Habitare Brighton

Gallery

Peeking Through The Window

Everyone has the power to help create a more habitable planet and to reduce our daily environmental impact. Brightonian nature lovers let us peek through their windows to see how eco-building concepts challenged their way of life.

It works for them and for Mother Earth.

Could it work for us?

Earthship

Cradle to cradle Earthship Brighton was built in 2007 by The Low Carbon Trust and had become an iconic symbol of eco-living today. As an off-grid building, it gets energy and water from renewable sources. It is built with reusable materials which do not pollute the soil.
Self build an earthship For many years, The Low Carbon Trust has inspired a lot of people to adopt a lower-carbon lifestyle by inviting people to join various natural-building courses and see how these techniques are applicable for private houses as well as public buildings.
Starting early Caring for the earth should be fun for everyone. The Earthship welcomes children from nearby schools who would like to learn more about eco-building concepts.
Classmates All of the courses have an important theoretical element, as much as fun and engaging practical work.
Rescued from landfill UK throws away over 48 million tyres annually and they are now banned from landfill.
Inner wall At The Earthship, these tyres are repurposed as an inner wall construction, rammed with soil. This combination provides natural insulation from cold UK weather and minimises contribution to landfill.
Waste or brick? Challenging the conventional way of building, The Earthship Team built 'disco' walls using salvaged glass bottles.
Disco wall in the making These glass bottles capture heat from the sun and bring in natural lights during the day.
Earth Sculptures Building an Earthship gives the flexibility to custom everything you need as a personalised work of art.
Wheat straw wall The outer wall was made of clay and wheat straw from natural sources, which can crumble back to the soil, and be reused to build a new wall if necessary.

Yew Tree House belongs to Mick & Sue Paskins. It sets a high standard for low-energy building design and won the 2011 Master Builders Energy Efficiency Award.
The house is not only well insulated, it is also well embellished with colourful recycled glass. Who can say recycled materials look scruffy?
Locally sourced chestnut wood from Sussex was used to craft this spiral staircase and clad the walls.
By maximising solar thermal storage in the airtight house, the homeowners rarely use their gas boiler, except on winter. If the sun is hiding, there's a wood burner to warm the house.
All firewood for their stove is provided for free by a local builder who would otherwise throw it away.
A unique approach is implemented for the downstairs room flooring. To get natural colour, the floor is coloured with natural oil made from castor beans, a drought-resistant plant.
Home gardening without pesticides helps Mick and Sue to lead a healthier lifestyle as well as to reduce pollutant pressure on earth. They harvest rainwater for the garden, the toilet flush, and other purposes.
In order to reduce water footprint in the house, these eco-click taps and water-saving bathtub design were installed to complete their home.

YEW TREE house

Eco renovated family heirloom The house owner, Nigel, grew up here as a boy. Built in the 1950s, Nigel's mother intentionally designed the house to face south to get as much sunlight as possible.
When his mother fell ill, the house was temporarily vacated. It wasn't until 2007 that Nigel decided to renovate the house with his wife, Sally, who came up with the eco-building idea.
They decided to have internal and external insulation for the walls which reduce heat loss by more than 80% than the original design. Chestnut woods cladded the outer wall, insulating the house and giving it an earthly warm colour.
Internal glass tiles are used as a semi-transparent room partition, separating the dining room and the stairs, giving them privacy and natural lighting at the same time.
Upcycled works of art adorn the kitchen, such as this beautiful mosaic countertop made of recycled glass.
Solar panels provide half of the water heater energy supply while the double glazed windows act as passive solar warmth collector in winter.
The couple made a major change when they found out that their flooring supplier would source UK Oak, and have it processed in China. Considering the carbon footprint to transport the materials back and forth, they decided to find a nearby supplier in France.
As much as the main building makes a comfortable home for Nigel and Sally, the backyard is inviting for birds to visit and make natural music for their ears.

Varndean gardens

Waste House

Brighton Waste House is the basecamp for The University of Brighton's Arts and Humanities Faculty. The building got its name because 85% of the materials used to construct it are sourced from items considered as 'waste'.
Duncan Baker Brown, the architect behind this project covered the exterior of this building with 2000 carpet tiles, giving it an outstanding contemporary look. At the same time, the wall cavities are filled with extraordinary things, starting from toothbrushes, jeans, VHS videos, and cassettes for insulation purposes.
Layers of carpet tiles on the outer walls are used by creative art students who treat it as a canvas and paint it in vibrant colour.
The Waste House initiators aim to change the way people perceive waste. It challenges everyone to expand our limits and find a way to repurpose once loved material around us.
Artsy and functional recycled products were donated from many institutions across UK and displayed inside The Waste House. Pictured here is an extendable accordion chair made of cardboard boxes.
Wood, roots and branches are entwined together as a natural fence, guarding The Waste House whilst making it looks beautiful at the same time.
This display features human hair, dog hair, plastic bottle caps, vinyl banners, paper, and various other unusual building materials with which The Waste House was constructed.
Waste timber and paper are strategically assembled and transformed into this staircase. Reduced waste and heightened creativity work together to preserve our environment.

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Gallery

Peeking Through The Window

Earthship

Cradle to cradle

Earthship Brighton was built in 2007 by The Low Carbon Trust and had become an iconic symbol of eco-living today. As an off-grid building, it gets energy and water from renewable sources. It is built with reusable materials which do not pollute the soil.

Self build an earthship

For many years, The Low Carbon Trust has inspired a lot of people to adopt a lower-carbon lifestyle by inviting people to join various natural-building courses and see how these techniques are applicable for private houses as well as public buildings.

Starting early

Caring for the earth should be fun for everyone. The Earthship welcomes children from nearby schools who would like to learn more about eco-building concepts.

Classmates

All of the courses have an important theoretical element, as much as fun and engaging practical work.

Rescued from landfill

UK throws away over 48 million tyres annually and they are now banned from landfill.

Inner wall

At The Earthship, these tyres are repurposed as an inner wall construction, rammed with soil. This combination provides natural insulation from cold UK weather and minimises contribution to landfill.

Waste or brick?

Challenging the conventional way of building, The Earthship Team built 'disco' walls using salvaged glass bottles.

Disco wall in the making

These glass bottles capture heat from the sun and bring in natural lights during the day.

Earth Sculptures

Building an Earthship gives the flexibility to custom everything you need as a personalised work of art.

Wheat straw wall

The outer wall was made of clay and wheat straw from natural sources, which can crumble back to the soil, and be reused to build a new wall if necessary.

Yew Tree House belongs to Mick & Sue Paskins. It sets a high standard for low-energy building design and won the 2011 Master Builders Energy Efficiency Award.

The house is not only well insulated, it is also well embellished with colourful recycled glass. Who can say recycled materials look scruffy?

Locally sourced chestnut wood from Sussex was used to craft this spiral staircase and clad the walls.

By maximising solar thermal storage in the airtight house, the homeowners rarely use their gas boiler, except on winter. If the sun is hiding, there's a wood burner to warm the house.

All firewood for their stove is provided for free by a local builder who would otherwise throw it away.

A unique approach is implemented for the downstairs room flooring. To get natural colour, the floor is coloured with natural oil made from castor beans, a drought-resistant plant.

Home gardening without pesticides helps Mick and Sue to lead a healthier lifestyle as well as to reduce pollutant pressure on earth. They harvest rainwater for the garden, the toilet flush, and other purposes.

In order to reduce water footprint in the house, these eco-click taps and water-saving bathtub design were installed to complete their home.

YEW TREE house

Eco renovated family heirloom

The house owner, Nigel, grew up here as a boy. Built in the 1950s, Nigel's mother intentionally designed the house to face south to get as much sunlight as possible.

When his mother fell ill, the house was temporarily vacated. It wasn't until 2007 that Nigel decided to renovate the house with his wife, Sally, who came up with the eco-building idea.

They decided to have internal and external insulation for the walls which reduce heat loss by more than 80% than the original design. Chestnut woods cladded the outer wall, insulating the house and giving it an earthly warm colour.

Internal glass tiles are used as a semi-transparent room partition, separating the dining room and the stairs, giving them privacy and natural lighting at the same time.

Upcycled works of art adorn the kitchen, such as this beautiful mosaic countertop made of recycled glass.

Solar panels provide half of the water heater energy supply while the double glazed windows act as passive solar warmth collector in winter.

The couple made a major change when they found out that their flooring supplier would source UK Oak, and have it processed in China. Considering the carbon footprint to transport the materials back and forth, they decided to find a nearby supplier in France.

As much as the main building makes a comfortable home for Nigel and Sally, the backyard is inviting for birds to visit and make natural music for their ears.

Varndean gardens

Waste House

Brighton Waste House is the basecamp for The University of Brighton's Arts and Humanities Faculty. The building got its name because 85% of the materials used to construct it are sourced from items considered as 'waste'.

Layers of carpet tiles on the outer walls are used by creative art students who treat it as a canvas and paint it in vibrant colour.

The Waste House initiators aim to change the way people perceive waste. It challenges everyone to expand our limits and find a way to repurpose once loved material around us.

Artsy and functional recycled products were donated from many institutions across UK and displayed inside The Waste House. Pictured here is an extendable accordion chair made of cardboard boxes.

Wood, roots and branches are entwined together as a natural fence, guarding The Waste House whilst making it looks beautiful at the same time.

This display features human hair, dog hair, plastic bottle caps, vinyl banners, paper, and various other unusual building materials with which The Waste House was constructed.

Waste timber and paper are strategically assembled and transformed into this staircase. Reduced waste and heightened creativity work together to preserve our environment.

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