Contemporary 1950 - Present

Housing and the Environment

‘In Northern Ireland a combination of the troubles, individualism, motor car self sufficiency and the pattern of land tenure has driven the affluent from the towns and cities out into the sprawling suburbs of the dormitory towns and the open countryside.
Meanwhile the town centres become hollow, dead after business hours and devoid of the rich mix that successful urban living can achieve. Such patterns break down communities:- the suburbs rarely engender a sense of place with the town or village centre; the inhabitants of isolated bungalows, commuting by car to and from the cities have little connection to the rural community and above all, these practices are inherently unsustainable, using up valuable agricultural land the precious resource of the countryside - over 100,000 acres since WW2 of agricultural now in housing while thousands of redundant buildings in town and country remain unused’
[Quote from speaker at conference in Belfast ‘Regenerating Communities through Heritage’,1999]

‘In the UK, buildings account for 50% of primary energy use (CO2) output and for every inhabitant, six tonnes of building materials are used each year’.
[Heritage Counts 2002 the State of England’s Historic Environment]

‘Our stock of historic buildings represents a substantial investment of money and energy… It can be expensive to adapt older homes to modern standards of energy efficiency, but taking a longer-term view research has shown that older houses can in fact be more cost-effective and sustainable to maintain.’

• The cost of keeping a Victorian terraced house in Nelson West, Lancashire, in a habitable quality for a 30-year period has been estimated at £24,600, compared to the £64,000 that it would cost to demolish that house, replace it with a new house and then maintain that modern home over the same period.’
• The total energy that has already been used in the construction of a typical Victorian terrace is equivalent to the amount of energy (in fuel terms) that could drive a car five times round the earth, or half the distance from the earth to the moon.
• Demolition and construction account for 24% of the total annual waste produced in the UK’
  [Heritage Counts 2003 the State of England’s Historic Environment]

‘In environmental terms, the continued use of existing building stock, whether or not of particular architectural merit or historic interest, coupled with measures to improve energy efficiency is a global priority.’
[BS79B,1998. The principles of the conservation of historic buildings]