Sarah Small RIBA ARB DipArch
Sarah joins SPASE Design to enhance as a chartered architect with over 20 years of experience specialising in sustainable, low energy design, to enhance the practice's credentials and expertise in sustainable design.
Sarah has a wealth of technical experience at job running, coordinating design packages and providing site supervision on large scale developments in the education and residential sectors.
In 2015 Sarah embarked on self-building her own family home on the outskirts of Weymouth in Dorset to the Passivhaus standards.
The house is contemporary in style and constructed from a timber frame filled with recycled newspaper for insulation with a zinc roof. Sarah ran the build, managing local sub-contractors, ordering materials and proving detailed drawings.
Sarah says ‘The hardest part of the build was ensuring every single sheet of the airtight membrane was lapped and sealed internally forming a super airtight layer which eventually tested at 0.37ach air changes per hour.’
Since achieving Passivhaus certification with her own home, Sarah supports the national network for low carbon open homes, and Dorset Greener homes by hosting open days to show case self-building and low energy design.
Sarah also takes part in the international Passivhaus open days each year, opening her home to visitors interested in building to the Passivhaus standards.
For the last two years Sarah has been working as project architect on a refurbishment and retrofit school in Wimborne, upgrading a collection of Victorian school buildings into an SEN facility for 13-18 year old students.
Beaucroft College was one of the first projects in Dorset to be awarded government SALIX funding due to the installation of renewable energy including air source heat pump, photovoltaics and heat recovery system along with thermal upgrades to the existing fabric. The retrofit project has been calculated to reduce annual C02 emissions by 76%.
Sarah was thrilled to read in the news recently that the project has been selected as a finalist in the AJ 2024 awards in the retrofit and decarbonisation section.
As an architect Sarah prides herself on the value she brings to both client and site, through sustainable, high quality and efficient building designs.
Sarah says ‘I believe that buildings and places should be designed to encourage healthy lifestyles and help people to reduce their environmental footprint. I design with future generations in mind, aiming to support biodiversity and make the best use of resources. I am looking forward to working with the team at SPASE, where I can integrate my design skills and experience into more zero carbon projects.’