IHDC Awards

Some good news.... my design entry for this years Integrated Habitats Design Competition has been selected as one of three prizewinners. I'm heading down to London next week to attend the Ecosystems Come to Town conference at the Museum of London and for the awards ceremony and exhibition in the evening. In the meantime I though I would post up a couple of images and my statement of design which formed part of my submission. My final submissions should be available to download from the IHDC website in the coming weeks.

ShrubhillWorks

ShrubhillWorks illustrates the renewal of a 5-acre brown-field site in the Leith district of Edinburgh into a new sustainable community. The scheme incorporates suitable green technologies and passive designs, minimising the impact on the surrounding land whilst addressing local housing issues. The site will see the creation of 122 affordable homes, shared communal facilities, a community education centre and a new sustainable transport connection. Urban and natural environments will be linked, turning the site into a new hub of biodiversity.

Todayʼs new housing projects tend to focus on the energy reductions available through technological solutions. Whilst valid, the negative result of this myopic approach is that it encourages energy consumption by facilitating reduced service costs. It is clear that behavioural change to a more sustainable lifestyle needs to be encouraged. By taking a more holistic approach to design and re-establishing the role of community it is possible to stimulate peopleʼs behaviour positively towards the environment and their personal relationships with one another. ShrubhillWorks endeavours to achieve this by combining two major design principles to create an infrastructure for biodiversity and community life to flourish and energy use and resource consumption to fall: Co-housing and Permaculture.

ShrubhillWorks site was once home to Edinburghʻs bus and tram network. Large listed Victorian workshop buildings sit at the northern boundary, most notably a large red brick chimney. To the east lies listed 19th century buildings of a housing type unique to Edinburgh - Colony Housing. This style attempted to develop co-operative affordable housing, avoiding the prevalent tenement block design and providing affordable housing with gardens. To the south lies Shrubhill House, a dilapidated 1960ʼs former council office block with a solid concrete structure that faces Leith Walk, a major retail and transport thoroughfare. All buildings are suitable for refurbishment and retrofitting. Along the western boundary of the site runs a 3-mile railway line due to close in 2015.

Cohousing addresses two key elements of the Edinburgh Local Biodiversity Action Plan: greater community participation and encouraging partnership working. In todayʼs economic climate where many biodiversity conservation projects are suffering cutbacks, individual and community participation is increasingly important. Cohousing inhabitants enjoy increased levels of social interaction created through a sense of neighbourhood with a diverse mix of age groups, families and singles whilst maintaining self-contained accommodation and personal space. The scheme reduces material consumption and individual ownership by providing its residents with access to shared facilities including gardening, food production, laundry, childcare, communal dining space, workshops and guest-rooms. Cohousing creates an environment where the formation of social organisational structures to maintain the shared facilities is essential and encouraged. Community responsibilities could be broadened to include the development, supporting, and monitoring of local endangered species and habitats, linking local action to a global cause.

The redevelopment of the tram buildings to the rear of the site will provide a social link to the wider community, with one building acting as communal facilities for Shrubhillʼs Co-housing, the other functioning as a community and education centre promoting biodiversity, e.g. through school visits and film screenings. The cluster formation adopted in ShrubhillWorks is scaled towards the effective use of ʻgoods and servicesʼ provided by nature, such as clean air, water, food and other materials integral to our wellbeing. The site will take full advantage of the areaʻs high rainwater levels through the widespread deployment of rainwater butts connected to rooftop guttering, collecting water for reuse in soil irrigation or in grey water sanitary products within the dwellings. SUDS and permeable paving will be in place to dispose of any excess water effectively. A wastewater treatment system of large reed ponds will provide suitable grey, water clean enough to be feed into the local Water of Leith waterway.

By incorporating large-scale green spaces, an improvement in air quality will allow natural ventilation to be adopted in the redeveloped Shrubhill House. A ventilated timber wall panel system and passive stack ventilation will provide an efficient air-flow, reducing the need for mechanical extract ventilation. Trees around the site will also provide protection from prevailing winds and noise from nearby traffic. The scheme furthermore aims to minimise car use. Excellent public transport connections will be complemented by a community car club. Minimal car parking will be provided in the peripheral areas of the site, with access for services such as waste collection and maintenance. The removal of cars from the interior of the development will allow biodiversity to mature and provides a safe environment for its younger inhabitants. In addition, the rail track will be transformed into a cycle path linked to the cycle route network and wildlife corridor extension.

A district heating system working in conjunction with a combined heat & power generator will supply the electrical and heating requirements for the new development. Passive Solar gain will be utilised in all apartments through the orientation and incorporation of south facing solar buffers.

By adopting the principles of Permaculture, productive, non-polluting, self-reliant settlements can be created. Permaculture is about collaborating with nature, adding and cultivating soils, cleansing water and creating new habitats for biodiversity, adding rather than subtracting from our natural environment. Priority will be given to this when coordinating the project workflow, allowing the green spaces to ʻbed inʼ before construction works begin. Extending the existing wildlife corridor running parallel to the site creates a wild zone where natural eco-systems can be studied. Habitats for local invertebrates including white snails, slow worms, common dormice and wood-Sage Plum will also be created. Other zones will allow for cultivation of plants on the Scottish Biodiversity List, including heather, marsh violet, wood sage, wax caps and various fungi. The reed ponds will provide suitable environments for great crested newts and water voles. Existing buildings and structures will be adapted to encourage the reintegration of particularly vulnerable species, including large garden bumblebees and bats through the inclusion of rooftop beehives and a bat spiral. Bullfinches, skylarks, swifts and swallows will all benefit from these new habitats and nest-boxes placed around the site.