News archive for April, 2016
BREEAM Success at Green Park House
Posted on April 20th 2016
We are pleased to announce that Green Park House in Bath by Berkeley Homes (Oxford & Chiltern) has successfully achieved final BREEAM multi-residential certification to the ‘Very Good’ standard. The BREEAM strategy included the following: Energy – the development was made as energy efficient as possible through the use of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, the installation of photovoltaic panels …
New Housing SPG for London: The Return of Zero Carbon
Posted on April 6th 2016
The Greater London Authority (GLA) has recently published updated Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) on Housing. This sits alongside the Sustainable Design and Construction SPG (2015). The Housing SPG now clarifies the GLA position regarding London Plan Policy 5.2 – Minimising Carbon Dioxide Emissions. As of the 1 October 2016, major residential development will be expected to be Zero Carbon, defined …
WELL Building Standard: A new focus on health and wellbeing for homes
Posted on April 6th 2016
In response to increasing industry focus on health and wellbeing and consumer demand for healthy buildings, the WELL Standard has been developed as a performance based certification scheme which measures the impact of internal spaces on human health. The design principles of the standard can be applied even where full certification is not pursued. Whilst WELL is aimed primarily at …
Heating Corridors to achieve Fabric Energy Efficiency Standards
Posted on April 6th 2016
Heating corridors within a block of flats provides a significant benefit to the energy performance of dwellings and is one of the most cost-effective measures that can be taken to achieve the Part L (2013) Fabric Energy Efficiency (FEE) standards. On schemes with communal heating it was previously possible to assume corridors were heated on the basis of passive heat …
Caution urged for connection to area-wide heat networks
Posted on April 6th 2016
It is becoming increasingly common for planning authorities to require developments to commit to connecting to existing or future planned area-wide heat networks. From our experience, extreme caution should be taken in considering whether this is reasonable and in the best interests of the development and its future residents. The theory behind district heating is that bigger heat networks are …