HOUSING
GAINING FROM GARAGES Bell Phillips has designed new housing on an unloved site in Watford. Here, Emma Carter, Senior Architect at Bell Phillips Architects, talks to PSBJ about the homes that have reformed the vacant plot giving insight into their e]ciencies and con4guration to futureproof the development.
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iverside Road is a collection of five threebed terraced houses, each with their own rear garden and parking space, built as temporary homes for Watford Borough Council. After having marked the site as suitable for family housing, the council worked with Bell Phillips Architects to design and build new homes that would provide an affordable solution for tenants, while also serving as a benchmark for future developments within the borough. Bell Phillips Architects has a track record of designing affordable homes that have low energy consumption rates for local authorities; Orwell House and Levitas House being two recent examples. Going beyond policy requirements, and as part of Watford’s proactive approach to tackling climate change, the houses have been built to BRE’s Home Quality Mark. The assessment provides a star rating and reviews all aspects of new homes, including running costs, health and wellbeing benefits, and the environmental footprint associated with living
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in the home. Working with a specialist assessor throughout the design and construction stages, the homes achieve four stars, comparable to BREEAM ‘Excellent’. To meet this high standard, the design, material specification and construction method were meticulously considered. Bell
Phillips specified a raft of passive measures to ensure that the in-use energy demand was minimised; excellent U-values and airtightness, high-performing aluminium composite windows and a whole-house MVHR system. While the dual-aspect homes are generously proportioned and
designed for purge ventilation when necessary, the MVHR systems work to provide clean, fresh air to spaces, such as the living rooms and bedrooms, and extract stale air from the kitchen and bathrooms with minimal energy input. The windows have been sized to carefully balance natural light with the risk of solar gain. On south-facing windows, a lightweight brise soleil has been installed to further reduce any overheating risk. Completely omitting gas from the development, each house also benefits from an ASHP and PV array, providing a renewable source of energy and space heating for the homes. Tenants also have direct access to individual off-street parking, fitted with an electric charging point to encourage the use of electric vehicles. While the immediate context varies, with low-rise housing sitting alongside a small industrial estate to the north of the site, the terraced homes revitalise the garage site, introducing a design language complementary to the existing interwar housing estates.
