The Prince's House at the Ideal Home Show

Pure Interactions put on its Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment hat today at the annual Ideal Home Show held at the Earl's Court Expo Center in West London. The Ideal home show is in its 103 year of showcasing homes and homegoods for the discerning consumer. Amidst the tides of visitors and brand name products, the Prince's house stood flanked by the Ideal home Retrofit and a Scandinavian open plan show home by Jorntrahus.

The show homes highlight a focus on sustainability that is growing in England, never mind the rest of the world, as a response to climate change and the litany of environmental and social disorders caused by irresponsible growth. Yet the Prince's house stands out in its approach, one that could be called sustainability through simplicity, whereby good design at the home and neighborhood planning level can go a long way to make places more energy efficient, pleasant and lasting. The use of a high quality building envelope, natural and reclaimed materials and the integration into dense, mixed use, walkable, and well serviced neighborhoods, all contribute to the house's sustainability. A full list of features can be found on the Foundation Website. While sounding a bit soft in its approach, the informative displays behind the house highlight the Foundation's other projects throughout the UK and the world, make it clear that there is a growing technical rigor in our work, in providing location efficiency, measurable cost savings and real environmental, social and health benefits.

While the house is based upon the Foundation's earlier work at the Building Research Establishment site on the 'Natural House,' this particular house will be transported up to the Scottish Ideal Home show before finding a permanent home in one of the Foundation's ongoing projects.

A few nice ideas

Reforesting brought to you by lockheed martin.

Tree Bombing

I hate to say it, but this top down approach may be highly effective, if only you can get the people you are bombing to cooperate. Given the U.S.'s track record in that arena, my hopes are not too high, but if only!

and a design institute that should be known by everybody in the sustainable housing field.

PassivHaus

Efficiency through simplicity. As much as I admire technological innovation, the application of a few time tested principles, across the board, could go a long way to make the planet more habitable for all, and not necessarily breaking the bank either, check it on treehugger.