ÿþFor those of us keeping it real in the West Midlands, it's always a little frustrating when you can't get to the annual Open House shindig in the capital and experience some projects in the flesh. There was one local opportunity available however thanks to the generous efforts of John Christopher and his commitment to sharing the knowledge he gained during the design and construction of his zerocarbonhouse in Balsall Heath. You've probably seen coverage in the press before given that it's one of the few projects in the country to achieve the level of energy performance we were all supposed to be delivering by 2016 (hashtag farce). Part retrofit, part new-build it's a rigorously detailed example of what's possible - and absolutely necessary, from an emissions point of view - with a traditional solid brick period property. Here are a few vital statistics: An 850 litre thermal store connected to an 8.8 m2 thermal store and a 7kW wood burning stove. 35.6 m2 of photovoltaic solar panels delivering 5.04 kWp. U-values of 0.11 in the walls, 0.08 in the roof and 0.65 in the windows. An air tightness result of 0.43 m3/hr/m2 (hashtag FTW) This is what it takes to hit zero carbon. Fairly straightforward really, when you write it out like that. Feel free to copy and paste it into your next specification, I'm sure John won't mind. What you won't be able to ctrl-c/ctrl-v mind you, is the material poetry the house has achieved. This you'll need to write out by hand, over a longer period of time, with your workings out in the margin, until you understand it properly yourself. Experiencing the material qualities is what makes the open house experience so useful and demonstrates why we need more of them, especially in a world so (understandably) obsessed with the kWp, m3/hr/m2 and CO2. Amongst the product literature and samples on show during the visit, alongside the technical specifications and energy calculations, lay a copy of Leonard Koren's book on the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi.