St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan

Designing and building affordable, sustainable housing with involvement from the local community.

Project: St Athan

Location: Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales

Division: Affordable Housing – Lovell

Sector: Residential

Client: Wales & West Housing Association

Duration: 12 months

Completion date: April 2010

Value: £2.25 million

Local labour employed: Approx 90%

Volume of waste recycled: 86%

Area of site: 1800 m2

Project Summary

The site at the former Methodist Church, St Athan involved the design and build of 16 eco-friendly affordable homes to be available for rent through Wales & West Housing Association. This project was one of the first Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 projects to be completed in Wales.

Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 was achieved using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) including sealed timber frame units, air source heat pumps, structural insulated panels and under floor heating which resulted in the scheme being cost effective in terms of construction and producing low carbon energy efficient housing.

Delivering today for tomorrow

People

Wide-ranging community engagement activites involving residents and local schools and colleges.

Planet

Energy efficient homes that designed to be air-tight, energy efficient and future-proof.

Profit

A pilot project to support innovation in new build housing.

Aspects of Sustainability

People

Extensive community involvement was undertaken on this project.

• Community consultations were held featuring a 3D model allowing residents to drive around the site, and community members were invited to vote for the name of site.
• A viewing area was created so that the general public could see the progression of the construction work on site.
• The partnership team judged and sponsored prizes for the fancy dress wheelbarrow race at the local summer fete, and sponsored the Christmas light switch-on in the local village.
• Pupils from the local Primary School were invited to design a ‘House of the Future’. Lovell provided funding for safety floor matting for previously unusable school playground equipment. Infant and Junior pupils also enjoyed Health & Safety presentations, while the School’s Eco Club visited the site for a Q&A session with Operations Manager to learn about ‘Buildings in the Community’.
• A Demonstration Day was held with the future residents so Lovell could explain the unique eco-features of the houses and how they, and the wider community, would benefit from them.
• Lovell and partners worked together to provide a highly specialised housing solution for a local family with particular needs for their child who had disabilities.
• Students from the Building Environment Department of local College visited the site where the site team explained the environmental benefits of building with Modern Methods of Construction. Lovell also sponsored a local student, Rhys Jones, through the Inspire Scholarship Scheme which involved contributing £2,000 per year to attend university and also provided Rhys with paid work experience during the holidays. This continued after the project completed.

Interest in the new homes was very high from prospective residents, and over 100 applications were received. Fifteen of the new homes were allocated to families within the immediate locality.

Planet

The new housing was built using an advanced construction method – the WAVE Homes system – where walls and floors were built in factory conditions taken to site, with insulation and service ducts built in ready to be assembled. This allowed the building process to increase whilst achieving higher quality standards. It was also a greener way of working because it meant there was much less construction waste on site plus all timber used was from managed and sustainable sources.

The heating system used on this project was designed to be future-proof in terms of being flexible to allow new technologies to be incoporated, as they become available, with minimal disruption to existing structures.

86% of waste generated from the site was either recycled or reused which included supplying timber pallets free of charge to the local community, local businesses and local college. Water usage on site was restricted to a light weight render system, resulting in a 60% reduction in water compared to similar traditional build projects.

The new homes reduce CO2 emissions by 44% using air source heat pumps and under floor heating systems allied to highly efficient building fabric components. The new homes also enable residents to reduce their impact on the environment by using less water, less energy and providing facilities to recycle and compost. Residents are expected to save around £870 per year on heating bills and almost six tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

The build achieved air tightness of below 3m³/hr/m², compared to standard building regulations which is currently 10m³/hr/m².

Profit

The scheme was chosen by Welsh Assembly Government to be a pilot project designed to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 supporting it financially and technically. The client was fully supportive of the innovation in new build housing, aiming to be one of the first Housing Associations in Wales to achieve CfSH Level 4. Information gathered from this project is now influencing future Welsh Assembly Government strategies for future sustainable homes projects.

Inspiration for this project came from the investigation into Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) by the Welsh School of Architecture, using the Knowledge Exploitation Fund in partnership with Wales & West Housing Association, BRE and Welsh Assembly Government this unique design concept was established.

90% of the workforce on site lived within a 15 mile radius of the project, thus directly supporting the local economy and local businesses plus the project increased the foot-fall to village businesses which has continued after completion.

Best Practice

The project benefited from a long term relationship with the client along with input from the local authority as they were able to demonstrate ways of improvement through a number of methods i.e. time savings, cost reductions, specification enhancements and the reduction of defects.

Roof, render system and cladding were areas for particular attention and lessons learnt form that are drivers for best practice on future projects.

The site recently achieved a Considerate Constructors score of 38 out of 40, the highest score throughout Lovell UK’s sites, which will see the project team receive an award at next year’s ceremony.

Project team: Vale of Glamorgan Council, Powell Dobson Architects

Number of apprenticeships offered: Although no apprenticeships offered we did sponosr a local student through university via the Inspire Scholarship

Quotes

We are pleased to see this development taking place and congratulate those involved. We feel that every new development in the Vale of Glamorgan should meet this standard."

Keith Stockdale

Friends of the Earth

"CO2 emissions reduced by 44%, saving residents around £870 per year on heating bills."

"This development will provide much needed additional rental accommodation in the Vale of Glamorgan and the homes have the added bonus of being environmentally friendly. We would very much like to see more properties being built in the Vale to this high green standard."

Councillor

Gordon Kemp

Vale of Glamorgan

Council Leader

Click here to view our superb 360 virtual tour, Code 4 St Athan…