Howard Laurence Liddell (7 June 1945 – 23 February 2013) was a British architect who was a pioneer of

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

and passive housing. He has been called "one of the most influential green architects of his generation". He was principal of Gaia Architects, which pioneered ecologically friendly and

brettstapel Brettstapel, also known as dowellam, is a massive timber construction system, fabricated exclusively from softwood timber posts connected with hardwood timber dowels. It is a relatively simple method of construction that exploits low grade timber ...

design. He was awarded an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in the 2013 New Year Honours list but died before he was due to collect it.

Life

He was born in Askrigg, Wensleydale in Yorkshire, England but raised in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

and later

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. He studied at Edinburgh School of Architecture, graduating with a first-class degree. He worked as an architect for a few years before taking up an academic position at Hull School of Architecture in 1971, where he was a lecturer and then director of research. From 1979 he was a guest lecturer and later guest professor at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. In 1996 he moved back to Edinburgh where he co-founded the Gaia Group, which combined environmentally focused architecture, engineering and research, and was Principal of their architecture division. He chaired the RIBA Architecture and Ecology Group from 1974 to 1979, and founded the Scottish Ecological Design Association in 1991. He was married to fellow architect Sandy Halliday, and they had 4 children. He died of cancer on 23 February 2013.

Gaia Architects

Led by Liddell, Gaia Architecture produced a number of important and sustainable buildings in Scotland, including Acharacle Primary School, Glentress Forest Visitor Centre and Plummerswood. Liddell was principal and project architect for Glencoe Visitor Centre in Glen Coe near Fort William, Scotland, despite being highly critical of ecological tourism as "an oxymoron – you only explain what it is they are about to trample on". It was built in untreated timber without any glue or PVC to minimise pollution, and with ungalvanised corrugated tin roofing. It is modeled after a clachan, and was built in a

brownfield site In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

near a campsite, landscaped to fit in with the surroundings and preserve existing trees. It won a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors sustainability award in 2003 and VisitScotland Green Tourism Award in 2002. Tressour Wood house at

Weem WEEM-FM (91.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a student-run high school radio station of Pendleton Heights High School in Pendleton, Indiana. It broadcasts in the Contemporary hit radio, CHR music format. The station is owned by South Madison Community S ...

in Perthshire, Scotland was built entirely from timber, and designed to be heated largely by the sun. It won a UK house of the year award. Acharacle Primary School, Argyll, Scotland also used a largely wooden construction, with natural ventilation and minimal heating requirements. It was the first

(glue-less) building in the United Kingdom. Plummerswood was a house in the Scottish borders overlooking the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water ( gd, Abhainn Thuaidh, sco, Watter o Tweid, cy, Tuedd), is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the R ...

constructed from glue-free timber.

Publications

His book ''Eco-minimalism – The Antidote to Eco-bling'' (2008) criticised the tendency to add "eco-cliches" such as solar cells,

micro wind turbine Small wind turbines, also known as micro wind turbines, are used for microgeneration of electricity, as opposed to large commercial wind turbines, such as those found in wind farms. Small wind turbines often have passive yaw systems as opposed ...

s, and other expensive technologies rather than take the simple approach and build to reduce energy requirements. He criticised wind turbines, particularly in urban settings, as producing a tiny percentage of the stated output specification.Noise fears could curtail landmark tower's turbines, ''Building Design'' (29 March 2010): 1.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liddell, Howard Architects from Yorkshire People from Askrigg Non-fiction environmental writers 1945 births 2013 deaths