UK buildings (specifically homes) in the 21st century are still mainly built using technology that is more than 100 years old.
Motor cars in the main are still powered by the 100-year-old internal combustion engine. No wonder that the consumption of these two pieces of low-tech engineering have the greatest contribution to environmental pollution on this planet.
The primary aesthetic difference between homes and cars is that cars have become highly accessorised - design is the high altar of car consumerism. So why are most us happy to occupy dwellings that not only hark back architecturally to a bygone age, but also don't perform much better in terms of resourcing?
One point that emerges from your Reform the Regs manifesto (17 March, page 40) is that UK housebuilding needs to make a sea change when it comes to the received notion of how our homes are built to perform. All concerned in the built environment will have to display innovation. The answer does not lie in making all homes in flatpack factories or to continue as we have done so far - completely regardless of the environmental impact on this planet - but somewhere in between.
Ed Quinn, Bournemouth
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