RIBA Article highlights the benefits of RIBA Fellows including Richard Ferraro
September 7, 2017
In the RIBA Fellows article “helping to build a better place” Diana Winpenny re-iterates that Architects are entrusted to protect not just their clients’ needs but wider socio-economic and cultural goods.
Referencing Richard Ferraro and ECD, she highlights the importance RIBA fellows continue to have in furthering this cause. For example, she states:
Richard Ferraro is one of the fathers of sustainable design in the UK. He worked with pioneering solar architect Dominic Michaelis through the 1970s oil crisis years before setting up Energy Conscious Design (ECD) in 1980 along with David Turrent and John Doggart.
The world of architectural design was at an inflection point. The global price of oil had increased elevenfold between 1973 and 1980. Western governments were in a panic, and the UK government made funds available to investigate low-energy design. Radical new thinking was required and Richard and his partners took up the challenge. In 1980, ECD won a substantial contract with the EEC to run a significant part of their Solar Energy R&D Programme, a springboard for ECD’s future business direction.
At the same time, Richard and his partners put their money where their mouths were, building innovative low energy buildings, not just writing about them. ECD was more able in those days to pick and choose their clients, preferring those with a commitment to sustainability. Richard is particularly proud of ECD’s low energy public housing and urban regeneration work, building many energy efficient new homes and turning around badly performing 1960s housing estates. In the late 1980s, ECD invented BREEAM under contract to the BRE.
ECD has flourished and continues with its pioneering work to this day. Now a part-time Consultant to ECD, Richard continues his involvement in significant projects, including the regeneration and retrofit of Wilmcote House in Portsmouth, to achieve ‘Enerphit’ standards, the refurbishment version of ‘PassivHaus’.
Click to access the full article written by Diana Winpenny.