Energy and sustainability assessments for residential development
Woodside Square comprises 161 elegant and contemporary one, two, three and four bedroom homes and a new common house. The site includes a mixture of new build and refurbished buildings (some of which are grade II listed); RPS carried out Energy and Sustainability assessments across the development and advised on how to maximise the sustainability rating of the historic and new build elements while giving it vibrant new life as a modern, sustainable community.
Key details
Project name
Woodside Square
Client
Hill
Location
Muswell Hill, London
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Services provided
- Sustainability Assessments (BREEAM New Construction, BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment, Code for Sustainable Homes)
- Energy Calculations
Awards
- Haringey Design Awards - Best urban design 2018 — Winner
- Housebuilder Awards - Best design for three storeys or fewer 2018 — Winner
- RIBA 2019 London Awards - Shortlisted
Challenge
The unique characteristics of this project are what made this so challenging. This project consists of a combination of new built houses and blocks of flats along with the refurbishment of existing Edwardian buildings. This made it extremely challenging to come up with one strategy, which would work for all building types, in order to meet the energy and sustainability targets of the project.
Solution
Sustainability is central to the vision of Woodside Square, and reducing energy usage was a prime objective.
RPS was engaged with the project design team at the earliest possible stage to establish how the Sustainability (Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, BREEAM Excellent) and Energy (>40% reduction in CO2 emissions over Building Regulations) targets could be realistically achieved.
To ensure buy-in from all project teams in the initial stages and to avoid complications during later development, a sustainability workshop with all disciplines involved was carried out in the early design stages.
The main energy strategy included high insulation standards – significantly beating building regulations - and a communal heating system, serving all properties. As a way to reduce CO2 emissions, we recommended a highly efficient Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit and communal gas boiler systems with new insulated pipework for heating and hot water. Electricity consumption in communal areas can be a big draw on power, and to mitigate that we are supplementing the supply from photovoltaic panels.
As a result the impact on the character of existing properties was negligible whilst energy savings were maximised.