Forest Pennant Stone for Bristol Eco-Home
Stone supplied by Gloucestershire-based Forest Pennant has given an eco-friendly private house near Bristol a real touch of local colour and all with a low carbon footprint.
The new home has been built to match the international Passivhaus standard which means it minimises use of energy for heating and cooling and in turn reduces the calculated carbon footprint of the building. When it came to the hard-landscaping, the owners wanted something that would complement the architectural style of the house but it would also need to tie-in with the environmentally-friendly ethos of the property.
The home-owners wanted to use a local stone to build a patio and the connecting pathways, to provide a coping for dry-stone walls and also to create steps leading up to a lawned area. Luckily for them, Royal Forest Pennant Sandstone is quarried in the nearby Forest of Dean and its environmental credentials are given a significant boost by being processed using electricity generated by the company's on-site micro-hydro turbine ( see news item from 2009 ). This all means that the truly gorgeous carboniferous sandstone is certified to the PAS2050 standard, making it one of the lowest carbon rated natural stone products on the market.
"We also wanted a hard landscaping product that would stand the test of time, and you can't get much more hardwearing than a stone that's over 350 million years old!" said the owner, Simon Kiddle, who shares the house with partner Meg Joyce.
Pennant sandstone was described as " providing a tonal and complementary cohesion between the stark lines of the render, glass, and wooden/metal strip cladding, and the natural shades and shapes of the planting, bark and grasses, before blending into the woodland beyond. " Can you tell that a marketing bod has carefully crafted that glowing encomium?
Project architect, Les Baker, managing director of landscape designers Reckless Orchard , said:
"We have worked with Forest Pennant on a number of schemes but this is the first time that we have used them in a residential scheme. The natural sandstone is not only of an exceptionally high quality but the products that the team produce are unrivalled in their attention to detail and accuracy. It was also important to the ethics of this project that we sourced locally and conscientiously, the credentials of the Forest Pennant paving product set it apart from anything else available in the region."
Managing director of Forest Pennant, Nick Horton said:
"We took the decision to process our paving using green energy so that we could be the product of choice for those wishing to make a difference to the environment, and subsequently their lifestyles. Specifications, and the imminent Green Deal, mean that the industry as a whole is under pressure to perform and meet these demands but we are finding that it is less so in the private, residential sector. Simon and Meg are testament to how we could and should be building and living in the future, a few simple changes in the specification of products can make a real difference!"
