This design firm is rehabilitating old properties in ways that are energy-efficient 

Even in our modern earth-conscious era, it is difficult to envision a sustainable home that produces all the power that it requires. As summer temperatures continue to soar and the bite of winter winds appears to get chillier with every season, we may increasingly turn to air conditioners and heating appliances to keep our living quarters temperate.

If that issue, however, could be solved before the use of appliances becomes necessary, then it would be another step forward in running more sustainable and energy efficient homes.

Antoine Zammit, architect and founder of design studio Studjurban, says that two rehabilitation projects undertaken by his studio in the last six years have yet to invest in air-conditioning.

This quasi-miraculous outcome is the fruit of a studio, a tight team that huddles in their cosy Birkirkara offices, and strives to incorporate sustainability into the very fabric of their projects.

In the rehabilitation of old homes, for example, a lot of consideration was given to the structure and materials with which older homes are built. To keep homes cool in summer and warm in winter particularly, Mr Zammit says that the team took simple concepts and worked on additions that would serve to enhance these natural phenomena.

“The great thing about old buildings is that the starting point is probably much better because they have thick walls, what we call a thermal mass,” Mr Zammit says.

“So, we build on very basic principles, like convection, and the idea is to say okay, this is happening around me but how can I make it better, how can we encourage more convection?”

Sustainability, Mr Zammit says, is something that many people see simply as an ‘add-on’, something to be built later to offset the energy consumption of the property, like Photovoltaic Panels or double-glazed glass.

We were creating this system that was drawing warm and cold air throughout the house

In unsustainable buildings, investment in sustainability ‘add-ons’ then simply offsets the energy needs that arise as a result of inefficient building materials.

“You have to think of sustainability as added value to a property. So, if you’re starting from efficient fabric and then adding PV panels, you don’t have to consume all that energy and you can even sell it back to the grid,” Mr Zammit says.

Young homeowners, the studio has found, are becoming increasingly receptive to measures that would enhance a property’s sustainability and energy needs, even to the detriment, in some instances, of additional space.

“In one case study, we had a small house with two courtyards,” Mr Zammit recounts.

“There had been a lot of additions in the 60s and 70s to increase space. We convinced the client to have these removed, increasing the outdoor space but decreasing indoor space. It was almost devastating, in this small house, to lose another 15 to 20 square metres of space. It wasn’t a simple decision but when you think about the greater benefits, we were creating this system that was drawing warm and cold air throughout the house.”

While presenting these case studies on refurbished older properties, Mr Zammit said that the principles didn’t have to remain only with rehabilitation but could be incorporated into the planning of new builds and even apartment blocks.

“Generally, you have a situation where a house built on a long and narrow plot is dropped and now you have four or five flats and a penthouse,” Mr Zammit says.

“You can still exploit certain principles, but it’s also about having a good fabric. Building apartment blocks with just one wall, a thin skin, isn’t going to have much insulating properties.”

“It comes at a cost of course,” he continues.

“There is a bit more of an initial capital on insulation but then it’s a question of how much a developer is willing to invest and how much a consumer realises that a costlier property would in this instance lead to savings in the longer run.”

Incorporating simple and perhaps older ideas into planning and design could be the key to building more sustainable and energy efficient homes.

“I think our ancestors had a stronger connection to nature and to their context, there’s always a logic to their context,” Mr Zammit says.

“They were more sensitive and aware of their surroundings. Today maybe there’s more distraction and issues that they didn’t have, so they designed according to the natural elements.”