Bob Tomlinson, co-founder of Living Villages, the housebuilders behind one of the most acclaimed eco-homes developments in the UK, The Wintles in Shropshire, talks exclusively to whatgreenhome.com. Bob and partner Carole Salmon’s next step is to roll out the Living Villages’ template, “stretching from Cornwall to Aberdeen, incorporating good design to encourage social interaction and carbon footprint reduction”. Good luck to them we say.

Q. What’s Living villages’ ethos?

A. Sustainability by good design to encourage social interaction and carbon footprint reduction by both build specification and the creation of proper neighbourhoods.

Q. How has this been applied at The Wintles development?

A. Design has encouraged social interaction by the prioritisation of pedestrians over vehicles, creating pleasant shared spaces, low energy houses that people love to live in and shared amenity land for food and fuel.

Q. What specific eco-initiatives have been implemented?

A. (In order of effectiveness in reducing carbon footprint) Allotments, Orchards, cluster housing with shared spaces, residents management company (for car sharing etc) super insulation, biomass heating, air tightness, low μ values in the building envelope, passive solar gains, active solar (heating and photovoltaic) flexibility in the built envelope, local materials and low carbon materials (lime instead of cement where possible).

Q. What, if any, problems did you encounter when planning The Wintles?

A. Not understanding, within the present systems – planners, banks, construction contractors, and to a certain extent purchasers – what it takes to build an eco-friendly scheme.

Q. How has the public received the Wintles?

A. With great enthusiasm.

Q. What’s the next step for the development?

A. Phase three and completion within 18 months.

Q. Have you any new eco-developments coming on stream you can tell us about?

A. Many new developments stretching from Cornwall to Aberdeen. Much bigger than the Wintles. Detailed planning for the first has just gone in. Watch this space for more information.

Q. Are true zero-carbon homes achievable and if so how do we go about realising them?

A. Yes – but the lifestyle of the occupants has a much bigger impact than the specification of the home itself. By this I mean that two identical ‘zero carbon spec’ houses will have wildly different energy consumption depending on how their occupants use and understand the building.

Q. Lastly, if you had a magic wand what aspect of sustainable housing/eco-development would you wave it over and why?

A. For true sustainability people have to relate to and love the place that they live in. The magic would be used to ensure that all new developments achieve this rather than meet specification standards or production targets.