Paul Miller

October 17, 2005
BedZED Blog - October 2005

BedZED is just over three years old now. Clematis, rose and golden hop plants are beginning to hide some of the metal and brick and making the place look a bit more lived in. It's aging well I think and I still get a kick out of the architecture - especially on perfect blue-skied days like today. The low sun gives the whole place a warm orange glow as it reflects off the brickwork.

A Japanese delegation is having a look around. I was just hanging out my washing when I noticed I was being filmed. I just hope it wasn't for primetime.

So I suppose the good news about BedZED is that there's no real news. It hasn't turned into a disaster. It isn't a white elephant that nobody wants to live in - quite the opposite, properties seem to shift fairly quickly when they do come onto the market. It seems to tootle along quite happily with little innovations gradually adding to the sense of community.

For example we now have an email group as well as a BedZED newsletter. There are regular yoga classes starting up and on a more impressive level Bill Dunster is planning on opening up a renewables shop on site where you can turn up and buy solar panels or mini wind turbines off the shelf.

My only complaint would be that the Friday evening bring-your-own bar has become a bit less frequent but I think I might try and get that up and running again as I'm hopefully going to work from home a bit more in the future.

It was interesting watching the Stirling Prize on telly last weekend to see how mainstream sustainability now is in the architecture world. The FT also ran a supplement at the weekend about sustainable housing… although theirs was at the (how can I put it?) upper end of the housing market.

I think BedZED has definitely been part of the shift towards acceptability of sustainability (it was nominated for the Stirling in 2003). The problem, of course, is the 'volume' house builders who seem to be doing everything possible to avoid putting sustainability into practice. And at a time when the Government is pushing for hundreds of thousands of new homes in the south east, that's very worrying.

Posted by Paul Miller at October 17, 2005 04:41 PM

Comments

Hi Paul,

My name is Tess; I just stumbled across your blog while seaching for something bedzed-related. I am a resident too, since Jan 2004. I don't *think* we've met, but one can never be sure. I always intended to make it to one of the Friday night bars but somehow collapsing in front of the telly with a hot cuppa always got me instead, and then of course the bar seemed to fade away. And now I hear we might lose access to the pavilion altogether, along with the failure of the water treatment, CHP, etc etc. One begins to wonder what's left that makes this place not just another peabody estate. Well, the number of web hits for one...

Anyway, I've added your blog to my news aggregator ... (mostly because you're a neighbour I admit, but you do seem to be into some very interesting areas of research). I shall peruse your links further.

Posted by: Tess at November 26, 2005 11:19 PM

Hello Tess
My name is Bill Rashleigh and I'm the editor of ROOF - a campaigning magazine about homelessness published by the charity Shelter. We're doing a special issue about housing and the environment and I'll be nipping up to Bedzed to chat to Paul soemtime next week. I was wondering if I might bne able to have a quick word with you too if you have a few spare minutes. My number is 0207 505 2032. I'd really appreciate it if you could give me a call. Look forward to speaking to you and all the best. Bill

Posted by: Bill at January 4, 2007 12:57 PM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)