RETRO FITTED FOR THE FUTURE

It has been here for two centuries already, but this old farmhouse has plenty of life left in it yet, thanks to a forward-thinking overhaul

- Judy Diamond

DETAILS

What An upgraded and reorganised period farmhouse Where Fife Architect Calum Duncan Architects

Most of us recycle our soup cans, take a bag for life to the supermarket and never leave the TV on standby. And that’s great – anything that cuts waste, prevents the burning of fossil fuels or the production of carbon dioxide is worth doing. But if we’re going to come close to achieving our net zero targets, we’ll have to do a lot more – starting with making changes to the way we live. That’s because buildings and the construction industry are a major source of planet-warming CO2 emissions. It’s a big problem in Scotland, where many homes have draughty windows, insufficient insulation and inefficient central heating.

One person who is all too aware of this is architect Calum Duncan. He is currently working towards accreditation in the passivhaus standard – for super-insulated homes that need next to no heating – despite feeling that new-builds are only a small part of the solution. “Sustainability is so important,” he says. “We’re supposed to be hitting net zero by 2050, but 80% of the buildings that will be around then already exist now. We need to improve these – we can’t just replace them with energy-efficient new buildings.”