Many people assume that concern for the environment and luxury were somehow incompatible terms. If you want an environmentally conscious holiday, you have to be prepared to sleep in tents, hug trees and wear funny clothes. But at Parker, we show clearly that luxury and a minimum impact on the environment can go hand in hand.

Our aim at Parker is also to show that heritage buildings can and should be adapted for an age concerned with energy efficiency and better waste management. Of course, it’s much easier to build a new house with energy efficient designs, but older houses have several elements about them that are very environmentally conscious. For a start, Parker was made with mud bricks, partially fired to much lower temperatures than bricks are baked today, using less energy. Most of the materials would have had to have been locally sourced from what were then sustainable sources (local pine forest) and of course, there were no carbon miles in 1895! Add to that the high ceilings, big roof spaces and thick walls for insulation and you have already a pretty sound house. So there’s simply no excuse for having a heritage house and not costing the earth.

But we’re not content to rest on our laurels. Our aim is that by 2015, Parker will the first and only urban eco-lodge in the whole of Africa. We’re going to try, if we can, to be totally ‘off-grid’ for water heating, water treatment, sewage processing, electricity and solid waste management. It’s an ambitious and fool-hardy project and that’s what makes it so exciting.

Below you’ll see our current planning and time frames. Some of this looks easy and some of it looks very hard. Watch this space!

Phase 1
Completion July 2010.
Install loft insulation to lessen heat absorption in summer and retain heat in winter
Replace first electrical element hot water cylinder with a solar-ready one.
Install ceiling paddle fans instead of air conditioning as necessary
Plant only indigenous or water light plants in the garden of No. 1 Carstens
Remove alien vegetation (yuka trees etc.) from garden
Recycle 80% or more of household solid waste at local recycling site

Phase 2
Completion July 2011
Install a roof shade/terrace on the flat roof sections to minimize the heat absorbed by the first floor roofs
Cost the installation of a biodigester and French drain and connecting all sewage to it.
Cost the installation of an on site water treatment plant
Cost a centralized heat exchanger system to add additional cooling and heating capacity
Install 1 x 5000 litre capacity water butts to catch winter rain from the roof
Install first photovoltaic panel and deep cycle batteries in roof.
Run at least one fridge off PV panel energy
Install first solar water heating panel
Replace all light bulbs with warm white energy efficient bulbs.
Replace lower level steel roofs with heat and glare resistant material

Phase 3
Completion July 2012
Install biodigester for sewage and biodegradable waste.
Install further 5000 – 10 000 litre capacity water tank below veranda
Install second and third solar water heating panel
Install further photovoltaic panels and deep cycle batteries in roof.
Run all computers, fridges and lights for at least one house off PV panels
Connect hot water cylinder to urn in kitchen for ready boiled water

Phase 4
All hot water cylinders solar heated
80 – 100 % of all water treated on site
80 -100 % of solid waste, organic and inorganic, recycled
80 – 100 % of all electricity solar generated
House heated and cooled by heat exchangers