BRICKS & BLOCKS
MASONRY COLLABORATION LEADS THE WAY FOR FUTURE HOMES STANDARD Jenny Smith-Andrews, Head of Marketing at H+H, discusses how Project 80, a pioneering sustainable housing project, is paving the way for the future of UK homes with masonry construction.
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roject 80 is leading the charge towards sustainable housing in the UK with the construction of 12 masonry homes that meet the Future Homes Standard (FHS) three years before it comes into effect. In collaboration with Tricas Construction, Birmingham City University and industry suppliers, social housing provider, Midland Heart Housing Association, plans to build 80 homes that meet or exceed the 2025 FHS. This requires a reduction of 75 to 80% in carbon emissions over current standards. H+H was happy to supply its aircrete blocks for the project’s first phase – building the initial 12 houses. The aim was to design standard housing using locally-sourced materials and labour, and compare the performance of different methods, materials and technologies to see which produce the best results at what cost. The goal of Project 80 is to pave the way for the FHS by producing evidence to support the construction of the most sustainable and resilient homes.
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Research and resilience Birmingham City University is conducting the research. It tested each home’s energy efficiency pre-occupancy and will be monitoring how each home performs as residents move in and start to live in the homes. Energy-efficiency standards required by FHS have been met by a combination of extremely high fabric efficiency and lowcarbon heating. The technologies that are being trialled include air source heat pumps, solar panels, MVHR and more. Along with the monitoring of the homes’ performance, several other research projects are being conducted in conjunction with Project 80 by PhD researchers. These include a study into air quality and airtightness as well as one looking into overheating. These will be important studies to help understand how we can build homes that are not only sustainable now but will be resilient in the future. For example, overheating will increasingly become a problem as the effects of global warming worsen and average temperatures rise.
In masonry builds, the overall temperature is cooler as masonry blocks absorb heat in the daytime and release this stored heat during cooler night-time periods. Aircrete, in particular, with its high thermal mass is an excellent material to help mitigate overheating and regulate temperature extremes. Project 80 also involves teaching and supporting residents to use the homes and new technologies in the most efficient way possible. For if we are to reduce the carbon emissions we and our homes produce, changing our behaviour is essential. Key to supporting us in making these necessary changes will be constructing buildings that do as much of the work for us as possible. Project 80 has been planned with this in mind.
Fabric first At the Project 80 launch event in March 2022, Tom Hall, Technical Design Manager at Tricas Construction, noted that the new masonry homes were designed with a “fabric-first approach”. The performance characteristics of the materials chosen for Project 80 are such that, no matter what heating solutions
