GE houses 'in 10 years'

By SIMON COLLINS in Manchester

British building researchers believe that people will be building houses out of genetically modified materials within 10 years.

Dr Jeremy Hodge of Britain's Building Research Establishment told the British Association's Festival of Science in Manchester last week that New Zealand was leading the way with GM trees.

Auckland-based Genesis Research and Development and an associated US-based company, ArborGen, are testing GM pine trees with Rotorua's Forest Research Institute. Dr Hodge said the next step would be to create similar materials in a factory for building within 10 years. He said timber was the most environmentally sustainable building material available.

A white paper on energy, published in June, committed Britain to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. The chief scientific adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sir David King, told the festival that the Government regarded the target as a "linear" one, meaning that it aimed to cut emissions by roughly 1 per cent a year for the next 50 years.

It aimed to lift renewable energy from about 3 per cent of supplies to 10 per cent by 2010 and 20 per cent by 2020. Companies that did not comply would be fined.

Dr Hodge said more sustainable buildings would be the biggest single element in achieving the targets, because almost half of the energy used in Britain was used in buildings, mainly for heating.

In addition, about 30 per cent of manufacturing output was construction-related, and 30 per cent of the energy used in transport was to shift construction materials.

As well as GM timber, he predicted other GM-building materials made out of crops such as flax and hemp.

An Ulster University lecturer, Dr Neil Hewitt, said it would be possible to cut carbon dioxide emissions from a typical British house from 7.2 tonnes to 2 tonnes a year through better insulation, solar power, low-energy lights and appliances.

A block of five houses near Nottingham, designed by Auckland University architects Brenda and Robert Vale, had eliminated the need for electric heating by installing 30cm-thick polystyrene insulation around the outside of concrete walls, floors and ceiling built into the side of a hill.

Simon Tilley, a former aid worker who has lived in one of the houses since they were built six years ago, said the temperature ranged from 18C in winter to 22C in summer, with no need for artificial heating or air-conditioning, even in the recent heat wave.