Sustainability

The UK is experiencing increasingly extreme temperatures, while building standards and the conventional approaches used by contractors and designers are not always keeping pace. Minimum standards provide a baseline, but we believe they are not sufficient on their own to ensure that buildings remain comfortable and resilient as our climate changes.

Atbove Studio we put environmental design at the heart of our process. We integrate sustainable measures into our designs from the outset, with the aim of creating buildings that are comfortable, efficient and adaptable for the future. We believe this needs to happen now, rather than risk creating spaces that may become increasingly difficult or uncomfortable to use in years to come.

Our approach to environmental design is based around three key principles:

1. Building Fabric
The first step is to reduce the amount of energy required to heat and cool a building. We seek to minimise carbon-intensive materials and, where appropriate, replace them with more environmentally responsible alternatives. We also aim for our buildings to perform beyond minimum thermal standards, improving insulation, airtightness and overall energy efficiency.

2. Passive Design
The second step is to use the building itself to manage temperature. Through considered orientation, natural ventilation, solar control, shading, thermal mass and other passive measures, we can help buildings stay warm when needed and cool when temperatures rise, without relying on energy-intensive systems.

3. Active Design
The final step is to consider how technology can further reduce energy consumption and environmental impact. Where active systems are required, we favour efficient and low-carbon alternatives such as air source heat pumps, photovoltaic panels and other renewable energy technologies.

Many of the measures we incorporate are either cost-neutral or involve only a marginal increase in construction cost compared with conventional approaches. Where the additional cost is minimal, we believe it makes sense to make that investment now to ensure that the spaces we design remain comfortable, efficient and usable throughout their foreseeable lifespan.

For us, sustainable design is not an additional layer applied to a project at the end of the process. It is fundamental to good architecture.