Part L - Building Regulations
“If you make a building that just about meets the new part L regulations, pat yourself on the back. You’ve just designed the worst building allowable by law.”
Ant Wilson takes the audience through the new Part L Building Regulations dealing with improving energy performance, drawing attention to the fact that the regulations stipulate the absolute minimum performance a building should reach. Mr Wilson also warns against the architectural industry becoming a slave to approved documents without undertsanding the legal requirements for a building.
Drawing attention to the wording of the new Part L documents, he asks the question “What are you doing to get the 28% improvement?” As the next part will require a 28% improvement on energy performance, architects need to be thinking about the fundamental changes they are making in a design to reach that goal. Simply doing things in a way that meets the current part L regulations will result in a fail. Buildings need to perform 28% better.
Mr Wilson stresses the need to understand the balancing act required to meet the Part L Requirements, including elements such as should you install air conditioning to keep the internal temperature down in summer, then ensure that this does not increase the carbon footprint of the building beyond acceptable levels. The presentation also reminds people of the new requirement to build a logbook of the building in use, in order to record its performance.
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