HAMPSHIRE GOES GREEN AT NEW GROUND

Energy saving, ecology and greeness are all playing an important part in the designs for Hampshire County Cricket Club's new buildings on the 150 acre 'cricket and sporting village' at West End.

Both the Nursery Pavilion and Gold Club House will feature 'grass' roofs! In fact, the material being used is Sedum, a totally natural product that is very similar to a moss.

The advantage of Sedum is that it will provide the buildings with excellent heat insulation for very little 'embodies energy' - that is, the energy that is used in the production of raw materials. According to architects Michael Hopkins and Partners, factory production of traditional insulation materials can take up a great deal of energy, whereas Sedum is a naturally growing product whose manufacture obviously does not require the use of precious resources.

As well as the natural roofs, the buildings will also use Wester Red Cedar timber cladding. This will be far more ecological than steel since timber grows naturally, once again reducing 'embodies energy'. Michael Hopkins and Partners have selected Western Red Cedar for the outside of both the Nursery Pavilion and the Golf Club House as well as the Main Pavilion which is due to be started at the end of this year.

Western Red Cedar is a sustainable soft wood and is considered to be one of the most durable of the soft woods.

The fabric canopies, that are very much the signature of Michael Hopkins and Partners (the Mound Stand at Lord's being one of their designs), are also highly energy saving since their natural translucency maximises the sue of day and sun light to illuminate the space.

This will be especially noticeable in the Cricket Academy where traditional solid roof buildings use considerable amounts of artificial light. Hopkin's proposal for Hampshire County Cricket Club is to producea building using "hugh amounts of daylight so that even without lighting the buiding will be very bright and airy."