In October 2010 Pembrokeshire Housing Association (PHA) completed a development
of six residential units, in Pembroke Dock, in west Wales, as part of a Welsh
Government pilot project to promote the development of low carbon housing in Wales
based on the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH). In the same year, in the same town,
a small scale developer undertook the design and construction of two houses based on
ecological principles using strawbale construction. The houses built by this developer
were designed and built outside of the requirements of the CfSH and utilised passive
design approaches along with local and natural materials to reduce operational and
embodied energy. Researchers from the Ecological Built Environment Research and
Enterprise group, at Cardiff Metropolitan University, are working in collaboration with
PHA to develop a best practice model for low carbon housing in rural areas of Wales and
these two projects provide an opportunity for the researchers to investigate and compare
two distinct approaches to low carbon design each with the aim to deliver sustainable,
affordable dwellings. To evaluate these two schemes structured interviews were held
with the design team of the pilot project and the designer/builder of the eco-house to
understand their respective approaches; the influences and obstacles that affected the
development of the schemes; and how they considered user behaviour. The paper
concludes by considering the lessons that registered social landlords might learn from
small scale ecological developers for the design and construction of low and zero energy
housing in rural areas
