Forever Green Architects

Forever Green Architects Robin Hillier is an architect with extensive experience of specifying environmentally friendly building materials and processes, and of working with community self build groups. He is a member of the Royal Society of Arts, and of the Association for Project Safety. As the Earth's resources become scarce, it is becoming important to engage with nature, and to re-assess the ways that we use both energy and materials resources. Do we have to build from materials that have been shipped half way round the world, using large amounts of energy in the process? Or could we take the trouble to find locally grown and produced materials that could do the job as well, if not better? We can use trees grown locally, or even ‘on-site’, to make our buildings. We can use natural materials that do not rely on high energy processing, eg. UK manufactured sheep’s wool insulation. We can avoid the use of timber preservatives - as sensible detailing can remove the need for toxic chemical additives. We can use naturally durable materials that do not need decorating at all, rather than use expensive paints which need re-coating every few years. Forever Green is dedicated to designing buildings that use natural materials and processes to work with nature rather than to fight it ... we specify durable timber rather than use petro-chemical timber treatment ... we suggest that natural paints, stains and waxes may be safer to apply and more beautiful to live with ... and above all we believe that buildings should be designed to be joyful to use and to live in.