Passivhaus housing on a difficult site
Our Green Homes asked us to design and achieve planning permission for 10 sustainable new homes on a tricky site in Stocksbridge. Each house had to be affordable, spacious, and customisable by the purchaser.
The Passivhaus standard was the natural choice for the project. It allowed us to meet our client’s very high sustainability and comfort standards but it also helped us to minimise the acoustic impact of the nearby steelworks; one of the barriers which had prevented the site from being developed before.
Turning constraints to our advantage
We used the steeply sloping site to our advantage: raising the development above the road and placing parking to the front to increase the acoustic separation of the homes from the steelworks. This also allowed for fantastic long views over Stocksbridge from first-floor windows to help increase the development’s saleability.
We designed the homes to be flexible internally so Our Green Homes could provide customisable dwellings within the same standard shell. This means purchasers can choose a layout that matches their needs. Our design also helps homeowners to easily adapt things in the future to suit their changing needs.
[HEM Architects] has sustainability and energy efficiency at the core of their designs. They have designed several Passivhaus buildings before and were an obvious choice to work with.
Our Green Homes, Developer, Stocksbridge
Affordable by design
We developed a robust construction strategy that means the homes will be built to an extremely high standard but sold at an affordable price. Similar to our Self Build on a Shoestring Concept Design, we have reduced our reliance on wet trades to dramatically reduce the build’s programme. Our design also minimises waste as far as possible and makes the best use of standard, off the shelf components.
We collaborated with planning, highways and acoustic consultants to overcome the majority of possible objections prior to submitting a full planning application.
This helped to reduce our client’s risk and meant the scheme was approved unanimously at the planning committee.
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