The Guardian has an article on a zero-carbon emission development in Penryn, Cornwall, England. The fact that this happened in a small town makes it worth investigating for our Commons initiative (gaining momentum).
… the brand new Jubilee Wharf, a creek-side development comprising flats for local people to rent, 12 craft workshops, a public hall, a nursery and shops, might well be the greenest British building to date. Its carbon emissions seem to be a happy zero. It has been built as far as possible from local materials, including red cedar and larch, using local labour.
The pictures are of an appealing building, but one appropriate for its setting.
The two blocks of the development – one four storeys high, comprising studio workshops with maisonettes above; the other over two storeys, housing a nursery, public hall and cafe – enclose a courtyard, protected from the occasionally fierce coastal wind.
The author, Jonathon Glancey, sums up the greatest advantage of such a building initiative:
Too many councils give in to the bullying demands of supermarket chains, as if these unsustainable land monsters were the only means of boosting employment and local income. How about a few, or more than a few, variations on the theme of Jubilee Wharf, reflecting the topography, style, local production, sentiments and ambitions of people in different parts of the country?
