DELIVERY, PHASING & MANAGEMENT

“To do great things, to really learn, you can’t shout suggestions from the rooftop then move on while someone else does the work. You have to get your hands dirty. You have to care about every step, lovingly craft every detail. You have to be there when it falls apart so you can put it back together again.”

Tony Fadell

The section details how construction of the Phoenix will be split into three principal phases, and which homes and non-residential buildings will be built in each. It also explains key Human Nature concepts such as Build & Design and Raw + Craft, which are both designed to ensure the creation of cost-effective, strong, sustainable, elegant and robust buildings. It explains in brief how viability has been achieved on this difficult site, and how a system of local, independent and affordable estate management will be achieved.

11.1 PHASING & DELIVERY

The phasing sequence has been designed for a combination of: readying the land for new development; critical mass and rapid placemaking; laying the foundations for a culture sustainable behaviours to kick-in quickly; establishing an emphatic market presence; to supply affordable homes early for a mixedcommunity from the outset and to meet need; achieve orderly and safe construction (including manufacturing on site), minimise disruption for early settlers and to manage cash flows.

Key aspects of infrastructure that benefit the wider community are prioritised in the early stages of the development such as the Foundry healthcare facility, the bus lay-bys and play, sports, music and other community activities in the Soap Factory.

While the Co-Mobility Hub will be completed in a later phase of the development, co-mobility services will be provided for residents and visitors at the earliest point of development occupation. Doing so will encourage and enable this enterprise to meet needs from day one with a reliable and cost-effective service.

In order to minimise the impacts of ongoing construction on the new residents of the Phoenix and the existing residents of Lewes, the phasing, delivery and management strategies have been developed to ensure the following: Completed flood defences, to protect the site and beyond, will be constructed as part of the 1st phase – prior to development occupation – thereby creating safe places, linking neighbourhoods and building safe communities

• A construction access ramp will be put in place immediately. Doing so will reduce construction-traffic impacts on the sensitive, narrow streets in the town centre. A right-turn-in only (off the Phoenix Causeway) will ensure all construction traffic will be routed from the Culfail roundabout, preventing construction traffic using Little East Street/the Lewes Town Centre one-way system

The decontamination and restoration of what has become a tired derelict area of the town, through the demolition of the existing buildings and remediation of associated contaminants. The removal of buildings will be done so via a strategy of deconstruction/ dismantling rather than typical demolition, thereby reducing the impacts from noise and dust, whilst also eliciting a vast stock of reusable materials for the construction of the development, which would otherwise become waste sources. Doing so is crucial to the transition towards a circular economy in the construction programme

• Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in the onsite factory/workshop reduces waste, dust, traffic movements, delivery time and construction waste whilst also improving health & safety and offering substantial employment to young people in the area

The facilitation of building in timber, in order to reduce noise, dust, waste and traffic movements

Phase 1

The key aims of the first phase are as follows (not in order):

To defend the whole site from Fluvial and Pluvial flood events in Phase 1

To create a temporary access route onto the site for construction traffic in order to minimise traffic impact on the One-way system, on the top end of North Street and on Lewes centre

To resurrect some parts of the existing site in order to create Construction Yards and manufacturing facilities

To dismantle some of the existing structures in order to reclaim the materials, to clean up the derelict nature of the site, to make way for the flood defences and the forthcoming development

Phase 2

To deliver initial structures to provide (not in order):

• Energy centres and associated heat and utilities networks to deliver renewable energy and low carbon heating to the development from the delivery of the first residential units

• Delivery of the first Blocks of residential development detailing Parcel 1, 2, 4C and 4D, 7B and 11A totalling 293 units including 103 designated affordable (35%)

• Foundry Health Care central healthcare facility to enable the aggregation of Lewes’ GPs and dentists

A Wellness and activities centre for the young people of Lewes and the Phoenix site in the refurbished structure of an existing building

Provision of Temporary Co-Mobility services on the site. This is in order to enable car free living and will include management, storage and charging facilities for the EV Car Club, EV Car Hire, Last Mile delivery services and some ground level parking until the Co-Mobility Hub is delivered

Ambulance parking and layover facilities for Ambulance crews to replace that currently housed in Springman House

Phase 3

Delivery of the remaining parcels, exact sequence to be defined (as with the above), Key feature of this phase are:

• Deliver a continuous walkway along the riverside and a new bridge to connect the site to tha Malling Rec and beyond

• Deliver the Co-Mobility Hub and all associated services

Create a new central square and a Hotel

Maker/Craft Spaces, a Community building to house the Canteen and CoWorking utilising existing structures

A new events space

• A dedicated facilities for upcycling, repair cafe, library of things and site management

Refurbishment of Phoenix House

• Delivery of the remaining Blocks of residential development detailing Parcel 3, 4A and 4B, Parcel 5, 6E and 6F, Parcel 8, 9, 10A and 10C and 10E including 407 units including 107 designated affordable (26.3%)

11.2 BUILD & DESIGN

In a Climate Crisis the only responsible way to construct anything is with energy efficient design, low embodied carbon materials and resource-efficient construction methodologies. And these in turn can only be achieved successfully through an integrated and collaborative design process.

To that end we are building in timber frame, constructed to the highest standards through a process that enables the optimum use of locally sourced, reclaimed, reconstituted (from site own waste streams), low embodied carbon or natural materials and systems.

Collaborative design is a construction protocol that ensures key Human Nature principles of energy performance, embodied carbon, local and reclaimed materials and built off-site methodology, remain key driving factors in the delivery of the Phoenix.

‘Build and Design’ will deliver cost effective, adaptable, well-made and resilient buildings that are a joy to live in, which can be customised to the needs of residents, be repaired and maintained effectively, have a long design life and be demountable once the materials are required for another use at the end of the building’s life.

At the core of the Build and Design concept is a system which will allow Human Nature to build a high-quality product, economically and in a replicable, scalable way. The system was conceived to provide consistency and allow cost and other project risks to be tightly controlled.

Build and Design requires design and engineering teams to collaborate with specialist suppliers and contractors from the earliest stages. We believe that this allows designs to achieve the variety and character required by the Phoenix Design Code while maximising the benefits in cost, risk, safety, environmental impact offered by standardisation and offsite construction.

The Build and Design system will build on existing certified and warrantied details wherever possible to avoid the need for re- testing, including for acoustic and fire performance.

For dwellings, Build and Design requires a limited number of different types of engineered timber systems and dimensions to be established which can be deployed across the scheme, with some standard variations within those types in order to respond better to different conditions and obligations under the Design Code. Work on this aspect during the planning and design process captured in this DAS shows encouraging signs for the efficacy of this approach.

Build and Design will be operated in conjunction with Human Nature’s Raw & Craft concept.

11.3 RAW + CRAFT

Raw + Craft is both a philosophy – a way of thinking about homes – and a practical methodology for designing, manufacturing and finishing them.

It is grounded in the idea that homes should fundamentally be well made, strong, resilient and robust with materials of outstanding quality that can be left ‘raw’. The materials are not only low carbon but with sound maintenance are long lasting, adaptive and will age with grace.

The ‘craft’ element speaks to the capacity for the homes to be customised by the occupants according to their taste and budget and to minimise the wasteful impacts of abortive installation of fixtures and fittings.

11.4 VIABILITY

The site is impacted by a series of constraints that put significant pressure on the financial viability of redevelopment. Tangible costs include the construction of new strategic flood defences, decontamination, site clearance, sustainable transport links, bus lay-bys, a Co-Mobility Hub and community infrastructure; these costs are fixed, regardless of the scale or return on development. Other constraints include landscape view corridors, off-site infrastructure capacity, and other factors which limit the density and building heights in parts of the site - preventing a more usual financial return.

As such, the applicant is under significant and unavoidable cost constraints but is limited in terms of quantity of development by these constraints and so cannot create a level of return that would normally be sought on a site like this (by, for example, increasing building heights and density in other ways).

A Viability Appraisal has been undertaken by independent experts at CBRE with inputs from experienced cost consultants and local housing market valuers. CBRE’s conclusion is that for an appropriate commercial profit level (18.12% blended profit on GDV) for a development of this nature (brownfield site, significant infrastructure burden including flood defences, etc.), a viable contribution would be 17.4% affordable housing on site.

In acknowledgement of the need to provide a socially inclusive development that provides the full range of housing needed for Lewes, Human Nature is prepared to accept a significant reduction in profit to deliver its target of 30% on-site affordable housing subject to what further obligations are introduced in the review of the planning application.

The Planning Statement should be consulted for more detail on the number, type and size of affordable homes, and the terms for delivery to ensure the viability of the scheme is maintained and these much needed affordable homes are brought forward for local households.

11.5 ESTATE MANAGEMENT & STEWARDSHIP

Recognising the demands presented by shared services and spaces, community run and led facilities and neighbourhood and even blockscale sustainability goals, Human Nature is committed to local, independent and affordable site management.

Human Nature Lewes (the special purpose vehicle overseeing this project), will establish the Phoenix Estate Management Company governed by a board of directors, representing, and composed of local independent residential property owners and tenants, local commercial tenants, and asset owners. An estate charter will be developed by the company to define guidance for local operations, which will inform leasing and conveyancing documentation.

Phoenix Estate Management Company will be responsible for the operation, maintenance, repair and security of all common areas (outside of all redlines owned by asset managers/ owners) within the Phoenix project. Areas of focus paid through a transparent service charge with a margin to build a reserve for repairs, include critical infrastructure such as:

Flood wall and mechanisms, and the belvedere

Thomas Paine Bridge

• Private roads

Above ground drainage

• Coordination of waste management (third party contracted)

Green Infrastructure including rain gardens and SUDS features with attention to protecting biodiversity and flora

Communal areas, such as plazas, rooftops, formal shared spaces

Oversight of the neighbourhood productive landscape