A ‘Fabric First’ Approach to Building Design

A ‘Fabric First’ Approach to Building Design

13th May 2022

It’s official – customers are prioritising sustainability in everyday purchases.

According to recent research from Deloitte, consumers around the country are limiting single-use plastic, switching to renewable energy, and choosing brands that are demonstrably environmentally conscious.

What does this mean for businesses? The customer is driving change, and as such we must adapt. This is especially true within the built environment – between construction and building operations, our industry is responsible for nearly 40% of the world’s carbon emissions.

It’s a damning statement, and I’m not blind to the complexities of creating a solution to this problem, especially given some of the unique characteristics of buildings and the need to preserve important aspects of historical significance within our older building stock. As someone who has worked for over 10 years in the energy sector and been a long-time employee of Welsh city councils, I understand first-hand the need to make changes at source, as well as the barriers for making those changes. However, in the context of the climate and energy crisis, the question is too important to ignore – how can we create more sustainable buildings in Wales?

Adopting a ‘Fabric First’ Approach

When it comes to environmentally friendly design, many of the measures we currently take are retrospective and not necessarily embedded in the initial design of the building. This is largely down to initial RIBA milestones for project and the requirement to work within a fixed budget, in many cases agreed years in advance. These factors often mean we are dealing with problems after the fact rather than creating sustainable buildings from the outset.

A ‘fabric first’ approach to building and design maximises the performance of the materials and components of the building during the design phase. This approach minimises the need for energy consumption, and all but eliminates the need for supplemental technology. Buildings that adopt a ‘fabric first’ approach prioritise the following:

  • Airtightness within the building itself: in these buildings, great care is taken to ensure that little air escapes through the seams of the building such as windows and doors.
  • High quality insulation: insulation serves to combat the movement of warm to cold air in from both the inside to outside and vice versa within the building. It is one of the most important factors when it comes to a building’s energy efficiency and initial design. Without good insulation, heating and cooling bills will be higher than necessary and often the temperature levels for building occupants will be compromised. A number of different materials have been used for insulation over the last number of decades. I would recommend that natural materials are prioritised where possible such as rock wool (volcanic rock fibres) or closr to home material such as sheep’s wool. When retrofitting buildings, consideration should be given to the material used for insulation, especially given some of the natural properties of the original construction type in older & traditional buildings.
  • Maximising solar gain through the orientation and placement of windows and doors: did you know that you can make your building more efficient simply by thinking about the placement of windows and doors? It’s possible to maximise solar energy to heat a space by placing windows on the aspect of the building that receives the most sunlight. In the same way it is important to consider which aspect of the building rooms that would need to stay at cooler temperatures are located such as server rooms, laboratories, cold storage rooms. To reduce the cost/energy related to cooling these spaces, one should consider placing these areas on the North aspect of the building to minimise solar gain.
  • Optimising natural air flow and ventilation: ‘fabric first’ buildings will need to carefully consider how enough air flow and ventilation is provided to the building given the increased levels of insulation and airtightness which have been included in the initial building design. Where possible the use of natural ventilation should be prioritised, through opening certain windows and vents to allow a flow of air through from one side of the room/building to the other. In some cases, mechanical ventilation will need to be considered, however through incorporating renewable energy generation at the times when cooling and ventilation is required less reliance will be on grid electricity. Trickle ventilators could be considered for background ventilation, due to their low acoustic properties.
  • Using and understanding the thermal mass of the building fabric: a building’s thermal mass is its ability to absorb heat. Used properly, thermal mass can help maintain comfortable temperatures inside a building. Thermal mass will absorb heat from solar radiation during the day and slowly disperse the heat as the temperature drops in the afternoon through to the evening. Careful consideration should be given to the materials used for internal wall finishes to make the most of this.

Adopting the above design principles will reduce the designed heat load of a new building considerably. This will also influence the sizing of the heat source for the building. Smaller capacity and often less expensive low carbon heating technologies can then be considered once the initial heat demand has been reduced as much as possible through a fabric first approach.

Adopting a ‘fabric first’ approach represents a significant step toward making buildings more sustainable with less reliance on HVAC systems to keep the building at a comfortable temperature for users, with solar gain, increased insulation, natural ventilation, thermal mass optimisation and natural cooling.

Raising awareness amongst building occupants is something that will be required when a ‘fabric first’ building is handed over. This would allow users to understand the ramifications of the fabric first design principles and how the building has been designed to perform optimally.


< Back to all News

Would you like a free call-back from one of our Consultants?

Simply click the button below and one of our team will be in touch

Request a call-back