Graham Farmer

Newcastle University | NCL · School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

It is widely recognised that the achievement of a sustainable built environment requires holistic design practices and approaches that are capable of balancing the varied, and often conflicting, demands of environmental, social and economic concerns. However, academics and practitioners have recently highlighted, and expressed concerns about the kn...

The work presented here builds on previous research on lab-scale material development and testing, to investigate in detail the applicability of wood-based hygromorphic materials for large-scale external applications. The design considerations for large-scale application of responsive cladding are considered, including responsiveness, reactivity, a...

Natural organisms which employ inherent material properties to enable a passive dynamic response offer inspiration for adaptive bioclimatic architecture. This approach allows a move away from the technological intensity of conventional " smart " building systems towards a more autonomous and robust materially embedded sensitivity and climatic respo...

Supervisors: Adam Sharr, Graham Farmer The contemporary architectural profession is dominated by a technical-rational culture of practice. The term refers to commercially-driven practices that are often associated with the production of buildings by or for multinational corporations and tend to echo their values. This research interrogates the imp...

Natural organisms which employ inherent material properties to enable a passive dynamic response offer inspiration for adaptive bioclimatic architecture. This approach allows a move away from the excessive technological intensity of conventional ‘smart’ building systems towards a more autonomous and robust materially embedded sensitivity and climat...

The evolution of the shape, structure and behaviour of natural responsive systems, such as pine cones, is defined by the necessity to maximise the use of the inherent properties of available materials. This principle forms the basis for a new approach to adaptive architecture that goes beyond the current performance-oriented technological paradigm...

The predominant model of sustainable architecture is based on a sharp differentiation between technical and social realms that tends to situate architectural design practice in an ambiguous and marginalised position. Sustainable architecture as a whole has come to be dominated by a focus on engineering design with a related emphasis on energy effic...

The Apollo Pavilion, Peterlee, is a large sculpture built to the designs of artist Victor Pasmore. Always controversial, the pavilion has been under threat for much of its life. However, it is recently restored and in December 2011 it was granted Grade II* listing. This might be seen as a story of an artwork and monument rescued from ruin by an art...

This paper reflects on experience gained through MARS (Making Architecture Research Studio) at the University of Nottingham. It argues for a densification of design teaching and learning through a direct, practical and tactile engagement with materials and making. It sets out the pedagogical benefits of exploring and theorising the practical, combi...

A reflective focus on ethics can help built environment practitioners to clarify objectives and priorities, guide decision-making, and help to evaluate outcomes during confusion of personal opinion, and hidden agendas. Virtue ethics, associated particularly with Aristotle, focuses on the character of the agent rather than on the nature or consequen...

Environmental ethics as a discipline has directed little attention towards the built environment and even less to the process of building design. Conversely, within the professional context of architectural practice, questions of ethics and morality have hardly figured within a rapidly developing discourse of sustainability in which environmental v...

The critical potential of the concept of sustainability may depend on its ability to provide a space for a meaningful dialogue about the possible appropriate relationships between technology, nature and society. However, the contemporary interpretation of sustainable building reflects a process in which a global, consensual and technocratic vision...

Three buildings in north-east England provide examples of very particular design responses to differing physical and development contexts, each incorporating a range of environmental innovations to achieve sustainability. It is argued that each building is shaped by a merging of distinctive philosophies of green design and by the widely differing m...

This paper examines the relationships between diverse technical design strategies and competing conceptions of ecological place making. It highlights the conceptual challenges involved in defining what we mean by calling a building “green” and outlines a social constructivist perspective on the development of sustainable architecture. The paper ide...

Natural ventilation techniques have been actively promoted by both international and national energy policies as a key component of building 'sustainability'. In the UK, the minimisation and avoidance of the need for air conditioning in non-domestic buildings has become a research priority and natural ventilation techniques have taken their place a...