Broadland District Council has awarded the GreenGauge Homes at Lingwood a High Commendation in their bi-annual design awards. The awards enable the Council to “encourage and recognise the special efforts which have taken place to raise the standard of design in the Broadland district”.

This is the third award which the scheme of affordable housing in Norfolk has received, the others are the CPRE Norfolk Award and the LABC East Building Excellence Award.

The project was nominated by a Planning Manager within the council and the judging panel wrote:

“This is a pioneering development of 15 affordable homes of simple, unfussy form and mixing traditional and modern materials. It is also a working experiment in sustainable and economic design and construction, using different combinations of technology in each of the four blocks, including solar collectors (both for heating and electricity), heat recovery, ground source heat pumps and very high levels of insulation. One block has efficient gas central heating to act as a comparison with the remainder. The aim is to find a readily-reproducible, cost-effective and highly energy-efficient solution for future housing development. The project is being monitored by the University of East Anglia.”

The affordable homes are also amongst six finalists for the National LABC Building Excellence Awards which are to be presented in a ceremony in London in October.

The houses at Lingwood are a mixture of 2-bed 3 person and 3-bed 5 person homes, designed to meet the developing association’s Design Brief. All homes were south facing, arranged in a pair and three terraces. All the houses are timber framed with untreated larch cladding and high levels of insulation. In many ways they were very conventional affordable homes for their period.

What makes the GreenGauge Homes at Lingwood different is not the layout or aesthetic, but the use of the project to evaluate a range of tried and tested energy saving and generation technologies already on the market, with conventional tenants in permanent residence. The data collected would inform future developments and avoid costly mistakes.

The houses are arranged in four groups.

• One pair of homes is heated with highly efficient gas condensing boilers. These would act as the ‘control’ group against which to compare the others.

• A Solar group use solar power for a substantial proportion of energy requirements. Solar collectors pre-heat the water fed to the gas condensing boiler for hot water and central heating. In addition, Solar PhotoVoltaics on each home supplement conventional electricity supply for lighting and power.

• A Sunspace group incorporate a double height conservatory to the south facing elevation of each house. A black facing brick Trombe wall is used to store heat during the day and release into the sunspace during cooler hours. A mechanical ventilation and heat recovery unit heats and ventilates all rooms using energy from the sunspace. Backup heating is by gas condensing boiler with radiators.

• The Ground Source Heat Pump Group of homes is the only group without a gas supply. All space heating and hot water is provided by a vertical array of ten collector pipes and a 5kW Heat Pump in each house. Space heating is via underfloor heating on the ground floors and radiators upstairs.

Why were these combinations chosen?

As with all design projects, there are a number of factors.The houses are a standard size and layout in accordance with the housing association’s brief, and this influences what size of sunspace is possible, for example.

Why didn’t we use wind turbines? At the time of construction, rooftop wind turbines were very popular, but the site was evaluated as not suitable for turbines so they were ruled out. In the event this has proved fortuitous as the effectiveness of micro-wind generation has since been called into question by others.

Many rural affordable housing sites do not have a gas supply, so a solution which doesn’t need gas can save the cost of a connection, and as the price of gas increases, that solution will be more attractive in the long term too.

The project was completed in February 2008 and monitoring began.

Building affordable housing on rural exception sites is a difficult business, involving a wide range of stakeholders, and the funding structure is strict. If an RSL is to invest in raising the sustainability standards of its properties across the board, it has to do this from the basis of reliable information – it can’t afford for projects to go wrong.

It was in this climate that the Lingwood GreenGauge Homes project was born, in 2005, when achieving the EcoHomes ‘Very Good’ rating was the standard, and two years before Level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes would be the minimum required level for all Grant Funded housing in England and Wales.

The Brief for Lingwood was to be:

• 15 houses for rent and shared ownership on a conventional exception site, suitable for a conventional mix of tenants.
• Built to EcoHomes Excellent rating, in advance of its peers.
• Trialling a range of technologies for reducing the carbon load of the construction and energy in use
• Cheaper to run, reduce running costs for tenants and promoting sustainable energy use
• Monitored both socially and environmentally to inform future projects.
• Able to be built within the standard funding structure.

It was hoped that the collection of real data from real tenants in replicable houses would provide the information that product manufacturers could not – information about how the technologies would work on the ground. This project was not an ‘experimental scheme’ and uses readily available products to produce exemplar affordable houses.

Coming Next – About the Houses

The first scheme of Low Energy “GreenGauge” Affordable Housing by Ipswich Architects Barefoot & Gilles has won the coveted ‘Best Social or Affordable Housing’ Award at the 2009 LABC East Anglia Building Excellence Awards. The project beat off five other housing schemes to scoop the award at a black tie dinner in Cambridge on Friday.

The 15 sustainable houses at Lingwood in Norfolk are unique: the first of an ongoing series of GreenGauge projects – real homes designed to beat current energy standards whilst delivering low cost in use to tenants and the operating housing associations.
The University of East Anglia is monitoring tenants’ energy use and evaluating the success of a range of technologies at Lingwood, including ground source heat pumps, solar collectors and PVs, Sunspaces and Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery.

Martin Aust, business growth director at Flagship Housing Group who developed the homes with Broadland District Council explained,

“Working closely with our partners, our commitment to use eco-technology has proved both cost-effective to build and to manage. The right technology can also give tenants a reduction in their energy bills.
“Vital lessons have been learned from this project, and Flagship Housing’s future building programme will continually innovate to promote best practice in sustainable development.”

Roger Gilles, Senior Partner at Barefoot & Gilles Architects said,
“We are delighted that the project has been recognised as an example of good design and construction practice. The results of the work at Lingwood are already informing future developments of affordable housing so that they not only meet the requirements of the Code for Sustainable Homes but also cost less to run.”

Robert Bilbie of Robert Bilbie Consultancy who assessed the projects energy rating added:
“When Lingwood was built the energy standard required was EcoHomes Very Good and the project was only the second in Norfolk to receive an Excellent Rating. After the Code for Sustainable Homes was introduced the project was reassessed and found to achieve CSH level 4, three years before this became compulsory for HCA Funded housing.”

Alan Osborne of CNC Building Control endorsed the project saying,
“I’m sure we will be hearing a lot more from this development in the future and the data collected will undoubtedly go towards shaping energy efficient building of the future. There is no reason why social housing can not lead the field in energy efficient buildings.”

The scheme at Lingwood is a Constructing Excellence Demonstration Project and in 2008 received an award from CPRE Norfolk for demonstrating that new rural housing can be environmentally friendly. A second scheme of 8 GreenGauge Homes, designed to exceed Code 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and developed with the benefit of lessons learned at Lingwood, is now under construction at Horstead.

About GreenGauge Homes

The GreenGauge Homes approach aims to provide Affordable Housing which not only meets or exceeds the current standards of sustainability, but also provides Low Cost-In Use. This is achieved through the use of experienced practitioners, tried and tested technologies and significantly, monitoring and review of energy use, user experience and management issues.

The houses (eleven for rent and four shared ownership) were developed by Flagship Housing Group for with architects Barefoot & Gilles and agents Oxbury & Co. The contractors were Youngs Homes of Norwich. The houses were built to EcoHomes Excellent Standard but after the Code for Sustainable Homes came in were also reassessed and met Level 4 of the code which will be compulsory for all HCA grant funded housing in 2010.

Lingwood is the first scheme of GreenGauge Homes and is monitored by the University of East Anglia’s CSERGE Unit. Tenants have been living in the homes since February 2008 and a range of data collected has been used to improve both the management of this scheme and also the development of future homes. The 8 GreenGauge Homes to be built at Horstead, developed with the benefit of lessons learned at Lingwood are under construction and use Ground Source Heat Pumps and Solar water pre-heat. It is envisaged that several GreenGauge schemes will be in development at any one time, each one learning from the last.

The GreenGauge Homes approach was developed by Barefoot & Gilles Architects in association with Flagship Housing Group and Oxbury & Co.

Participants in GreenGauge Homes at Lingwood:
Developer: Flagship Housing Group
Architects: Barefoot & Gilles
Quantity Surveyors: Oxbury & Co
Structural Engineers: Scott Wilson
Landscape Designer: The Landscape Partnership
Main Contractor: Youngs Homes Limited
Environmental & Social Monitoring: University of East Anglia, Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)
Ecohomes Assessors: Robert Bilbie Consultancy
Building Control: CNC Building Control
Owner: Victory Housing Trust
Joint Development Partner: Broadland District Council

About the LABC Awards

The LABC awards recognise the best quality construction in the East Anglia region, in particular good working partnerships throughout a project from design to construction.

Image:Peter Wells of Barefoot & Gilles and Kevin Love of CNC Building Control accepting the award from BBC Journalist Wendy Hurrell
Photographs by Jerry Harper

The GreenGauge Homes project in Lingwood, Norfolk, was honoured at the CPRE Norfolk Awards last week.

This scheme of 15 eco-friendly affordable homes designed by Barefoot & Gilles incorporates the latest construction and energy technologies to provide housing at just 5% above the price of Housing Corporation standard homes and offer significant savings in running costs for tenants. The homes are being monitored by the University of East Anglia.

Martin Aust, business growth director at Flagship Housing Group said, “Flagship is committed to environmental sustainability, reducing the carbon ‘footprint’ new homes leave on our environment. This project is utilising different types of renewable energy technologies which makes this an exciting project to monitor.”

Roger Gilles of Architects Barefoot & Gilles said,
‘We have designed these homes to be like a home any of us would be familiar with, but with the benefits of the latest technologies. The houses are energy efficient, cheap to run and, I hope, a pleasure to live in.’

Martin Walton, Chairman of the Judges said:
“CPRE Norfolk is keen to encourage the provision of social housing in rural settings, where a need has been demonstrated. This is a pioneering scheme which proves that social housing and ecological design can work in harmony.”

Special guest Bill Bryson, president of the CPRE, paid tribute to the quality of the projects awarded, adding: “As a lover of the Norfolk countryside I am enthralled by the range of projects in my home county that have contributed so much. They highlight the efforts of hundreds of people – those working on a professional basis and those that treasure unspoilt countryside around them.”

The Lingwood scheme has already become a community and this impressed the CPRE Judges. There are other schemes in the pipline; GreenGauge homes are also being planned in the Norfolk village of Horstead.

The National Housing Federation in partnership with CPRE released figures this year exposing the scale of the rural housing crisis. Over the last five years, the number of people waiting for an affordable home in country areas has soared by 37%, up from 507,757 in 2003 to 695,735 last year.

CPRE Norfolk is pleased to announce details of this year’s ‘Green Buildings in Norfolk – Open Days’ event. Guided tours at private eco-homes, zero carbon developments, energy efficient social housing and environment centres in Norfolk have once again been arranged by CPRE Norfolk as part of the nationwide Heritage Open Days scheme. Tours will take place at 15 eco-buildings between Thursday 11th September and Sunday 14th September.

The tours are free and open to all but will require booking. To book your place on a tour, telephone The Energy Saving Trust on 01733 566910 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Buildings open for tours in 2008:

1. The Straw Bale Barn, Snetterton (timber framed building with straw bale infill, solar water heating and a passive solar design)
2. Marsham Barns, Kenninghall (sustainable conversion of agricultural buildings incorporating a 6kw wind turbine, ground source heat pump and rainwater harvesting)
3. Cob Bale Roundhouse, Banham (beautiful cob and straw bale studio building with sedum roof)
4. Stonebridge Farm, Ingham (restored 18th century cottage with ground source heating system)
5. Greenguage Homes, Lingwood (impressive social housing scheme with a mix of technologies and performance monitoring)
6. Ecostessey Park, Costessey (contemporary development of 22 townhouses with a range of energy efficiency measures and installed renewables)
7. The Greenhouse, Norwich (a renovated Grade II listed building with a photovoltaic courtyard roof, rainwater harvesting system and wool, cork and paper insulation)
8. Constable Road, Norwich (an example of sustainable living applied to an ordinary suburban setting – solar water heating, rainwater harvesting and organic garden)
9. Low Road, Keswick (bungalow with an extensive and unobtrusive tiled photovoltaic system)
10. The Old Barns, Stoke Holy Cross (favourite from last year – beautiful barn conversion incorporating ground source heating and many other sustainable features)
11. Itteringham Mill, Itteringham (18th Century mill with one of the UK’s first hydro-turbine schemes)
12. Four Winds, Hay Green South (excellent use of a 6kw wind turbine in a rural setting by a wind enthusiast)
13. Roman Catholic Church, Little Walsingham (new church building with a vertical ground source heating system and extensive photovoltaics)
14. Jasmine House, Blakeney (popular and unusual building from last year – designed to the principles of Sthapatya Veda, with rammed earth walls and solar)
15. NWT Cley Marshes Visitor Centre (energy efficient visitor centre with wind turbine, ground source heating, solar water heating and rainwater harvesting)

This article and brochure are reproduced here by kind permission of CPRE Norfolk

Visit the Barefoot & Gilles Website to download the brochure