National success for south west eco-homes scheme
Homes for the South West member Plymouth Community Homes’ multi-award winning Primrose Park scheme has another honour to its name after being named Sustainable Project of the Year.
The 72-home Passivhaus development, in Whitleigh, Plymouth, scooped the gong at the Construction News Awards last night.
The project, built by Mi-space, beat off competition from eight other projects around the country, including the giant Crossrail development in London.
Judges agreed that the development “covered the widest aspects of sustainability” and that it sat at the “leading edge of sustainable construction, demonstrating innovation that could be applicable across the wider industry”.
Nick Jackson, PCH Director of Business Services and Development, said: “It’s great that Primrose Park has won yet another award. It’s testament to how effective our work was to make this scheme sustainable.
“The judges highlighted that it could serve as an example to the wider industry, which is a massive boost to us.
“We’re happy to do our bit in tackling fuel poverty and we’re thankful to Mi-space and Plymouth City Council for working with us to make this happen.
“We showcased the scheme to the Shadow Housing Minister on her recent visit and introduced her to one of the residents, who had many positive things to say about her Passivhaus home.”
Primrose Park is a mix of 49 homes for affordable rent and 23 for shared ownership through SO Living.
Passivhaus is an energy standard with excellent thermal performance, making energy bills extremely low, and Primrose Park is believed to be the largest completed and fully Passivhaus-certified scheme to date in the UK.
PCH developed the site in partnership with Plymouth City Council after it gifted the housing association the land as part of the Get Plymouth Building programme.
The homes benefit from doors and tripled-glazed windows which let in virtually no draughts and were precision made by PCH Manufacturing.
As well as being low energy, Primrose Park also has Secured by Design status which means PCH incorporated crime prevention techniques into the scheme’s layout and landscaping.
