The Hockerton Housing Project: A case study of the use of concrete

This case study is about the Hockerton Housing Project in England, a small group of houses which make use of thick insulation and large amounts of concrete to provide sufficient thermal mass to store heat gains from the sun and from the occupants. The result is that the houses do not need any additional heating. However, concrete is a material with high embodied energy so this study attempts to find out whether the environmental benefit of using concrete to avoid the need for heating is offset by the disadvantage of its high embodied energy in the overall lifecycle of the houses.