For this problem you are the water use and conservation consultant for Virido's Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 social housing in Cambridge, UK.
technical writing
Description
For this problem you are the water use and conservation consultant for Virido's Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 social housing in Cambridge, UK. Your role is to critique Virido's green, educational, and poetic alternatives for water use and treatment in the building and on its site.
Context. Cambridge's climate is classified
as warm and temperate. Cambridge has a significant amount of rainfall during the year. This
is true even for the driest month. In Bristol, the
average winter temperature range is 36 to 45°C.
Freezing temperatures are rare. About 552 mm
(~46 mm/mon) of precipitation falls annually.
The variation in the precipitation between the
driest and wettest months is 33 mm in February
to 53 mm in August.
Zero performance gap: PTE's Virido development
The Architects’ Journal, 28 February, 2019 by Fran Williams
The prototype homes on the southern edge of Cambridge are the first dwellings in the UK where asbuilt performance has been found to match that of the design. London-based Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE)
is known for its standard but reliable ‘affordable’ housing design. When I meet Tom Dollard, PTE’s head of
sustainable design and associate partner, at Virido he also points to the good work-life balance of the large
practice and advocates its design-led approach, including in-office sounding boards every Friday. PTE is
currently putting together a pattern book for its housing, to give them ‘more time spent on the joy of architecture’, as Dollard puts it. That said, while Virido achieves Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 with no
performance gap, it combines this superior environmental sustainability with disappointing aesthetics and an
average piece of public realm
