Along with this sustainable building approach, a documented audit trail was created, in collaboration with the BRE, to track the demolition materials of the existing building and ensure their reuse. All materials were selected for their locality to the project aiming to reduce the amount of design miles the various components have travelled to the site.

Since completion, the Torfaen EcoBuilding has become the first official Fairtrade workplace in Wales. To read more about this achievement, click the link below and download the pdf.

Torfaen & fairtrade PDF

To the left are the thermal images taken by Carbon Trust Inspectors. In these images, the distribution of temperature over the building’s surface is represented by an array of different colours, depending on the rate of heat transfer in any given area. For example, red or orange areas show areas where the highest heat loss is occurring, whilst green and blue sections represent the lowest heat loss.

The largely blue-green walls and roof in these images demonstrate that the EcoBuilding’s straw bale insulation is preventing heat loss very successfully, keeping energy wastage (and therefore energy costs) as low as possible. The images also illustrate how difficult it is to prevent heat loss through windows - even when using timber-framed double glazing, you can see the drastic difference between the windows and walls. Of course, the building is designed to account for this so it will not prevent the users with any discomfort.

The Torfaen EcoBuilding illustrates how the use of natural materials such as timber and straw can provide highly desirable results, far exceeding the thermal performance of traditional masonry walls.