There are big ambitions for New England Quarter. The development team of Crest Nicholson and BioRegional Quintain, working with architect Feilden Clegg Bradley, are planning to create a community of 172 zero carbon homes, including eco-studios and one and two-bedroom apartments.
The homes will draw their electricity from renewable sources, supplemented by eight roof-mounted wind turbines. An environmentally-friendly biomass boiler will provide hot water and heating. Rainwater will be harvested for re-use, construction waste will be minimised, and all the timber used in the project will come from sustainably certified or recycled stock.
Residents of the new community will be able to make use of such eco-innovations as mini-allotments, a car club, a community extranet and a ‘green’ caretaker. They will be encouraged to take to their bicycles to get around town and access information to help them lead more environmentally friendly lives.
This ideal eco-community has not yet been built, which led our judges to commend it for its “great aspirations”. The judges continued: “if this is built as designed it will make tremendous progress in zero carbon development.” And it might just feature in the British Homes Awards in the future.
|
