Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Jonathan Finnerty of Green-Unit has sent me a note explaining that the green-unit (the prototyping name was the “arc-haus”) is a modular building whose design goes beyond current UK building regulations in respect of sustainability. Built according to Passivhaus principles over a three year research and development phase, the green-unit lends itself particularly well to a number of living, working, learning and retail applications.

The green-unit’s engineered timber components are manufactured and assembled at a workshop in Chiselhampton, South Oxfordshire and then installed on site. By virtue of its modular construction, the building, whilst as permanent and durable as any bricks and mortar building, can be dismantled and moved / re-sited. That potentially puts it in a quite advantageous planning permission category. The building has a standard 5.5m external width measurement and it can be made to a length completely according to customer's requirements. With the external height measurement set at 3.2m the green-unit is, by all accounts, a very generous and comfortably proportioned building.

The embodied carbon count in the green-unit building has just been calculated by Oxford Brookes University to be at least 35% less than the very latest building regulations for compliant bricks and mortar buildings. That number will however always be too low! How fantastic it would be to source Birch and Spruce Ply locally or even from the UK, were it available. Ply is an important manufacturing component as it is required to achieve the structural rigidity that this engineered building must have. We have gone to extraordinary lengths to source raw materials / componentry locally and rarely, if ever, go beyond the boundaries of Europe/Scandinavia.

Green-Unit are interested in the possibilities of engaging with the local sustainability movement across the county and so I look forward to meeting both you together with anyone else from the Oxfordshire Woodland Group who might be interested to see what Green-Unit has achieved here in South Oxfordshire.

Jonathan Finnerty