Prince Charles attacks 'exploitation' of environmentally-friendly buildings » Local government » 24dash.com

Prince Charles has criticised the exploitation of environmentally-friendly buildings.

The royal, who branded modern architecture a "monstrous carbuncle" 25 years ago, has blasted the "paraphernalia" of the "green building industry".

Charles is unhappy that so many new builds are using solar panels and wind turbines to counteract their wastefulness.

He told House and Garden magazine: "Why, I must ask, does being 'green' mean building with glass and steel and concrete and then adding wind turbines, solar panels, water heaters, glass atria - all the paraphernalia of a new green building industry - to offset buildings that are inefficient in the first place?

"That many of these add-ons are mere gestures, at best, is now clear, as their impacts on home energy consumption can now be measured and usually offer scant justification for the radical nature of the design."

Charles has urged architects to revert back to tried-and-tested methods such as sounder foundations and solid walls when designing properties.

He added: "We must now act by using traditional methods and materials to work with nature rather than against her. We need to resist the urge to seize on slick, highly marketed techno-fixes."

His comments received a mixed welcome from Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, who said they would provoke a healthy debate but risked undermining the efforts of the UK's emerging green building industry.

Mr King said: "In a way he is right - there are examples of high-profile buildings being passed off as 'green', when the most important thing is to reduce environmental impacts through good design in the first place.

"However, he risks undermining the efforts of UK's emerging 'green building industry', the vast majority of whom are designing an increasingly large number of fantastic buildings - not just environmentally sound, but excellent architecture in their own right."

Doug Parr, policy director of Greenpeace, said the heir to the throne was right in the concerns he raised.

"There's no point having green widgets that try to demonstrate various shades of greenery if it's not done properly," he said.

He said businesses which were motivated by rising fuel prices or the need to appear green should look at how they were using energy in the first place to find ways of improving energy efficiency, and then they could start thinking about renewables.