Blog – Humblebee

humblebee hive – retrofit #7

Written on May 8, 2022.

Seal tight, Ventilate right It’s the retrofit mantra. And we did notice how quickly it got stuffy once the windows were in and the EWI was all but sealed. We were still getting chilly inside, in part because in order to have fresh air we had to have the windows open, while the rest of the...

humblebee hive – retrofit #6

Written on April 15, 2022.

Uplifting tales about small challenges leading to better outcomes One of the best courses I went on during my time at Arup was the Design School. I was only a grad + something at the time (yup, it’s been going for over 20 years!), and we had a lot of fun, away on residential for a couple...

humblebee hive – retrofit #5

Written on April 10, 2022.

Planning and Building Control What’s the point of the Planning system? It’s to decide nationally and locally what we want to see and prioritise in our built environment. So in the face of a climate emergency and biodiversity loss, what is the most immediate action government could...

humblebee hive – retrofit #4

Written on March 24, 2022.

Groundworks, drama and trauma Last week was less fun as it started with a trip to A&E for one of the site workers. Our bricklayer Tim had been keen to get going with backfilling the trench because the scaffolders wanted level ground before turning up, but he unexpectedly tested the sharpness...

humblebee hive – retrofit #3

Written on March 13, 2022.

Windooooows! So exciting: finally met the team on d-day: Richard – retrofit coordinator – Chris & Erol (Team “Windows”) and Tim & Liam (Team “External Wall Insulation”) and the Green Building Store “Performance” windows arrived on the...

humblebee hive – retrofit #2

Written on March 2, 2022.

Cavity Wall Insulation (CWI) Delays with the Planning Application process – and more on this in a later post – meant we couldn’t start the “big works” until this month (March 2022). But one of the things we could get on with and commission, with relatively little...

humblebee hive – retrofit #1

Written on February 20, 2022.

It’s fair to say phase 1 of humblebee HQ’s retrofit has stretched over quite some time… We started planning – with a duly filled-in draft Passivhaus (PHPP) model – back in, ooh, I don’t quite recall, but a good 2.5-3 years ago. We are broadly aiming for the...

humblebee news

Written on September 19, 2021.

People Powered Retrofit Just an update to let you know I am a Retrofit Assessor for Urbed and the Carbon Coop‘s People Powered Retrofit scheme. Unfortunately, they have a long waiting list for assessments, which householders can then progress through the design stages and construction,...

Home of 2030….now

Written on December 4, 2020.

Today the winners of the Home of 2030 competition have been announced, but win or lose, we know how important it is to get future housing right for the next generation. We took the 5 Capitals approach to try to redress the balance towards the Social, Human and Natural worlds, and the Construction...

The Positive+ Collective

Written on August 4, 2020.

“When you buy from a small business an actual person does a little dance.” Wow, wow, wow! I am so excited because a few months ago, an ex-colleague from my Arup London days – the brilliant Adrian Campbell of changebuilding – asked me if I’d be interested in contributing to a design...