Sustainability
RENEW North Staffordshire and its partners have shown their commitment to the sustainability agenda by signing a ‘sustainability charter’, which sets out what planners, architects, housing builders need to do to meet the challenge of climate change.
Achieving this will mean investing in new techniques and higher building standards, which will reduce the impact of new housing on the environment by providing innovative and energy efficient new homes. This includes:
- using building methods that minimum use of energy and raw materials
- saving energy by making the most of natural daylight, using the most efficient insulation system and installing energy efficient heating systems
- designing housing developments that are easily accessible by public transport, cycling and walking
- minimising the need for travel by supporting local centres and purchasing products and services locally
RENEW and its partners have embarked on a series of projects that will investigate various aspects of sustainable design, in both new build homes and refurbished homes, with the aim of producing successful schemes that can be rolled out across north Staffordshire and beyond. These include:
- eco terraces in Chesterton, Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Nu Build, Burslem Campus, Stoke-on-Trent College
- BRE exemplar projects in Hanley and Newcastle-under-Lyme
Eco terraces
The eco terraces project has brought six typical 19th and early 20th century houses up to modern housing standards to provide a practical template for further refurbishment of similar properties. RENEW North Staffordshire worked with several partners on this ambitious, award-winning project. Partners in the project are Staffordshire Housing Association, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Axis Design Architects and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA).
Chesterton is characterised by pre 1919 terraced houses and has suffered a lack of investment to its predominantly private sector stock. The eco terraces project was designed to demonstrate how these traditionally built, energy consuming homes could be turned into modern energy efficient houses. Equally as important the scheme was intended to act as a demonstration project of how similar refurbishment programmes might be replicated elsewhere.
The six houses selected for the project were all different but each was remodelled using a set of core design principles:
- External changes to the front of the properties were kept to a minimum in order to retain the architectural quality of the elevations and retaining the urban grain of the streets
- Alterations to the rear of the houses were more radical and involved the removal of all single storey rear outriggers, setting kitchen/utility and bathroom spaces into the centre of the plan, rationalising the serviced spaces and improving the aspect of all major rooms
- A series of sunspaces were created, some up to two storeys in height and angled to improve solar orientation. Extensive glazing to the rear helps to deliver sunlight deep into the living space and also serves to open up a direct physical and visual connection to the rear garden areas, increasing the utility of these often neglected outside spaces
- The increased glazing creates a lighter and airier interior atmosphere that is very different to the often overshadowed darker backrooms of terraced houses. This makes the homes more desirable to a wider range of potential residents in an area of poor housing market performance
- Where possible the ground floors feature a downstairs toilet provision and utility cupboards separating laundry and clothes drying from the open plan living areas
- The provision of roof glazing and galleried living to the upper floor bedrooms increases the scale and variety of space within very restricted floorplans, combining the attractiveness of largely glazed rooms with the added bonuses of free heat and space to dry the laundry
The refurbishment demonstrates outstanding energy preservation, minimal pollution, use of sustainable building materials, transport and land-use and water conservation. The bulk of the fabric of the building was retained and reused, with, for example, the same roof tiles being re-laid after re-felting. Flow regulators are placed on all taps, low energy lighting is used throughout and high efficiency boilers have been installed. Additional measures included adding insulation to the walls, floor and roof and a ‘Sunwarm’ system on the roof that uses solar energy to heat air and water for the home. Crucially, the homes have been fitted with sophisticated monitoring equipment, so that their ongoing efficiency can be closely monitored.
Nu Build
Like many cities in the UK, Stoke-on-Trent needs new housing that is attractive, affordable and that achieves the new government targets on sustainability.
RENEW has recognised that introducing modern methods of construction is vital to ensure that new houses are carbon free by 2016.
RENEW is also seeking to ensure that with new housing comes new jobs and modern methods of construction offers the opportunity to create a local workforce that is skilled in the new construction techniques required.
Over the last few years, RENEW has worked to identify modern methods of construction that suit the North Staffordshire market and to identify a company that will potentially set up a manufacturing plant in the region. That company is Streif OSM, which manufactures houses using modern methods of construction at its factory in Germany and sees the potential of expanding into the UK market.
RENEW’s partners in this project are Kier Construction, Streif OSM, Stoke-on-Trent College, West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence and the Building Research Establishment.
Working with Streif and key partners, RENEW has constructed two houses in the grounds of Stoke-on-Trent College’s Burslem campus – a Centre of Vocational Excellence for Construction Training.
The houses were manufactured using a timber panel system in Germany and transported to the UK where they were erected in four days on slabs already prepared by Kier Construction. Kier then completed the interior fittings and finishes.
One house has been furnished and acts as a show house and exhibition venue, detailing the technology that has been installed and how it has achieved Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 for energy use. The second house is used by Stoke-on-Trent College to offer its students hands on training in modern methods of construction and how it has achieved Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 for energy use.
The project is the first in the country where modern methods of construction units have been constructed for training purposes. The project and the lessons learned are now being rolled out to larger schemes in the north Staffordshire region.
The houses and the college’s adjoining Seddon Building are available for hosting seminars for the construction industry as well as exhibiting cutting edge construction technology.
For more information about Nu Build, please click here
BRE exemplar projects
The UK has the oldest housing stock in the developed world. One in five UK homes was built before 1918. Half of homes are more than 50 years old and 20% are more than 100 years old. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has devised the Rethinking Housing Refurbishment Programme to investigate the merits of improving existing housing stock as a sustainable and cost effective way of reducing energy consumption and hence carbon emissions in both the provision of new homes and in their day to day operation.
BRE will develop a model for the best solutions to refurbishment and adapt these properties as part of the remit to reduce CO2 emissions in line with the 80% target set down by the Kyoto Protocol and accepted by government in the UK Climate Change Bill. All will be measured in a ‘before and after’ basis and the results published to prove the refurbishment case. This aspect is most important as it means that validated sample data will emerge as applicable to different types of housing and budgets.
The project is being run on a national basis to enable a range of properties to be studied and assessed. RENEW, along with all the other housing market renewal pathfinders has committed itself to take part in the project. The benefits of developing exemplar sustainability projects in Stoke-on-Trent will be the tangible illustration of what can be done with the local housing stock. The exemplars will act as catalyst for motivation, innovation and ideas to the local community, housing providers and developers to invest in sustainable refurbishment.
RENEW is working with Sanctuary Housing Association in the City Centre South area of major intervention (AMI) and Staffordshire Housing Association in the Chesterton General Renewal Area (GRA) to deliver two projects highlighting different aspects of sustainable refurbishment. Each housing association is project managing the refurbishment of its individual properties and the BRE is project managing the assessment of the properties and developing recommendations for improvement.
City Centre South AMI: The project is aimed at carrying out an initial pilot study to convert two existing terraced houses into one larger, family unit. This in itself will demonstrate how the existing two bedroom terraced housing stock can be converted into much needed three and four bedroom houses with modern amenities. Add to this the increased eco credentials that the BRE project will bring, and an exceptional exemplar project will be delivered.
Chesterton Eco3 Project: The project builds on the successful eco terrace project in Chesterton, Newcastle-under-Lyme and is designed to test how traditional, energy-inefficient properties can be made energy efficient and fit for today, and how easy it would be to replicate some of the elements of the project elsewhere. The project also seeks to bring empty properties back in to life as part of the overall regeneration package in the Chesterton GRA. The focus of the project is on a semi detached listed property rather than terraced property, a property that brings its own special problems when seeking to improve its sustainability credentials.
Like the eco terrace scheme, this project is a partnership between RENEW and Staffordshire Housing Association, Newcastle-under-Lyme-Borough Council, the Homes and Community Agency and Axis Design Architects.
Both these projects are currently underway and the findings should be available in early 2010, and will contribute to a major report that will be produced by the BRE on the Rethinking Housing Refurbishment Programme.
City Centre South AMI Geotechnical Project: A third project being developed jointly between RENEW and the BRE involves finding a solution to stabilising the ground under properties that are subject to damage through subsidence.
The North Staffordshire area suffers from problems related to historic construction on areas that comprise fill material of various forms or are affected by historical mining activities. In certain areas resultant structural damage has been a major contributory factor in the decisions made to clear properties.
RENEW is looking for viable solutions for ground stabilisation for existing housing. The project will look at the potential of using stabilising techniques including the use of resin injection processes. This is designed to improve the performance of sub soils and fill, allowing the properties to be renovated and made habitable for the longer term.
The project will fall in to two stages. Initially tests will take place on cleared land known to contain fill material and will be monitored and evaluated by the BRE. If findings prove successful phase two will see trial injection under existing buildings. The Parkhouse Street area has been identified as an area suitable for rolling out the technique.
