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In December 2006 the government announced both the Code for Sustainable Homes and the 2016 zero carbon homes target. This sparked major activity among key players in the housebuilding industry and work started on the construction of various demonstration houses.

What these first designs had in common was a complex combination of technologies, including solar water heating, photovoltaics, wind turbines, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and maybe a biomass boiler.

What was missing was a 鈥渮ero carbon鈥� homeowner capable of operating it all in the way that it was intended.

Leading low carbon architect Richard Partington鈥檚 new report for the NHBC Foundation, Designing homes for the 21st century, capitalises on the knowledge gained from those demonstration projects.

It highlights the need to avoid taking existing designs and just bolting multiple technologies on. Instead, homes should be designed around their services - from the inside out, putting the services at the heart of the home and making sure that all systems work together well and that their controls are simple and intuitive.

Reflecting the growing consensus in the industry, the guide advocates the 鈥渇abric first鈥� approach as the most robust way of minimising energy use over the life of the home, with renewable energy sources being specified only after energy demand has been minimised. It also explains the need for the design of homes to take account of the effects of climate change, confirming the need for ventilation to be considered early in the design to guard against the growing risk of overheating. The report is a useful insight into a future-proof approach to housing design.

Neil Jefferson is director of the NHBC and chief executive of Zero Carbon Hub