General Discussion
Monstrosities Unveiled!
Not only the Warren Farm issue for people/planners to stand up and be counted, but those who allowed the hideous 2 new builds along Exeter Road should be made to come and take a look and hang their heads in shame. They have brought nothing but a ghastly eye sore to the entrance of our town.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You might think them "ghastly", however I for one like them and believe that they enhance Exeter Road. In my opinion they're definitely an improvement on what was there before them. I am, however, under the age of 70.
I don't have a problem with the design per se, they just dwarf everything else and look too big for the space they occupy. But I don't doubt once someone is fool enough to part with that kind of money there'll be a rush to demolish everything else along there and put up more of the same.
They are pretty disgusting and have no character or in no way map our town to it's heritage or promote the town in anyway, but again do we blame the designer or the people who allowed it to be there in the first place!
Thank you Burnside for highlighting that this isn't an age issue, I have along way to go before 70, but maybe I'll grow to appreciate them by then! I'm also not against something different but as a minimum I believe they should in some way blend with their surroundings, have some character and lasting quality, not look like industrial units with a toilet block in the bottom right corner, an expensive 'kit' house.
All the properties on that side of the road tend to be individual, so why shouldnt these eco friendly homes not have a place there. I like things different and not uniform.
@roberta. i'd guess that there are some people on here who are the sort that think that grand designs should be televised after the watershed...
People say they are featureless but I love the outside 'lav' on the driveway of the one on the right - that harks back to Dawlish's historic past. Perhaps they aren't planning to keep it though 
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I've seen worse - like the 'Barracks' built on New Road, T'mouth!
Got to be better than any of the crappy wood huts being built around Gatehouse and Shutterton. At least they have been built properly and didnt arrive on the back of a lorry like most of the new build clones. You want to see some disgusting thoughtless buildings visit the Gatehouse farm area.
They look great energy efficient eco homes it's the future with rising energy bills it's the way forward.
They are only energy efficient in use.
In extraction, manufacture, transport and in disposal and landfill they are energy inefficiant.
They're not eco as the 'energy efficient' materials like celotex and kingspan are basically poystyrene, blown at very high temperatures, transported half way round the world and therefore use lots of energy in manufacturing and transportation and also after demolition and disposal at the end of a house's lifecycle.
Celotex and Kingspan are also produced from petrochemicals - so extracting oil and filling up a house with a product made from fossil fuel is far from eco.
New research shows how they leach harmful VOCs ) gases which affect factory workers and occupants. They leach chemicals in landfill sites and cannot be disposed of like organic insulative materials such as sheeps wool.
So operational energy efficiency (in use/during occupancy) does not compensate for the embodied energy (total) across the materials lifecycle. Even if the building was left as it is for 50 - 100 years according to many papers. And research fails to take into account occupants homing/nesting instincts a desire for change and renewal, such as renovations, etc which send materials to landfill sooner than the end of their lifecycle.
They might save people some money on bills, but even then it depends on the material.
In some cases the heating/energy bills never offset the upfront costs for the materials.
Especially as people decided to glaze an entire side of their house for example for a nice view. I know a house with a great east view over Lyme bay with lots of glazing, but when that cold easterly blows in winter, no amount of insulation in the walls will prevent heat loss through the glazing, even if its triple and argon filled.
But Cavanna, strongvox, Bovis and the majority of local builders and architects too,not to mention politicians who tel us we can meet zero carbon targets, all think this stuff is energy efficient and eco.
The bigger, ecological picture is very different.
Hope that helps. Makes you look at Houses and TV shows like Grand Designs very differently.
My energy efficiant home works well during the last 12 months the central heating has never been on my combined gas electric bills are under £130 per year. Now the great thing about that is i get winter fuel allowance so it costs me zero now thats what i call a deal
That's great as the winter fuel allowance does help a lot of peeople or low incomes (it helps a lot who are comfortably well off come to think of it too).
Though my point was about materials that might make your home energy efficient to run but aren't really eco at all.
If energy efficiency is just about financial savings then it's not automatically eco. Although it can be, but that depends on what materials are used in construction.
