In just 10 months property developer Charlie GreiG researched, created, developed and brought to market Cub– the most highly accredited building system in the UK today. The modular, carbon-neutral housing concept incorporates new building methods, proven sustainability and exceptionally low running costs. Designed to Level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, Cub launched at the Ideal Home Show last year and has become a permanent exhibit at the BRE Innovation Park. Charlie also went on to develop The Podpassiv shelter, a prefabricated sustainable building, supplied in kit form, which offers a semi-permanent solution to housing needs in disaster zones. – Read More

Charlie Greig has pushed her London semi-detached home to the limits with a remarkable remodelling scheme – Read more

On Tuesday 28th June, Grants Shapps, Housing Minister paid Charlie Greig and the Cub House a visit while on site to launch the opening of “The Natural House’ – A project developed by The Princes Foundation for The Built Environment.. Read more about his BRE visit here. His visit coincides with the trade deals agreed this week between Britain and China worth £1.4 billion. View ITV London’s news clip here.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (c) pictured with BRE Chief Executive Peter Bonfield (l) and Business Secretary Vince Cable (r) at the centre of the BRE Innovation Park, Watford

Accompanied by the Business Secretary Vince Cable, and a selection of Chinese Government Ministers and officials, the Vice Premier was given a tour of BRE’s groundbreaking demonstration park featuring some of the world’s most sustainable buildings and homes.

The Vice Premier toured three of the twelve buildings on the park – the net zero carbon Barratt Green House, the UK manufactured, recycled steel Cub House and the BRE Victorian Terrace which features a range of materials and technologies used to improve the energy efficiency and carbon footprint of existing homes.

Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

“The UK is already a world leader in many low carbon goods and services. We are changing the way the world thinks about carbon, from our proactive regulatory environment and carbon reporting through to collaboration and accountability throughout the supply chain.

“This is nowhere more evident than in the construction sector where sustainability is at its heart. BRE Innovation Park is a great example of what can be achieved in low carbon and I am delighted to bring Vice-Premier Li to this centre of excellence.”

Vice Premier Li, who is widely expected to succeed Wen Jiabao as China’s Premier in two years has been visiting the UK with the aim of strengthening political and economic ties between the two nations.

Dr Peter Bonfield, Chief Executive of BRE, said “It was an honour to host Vice Premier Li at BRE today. He was impressed by what he saw here and this is a very positive endorsement of the work of BRE and our park partners. We hope the visit will open up new opportunities for us in China, particularly on the new low-carbon city developments currently being planned and constructed. We also hope the visit will encourage more Chinese companies to get involved with what we are doing here.

‘For further information contact Linda McKeown, tel 01923 664569, email mckeownl@bre.co.uk

Prime Minister David Cameron took time out from his busy schedule today to meet with BRE’s Chief Executive Dr Peter Bonfield in advance of a planned announcement about the Government’s energy strategy.

The Prime Minister toured the BRE Innovation Park, spending time in the Victorian Terrace building as well as the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6 Barratt Green House where he heard about the key principals that underpin the delivery of more sustainable homes.

Following the tour, he said: “Looking at the houses here today, it is clear that people’s energy bills can come down if homes are properly insulated and properly built.”

Chief Executive Dr Peter Bonfield said ‘It was great to host the Prime Minister at BRE today and to show and discuss with him how BRE and our industry partners are rising to the challenges and opportunities facing our country.

Cub is honoured to be journaled in the ‘Focus on Building Systems’ section in the February 2011 issue of Eco Building Magazine. The article spans across Cub’s achievements since conception to the birth of Podpassiv and it’s endeavours to solve problems related to housing in crisis zones around the world.

“Cub Housing Solutions has created an innovative modular housing concept with high attention to detail in both the structure and in its interior and exterior design, resulting in iconic homes that could serve as exemplary building templates for the 21st century” Read more…

PODPASSIV Life Shelter – www.podpassiv.com

The Podpassiv shelter is a prefabricated building supplied in kit form that offers a semi permanent solution to housing needs in disaster zones where supplies of potable water and electricity are unavailable. The building is manufactured in a composite GRP that carries the necessary certification for compliance, resistant to extreme temperature and weather conditions and has a life span in excess of 20 years. Podpassiv can be utilised again and again, unlike tents or timber shacks.

The building consists of only four moulds; wall section, upright / horizontal posts, roof / floor trays and a door panel section. Erection takes only a few hours and requires minimal tools, utilizing available unskilled labour.

The shelter can be easily sterilized and used for a huge variety of purposes.

Rainwater is collected via the roof and channelled into the front wall section for collection. A water filtration system provides potable drinking water via a tap and an internal sink collects waste for irrigation. Solar lamps in the roof provide 8-10 hours of lighting.

Unlike tents and other temporary housing solutions, the Podpassiv shelter is robust, secure, waterproof and provides the 5 basic humanitarian needs required for survival, providing dignity and security when and where people need it most.

The Podpassiv shelter was conceptualised in July 2010 with the specific aim of providing a robust housing solution for families displaced through recent worldwide disasters.

The homes are to be constructed using tough, weather and corrosion resistant GRP composites manufactured by the fully automated pultrusion process. The profiles meet all the requirements of EN13706 with quality and environmental control systems registered to ISO 9001 and E14102 and fire retardant to BS 476. These damage resistant, durable materials have a service life in excess of 20 years.

With recent and frequently occurring natural disasters the Podpassiv shelter has been designed to offer a speedy, semi permanent solution for areas without supplies of potable water and electricity. The homes can easily be erected and dismantled allowing them to be sanitised and recycled for use again and again, reducing costs and material use.

Minimal on site works are required for erection and no foundation base is required.

Charlie Greig is a designer and provider of innovative semi permanent and permanent housing solutions, using off site methods of construction (MMC) and assembly techniques providing high quality and value for money. Company founder Charlie, has herself carried out innovative projects in all sectors of the housing market over the last 15 years.

In March 2010 Cub, was launched at the Ideal Home and Grand Designs shows, demonstrating an off-the-shelf solution to permanent carbon neutral living for the UK market. In only six months, Cub homes have achieved enormous interest and market presence, are currently the highest accredited modular housing system on the market and come pre certified to code levels 3,4 and 5 under “The Code For Sustainable Homes.” This is through a pilot scheme set up by the BRE, (Building Research Establishment.)

The Technical knowledge gained by creating Cub has been utilised to design a sustainable “bare bones” version of housing that incorporates the 5 basic living requirements for survival, shelter, insulation from heat/cold, potable water, solar lighting and weatherproofing at a cost that complies to aid agencies and NGO requirements. The homes pack into a compact unit for shipping and can easily be erected by two people in only a few hours.

Charlie has created the concept, filed the patent, which is pending, and submitted a community design copyright application for design protection. The mechanics of the design are in the final stage of development and a prototype is expected to be completed and ready to show in the spring of 2011.

The shelter can be adapted and utilized in many sectors of the market and these are to include, disaster housing, aid and healthcare, field operating and communications, aid worker bases, defence and military use as well as private garden use, leisure and other applications. The homes will perform in any region worldwide and therefore will attract interest and sales globally. Additional buildings can easily be bolted together to provide an alternative use for medical and school applications.

Aid agencies and NGO’s currently rely heavily on plastic sheeting, tarpaulins, tents and timber based temporary buildings for use in emergencies. Longer-term buildings tend to be built, where possible, from locally resourced materials.

The main issues with adopting the above situation for emergency housing are many fold and those aid workers on the ground in places like Haiti, Pakistan and Africa generally are crying out for a solution like Podpassiv.

Tents, tarpaulins and plastic sheeting provide little protection against storms and heavy rain and are un-hygienic if used for more than a couple of weeks. Timber shed type structures do not fair much better.

These existing solutions have to be replaced very regularly, which is not cost effective either. “Local” materials for more robust forms of accommodation are either unsustainable or scarce in emergency aid zones. What little timber there is, is being used for wood fires etc.

The health of occupants of tents and other sheet forms of shelter is not helped by the fact that water and sewage can flow through at floor level, whilst in flood conditions they offer no protection at all. They also do not have the Podpassiv advantage of free lighting and potable water.

It is time to look at using new technologies for forms of Aid and temporary accommodation that are robust, clean and reusable – Podpassiv.

Prototype to be launched in Spring 2011

Technical information is available at www.podpassiv.com

The British Research Establishment’s Innovation Park in Watford was officially opened in June 2005 by the then Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott. He set a competition to the industry to build a sustainable home for £60,000 which would work in line with the Government’s carbon targets to eradicate fuel poverty and provide better living conditions. This initiative has shaped sustainable house building in the UK as we know it today.

Lord Prescott, following dinner, visited the Cub house and was extremely impressed with the concept of an affordable off-the-shelf housing option that not only adheres to code level 5 but also comes pre certified. He was already aware of the benefits of off site building, which greatly reduces delivery programs.

Charlie Greig & Darrin des Vignes

November has been a spectacular month for Cub!! We are extremely honoured to have been short-listed for the Edie Environmental Excellence Awards this year and to rub shoulders with companies associated within the Sustainable Construction category. The short-listing for the 2010 Awards was one of the toughest ever with a record breaking number of entries demonstrating the incredibly high standard of today’s environmental projects. Out of 700 entrants we made it into the top 5! Cub’s Sustainable Construction category can be viewed by clicking here.

ANOTHER INDUSTRY FIRST!!
We’ve done it!! There is no other housing system on the market that comes pre-approved for water management, interior & exterior lighting, daylighting, drying space, office area, white goods, waste management, insulation, elementals & materials specification! Cub is excited to announce that we have been granted our Pre-approval certification from BRE Global. It covers the approval of all the elements within the Cub Polar range of homes prior to being installed on site. Cub is the only housing system in the UK to have attained these credentials from BRE Global as part of their pilot scheme to ensure that construction of homes and their components adhere to the Code For Sustainable Homes Level 3, 4 & 5. You can view an example of one of our certificates here. (PDF 89.5KB)