Leading companies from the UK and abroad are building the first houses designed to demonstrate compliance to the new Code for Sustainable Homes, ready for unveiling at OFFSITE2007, 11th – 14th June at BRE Watford.
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The Code, launched in April 2007, has been developed by Communities and Local Government (CLG) based on BRE's EcoHomes method to enable a step change in sustainable building practice for new homes. It provides a means of assessing the sustainablity credentials of new homes for energy, water, materials, waste, pollution and other issues.
Jaya Skandamoorthy, Director of BRE Enterprise & Innovation, said ‘We are delighted that our industry partners are taking the lead responding to the Government challenge for low carbon and sustainable homes and building their demonstration houses on our Innovation Park for OFFSITE 2007.'
Companies such as Kingspan and Stewart Milne are ambitiously aiming to demonstrate how they would conform to the two top levels of the Code, Level 6 and Level 5 respectively. This means that both houses will have to be as near to ‘zero carbon' as possible.
Kingspan Off-site's two-bedroom ‘LightHouse' will have impressive levels of efficiency in terms of construction methods, energy use, CO2 emissions and carbon footprint and is being designed in line with Lifetime Homes and Scheme Development Standards (SDS). Every building material and component used in the design has been specified to optimise the building's overall sustainability credentials. A highly insulating, airtight building fabric has been developed to provide generous daylight levels. This includes effective solar control and integrated building services based around a platform of sustainable technologies covering water efficiency, renewable energy technology, passive cooling and ventilation, as well as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).
The Stewart Milne Group are aiming to show that sustainability is commercially viable in mass produced housing. Leading-edge in design and highly energy efficient, their house demonstrates renewable energy technologies, use of superior insulation and a super fast build process. It has open plan interiors with terraces at upper levels to maximise outdoor space in urban environments. Glenn Allison, MD of Stewart Milne Group, said: "The single biggest impact on our business will be climate change and we felt we should take an industry lead by building a commercially viable house that reflected the Government's objective to achieve zero carbon houses within a decade."
OFFSITE2007 also features 4 other houses from developers Hanson, Osborne, eco-TECH and Spaceover respectively which are all highly sustainable and affordable examples of mass produced housing. An exciting school of the future from Willmott Dixon's consultancy arm Re-Thinking is also to be unveiled.
Further information on OFFSITE2007 can be obtained from www.offsite2007.com
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