though am struggling to see any practices/architects leaping out from my shortlist! I find many ‘low-energy’ architects and quite a few passive house certified designers, though frequently they’re part of larger practises and I doubt we’ll be able to stump up their fees! Otherwise, when I do find smaller businesses that look a bit more within our ballpark, they lack an actual finished example of a Passive house spec’d self-build project…

 

Perhaps this expertise is a little regionalised too, as I feel we’re in a bit of a blackspot here in Worcestershire! I’d be keen to find a designer somewhat local (say up to an hour away) such that a site visit isn’t too onerous and so that they may have connections with proven local-ish builders and tradespeople.

 

Looking forward to digging around BuildHub a bit more to hopefully find some tips on this. I would particularly welcome any advice or experiences on architects. How did you find and choose yours?

 

Cheers

James
 

[JohnMo]

 I would make appointments with a couple of local architects, I wouldn't bother if they are or aren't passivhaus experienced, unless you want it certified.

 

Get a design your happy with, number of bedrooms, living space etc, then work on the thermal aspects. And also how you plan to build, method and if self build, turnkey, main contractor, or sub contractors under your control

 

Decide early if you going single storey or two storey.

 

I would say "fairly involved in project management", may not work for you or who is project managing, as you will end up stepping on each others toes.  I would either project manage or let someone else.  To project manage you need to be there a large amount of time.  It may also depend on how you are building, turnkey, they may not even allow you on site without an appointment?

 

 

[Iceverge]

https://passivehouse-database.org/index.php?lang=en#s_37e0180462e73879604f2efcaeba53b3

 

Have a look at this for a start.  You can filter down the results further if you like. 

 

Also if you drive around the locality and simply knock on doors of any new house you like and say  "I love your house, who was your architect and would you recommend them?" People will be mostly probably happy to share. 

 

 

[MikeSharp01]

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

Get a design your happy with, number of bedrooms, living space etc, then work on the thermal aspects.

But make sure the architect understands your thermal aspirations as it is dead easy to design a building that won't match them - IE Window sizes and orientation, form factors etc.

[recoveringbuilder]

I do wonder why you want to build a passive house given that you have said it will not be your forever home. Will the extra expense be worth it? Things may be changing as a result of the recent cop 26 but in my experience the general house buying public have no knowledge of these houses and would be rather suspicious of say a house without heating or no upstairs heating, they don’t even understand EPC certificates!

[Iceverge]

Design your house as a passivhaus using PHPP and then decide if you can afford the extra insulation to reach the 15kWh/m2/annum and 10w/m2 heating load limits. 

 

Even if you can't and you end up at 25kWh/m2/annum and 20w/m2 heating you'll still have an excellent house but you'll need some conventional heating. 

 

Triple glazing is better for many reasons not just thermal performance. Thermal comfort, eliminating condensation, and noise reduction are just a few. I'd include this regardless.

[jno]

Many thanks for the suggestions.

@JohnMoOur idea at present is to get a main contractor to supply and erect the frame. If budget allows, a broader package with foundations, internal walls, windows and external doors would be great. Like the offering from MBC, for example, who we’re 30 mins up the road from. PYC, Frametechnologies, not too far either. As for the rest, we feel just about able to handle it with subcontractors and tradespeople we have within the wider family. We’ll be living on-site for large portions of the build.

@IcevergeGood idea. The Passive House open days have been and gone. None quite close enough for a visit unfortunately! I’ve also snooped Local Authority planning websites to track down the architect for a particular new build close by.  And certainty keen to assess performance and energy demand in the design stage. Not fussed about exact numbers nor certification. All the more reason to have a designer on board who is versed in PHPP or Passive house design such that they can assess the trade-offs between building performance and cost. 

 

@recoveringbuilderIt’s a great question. Why not just build to Regs and keep it looking and functioning like a ‘normal’ house ready to sell on in a few years? If building cost keep climbing, then maybe we’ll have to do this. But my current thinking is that the cost difference between a ‘normal’ house and something a fair way to Passive-type performance is not tremendous (at least not for walls/foundation, more so for windows and MVHR). Plus, we're just really keen on having a relatively low-impact, high performing house for the time that we are living there. Though, I totally agree that the vast majority of house-buying public have little interest in these aspects… I hope it changes in time (at least in time for when we get round to selling!). Future Homes Standard seems like a modest shove in the right direction....

[jonM]

This article may assist you in looking for an architect. 

[jno]

Great suggestions in that post @jonM Thanks for sharing! The brief for your Shropshire self-build is actually remarkably similar to what we have in mind for our own self-build...

 

I have two local architects and a surveyor now lined up for a walk around the site and a chat about what might be possible. Hopefully a step forward.

[jno]

Bit of an update…

Visits to the site by three local architects have been really informative.

 

First, we learned that local planning regulations/policies are often used as guides as no hard-and-fast rules exist in our area. In our case, exact rules on spacing between existing and new builds doesn’t exist… so we’ve some wiggle room so long as the overall proposal is palatable. 

 

Second, architects are busy! At least a few months wait to begin commissioning one of them.

 

And another surprise was the range of prices in taking me through to full planning application. 5k cheapest - 15k most expensive (excluding surveying)!

 

All recommended making a pre-app (with a similar range of costs). As we liked but didn’t love any of these local architects, we’ve gone ahead and put in the pre-app ourselves. We’ll keep searching more options in the meantime.

 

Anticipating a long wait on the pre-app feedback…. but hopefully some useful pointers come back.

 

[Dave Jones]

what is your m2 build budget (excluding the land), this will shape the decisions.

[Pocster]

Look at local planning applications and see which architect names keep coming up . As for cost of architect I did double or quits on a successful application. This was my 3rd architect and once passed I owed him 15k . I pre agreed to pay him 1k a month in cash ?

If not your forever home just design / build with selling in mind . Don’t need everything in it .

[Iceverge]

Don’t write off getting a far away architect to do the design and a local to do the planning app. 

 

 

[CharlieKLP]

I don’t know what you mean by ‘architects are busy’ lol, I’m not - I’m bored crazy!!!

 

not sure you can get ‘passivehouse’ on a tight budget. You can get over the requirements, but passivehouse is difficult and unnecessary, forget about it I’d say. 
 

also pre apps are pointless. If you have a decent architect they should know what the planners will probably say, they are covering themselves and trying to get more money off you (or trying to stop your design ideas from being daft).

Edited January 30, 2022 by CharlieKLP

[joe90]

Well I designed our build and whilst passive esk it is not certified but much better than building regs. I only got my builders architect to convert my pencil drawings into CAD fir the planning application. 

[jno]

@Dave Jones I've seen every £/m2 number posssible! hehe. We're hoping 2-2.5k/m2. Modest finished with lots of internal fitting DIY-ed.

 

@pocster Good idea. Have trawled local planning apps extensively and learnt alot. That's how I came up with my shortlist of local architects. All 10-15 years experience. All suggesteing pre-app as sensible starting point.

 

Their reason for pre-app being for a relatively small fee, you can mitigate falling foul of something come full app, and avoid the extra costs and delays that involves.

 

@IcevergeYep, good point. Will cast the net wider in search for architect.

 

RE passive being difficult to achieve - yes. But building performance is paramount for us, so got to be getting close to passive performance.

[Iceverge]

Sadly during our build process I found building professionals very poor in understanding the effects of form factor, glazing, overheating, airtightness, thermal bridging and insulation. 

 

These will be incorporated right from the start of any design. Many people have tried unsuccessfully to bolt on passiveness to late on and found big issues with the required insulation amounts, buildability, airtightness or overheating. 

 

The issue isn’t with reaching any specific target re energy use but the performance gap between design and final house. Almost all houses are designed on a best guess method, with extra mechanicals thrown in to ensure comfort, to hell with the running costs. 

 

Of all the methods I’ve researched nothing comes close to passivhaus. Simply put, they perform closer to the design that everything else. 

 

I’ve put a mate’s proposed straightforward bungalow through PHPP recently and saw that it not only used more energy that our house despite being half the size (poor form factor and use of glazing) but also suffered lots of overheating due huge westerly facing french doors. 

 

He has planning permission and is going ahead as is but if he had simply swapped a few windows to an adjacent wall during design stage the house would be much much more comfortable.

 

 

 

 

 

[jno]

@Iceverge Interesting experiences. A shame that building performance not more of a consideration amongst the trades. 

 

I definately envisage using an architect with previous Passive experience and fully expect to enlist services of heating and energy consultant, who can work with us to refine designs based on software and past experiences. 

[CharlieKLP]

1 hour ago, joe90 said:

Well I designed our build and whilst passive esk it is not certified but much better than building regs. I only got my builders architect to convert my pencil drawings into CAD fir the planning application. 

That’s a bit of a waste of an architect’s skills isn’t it? I don’t think people train for 7 years+ to convert your drawings to CAD.

 

Like I say, it’s reasonably easy to get above building regs, some councils even require 10% above, the architects would be used to get the most out of the glazing orientation and do the certification. 
 

If you want a Passivehouse level you’re looking at SIPs and an investment in renewables. Expensive and not practical for most people. 

[IanR]

3 minutes ago, CharlieKLP said:

If you want a Passivehouse level you’re looking at SIPs and an investment in renewables. Expensive and not practical for most people. 

 

Hmmm.... not sure how familiar you are with PassivHaus.

[CharlieKLP]

3 minutes ago, IanR said:

 

Hmmm.... not sure how familiar you are with PassivHaus.

What are you questioning there?

[IanR]

9 minutes ago, CharlieKLP said:

What are you questioning there?

 

Renewables has nothing to do with PassivHaus, and SIPs is a poor way to deliver a structure that meets PassivHaus targets due to cold-bridging, air tightness and decrement delay, which will all require counter-measures to mitigate the inherent issues with a SIPs structure.

Edited January 30, 2022 by IanR

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, CharlieKLP said:

don’t know what you mean by ‘architects are busy’ lol, I’m not - I’m bored crazy

You are not doing extension and home offices.

Unless there is another reason.

[CharlieKLP]

2 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

You are not doing extension and home offices.

Unless there is another reason.

No I don’t do those. It always gets quiet after Xmas and very busy in summer for new builds. 

[CharlieKLP]

13 minutes ago, IanR said:

 

Renewables has nothing to do with PassivHaus, and SIPs is a poor way to deliver a structure that meets PassivHaus targets due to cold-bridging, air tightness and decrement delay, which will all require counter-measures to mitigate the inherent issues with a SIPs structure.

Interesting thanks.