Simply Sustainable
This scheme demonstrates how high density housing can be delivered in a garden city context, and made attractive for the market. It connects residents to an outdoor lifestyle and encourages them to live in a sustainable way without intruding on their way of life. The scheme, designed by HTA with Macreanor Lavington for housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, comprises mixed tenure homes with an integrated mix of uses in a sustainable community. Blocks are aligned with the sloping site topography to minimise excavation, enabling different house/apartment types and streets to be created. Corner apartment types have been developed to create a continuous building frontage around the corners of blocks. Blocks are designed to create a continuous frontage to all public spaces, allowing residents to overlook areas and reducing crime. Homes are designed to have maximum customer appeal, with large areas of glazing, useable balconies and roof terraces, double height rooms, winter gardens and communal courtyards. The natural environment is brought into the heart of the scheme in a network of green walls, pergolas and landscaped courtyards. Hard and soft landscaping are fully integrated with the built form. Overheating in the home is prevented by the green walls, which take the form of balcony support structures that double as frames for shrubs and climbers, and moveable sunshades. A highly insulated build specification with energy efficient lights and appliances minimises electricity demand, and solar thermal panels supply all houses and the top two floors of apartments with renewable heat. More than 700 sq m of photovoltaic panels are also installed on the site. The scheme is designed to achieve an EcoHomes Excellent rating, with an expected 10 per cent reduction in site-wide CO2 emissions. Some 10 per cent of energy used on the site will come from renewable sources
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