Wilmcote House winner at the SHIFT Awards

December 1, 2017

 

ECD Architects is pleased to announce our Wilmcote House retrofit project for Portsmouth City Council has won the SHIFT Awards ‘Best Large Scale Retrofit Project’ category. The SHIFT Awards recognise outstanding sustainability projects and achievements that have made an impact in the housing sector.

Wilmcote House was originally constructed as a concrete prefabricated structure in 1968 using a large panel ‘Bison REEMA’ variant system. It consists of three 11-storey linked residential blocks which provide much needed affordable housing for Portsmouth City Council. With no place to relocate the residents within these 107 units, the Council commissioned ECD for the building’s regeneration to be achieved with the residents in occupation. The retrofit of the building has been designed to the principles of the stringent EnerPHit standard, the retrofit equivalent to Passivhaus. This standard will reduce annual heating and hot water costs by approximately 90%, saving around £750 per dwelling per annum in energy bills. The completed scheme is a state-of-the-art retrofit and regeneration project with use of the EnerPHit principles bringing it to the forefront of achievement in the area of high rise residential refurbishment and regeneration.

SHIFT is the sustainability standard for the housing sector. Provided by Sustainable Homes, recognised by the HCA and backed by Government, it is an independent assessment and accreditation scheme that demonstrates organisations are delivering against challenging environmental targets. Bevan Jones, Sustainable Homes’ Managing Director said of the Awards: “I am thrilled to see such a diverse group of organisations coming together to celebrate sustainability in housing. These organisations represent the best of housing and demonstrate that sustainability plays a major role in enhancing people’s lives. Sustainability is the way forward and we must continue to share and replicate best practice and support collaboration and integration across the sector. Congratulations to this year’s winners and I can’t wait to see more and better sustainability projects at the SHIFT Awards 2018.”

Loreana Padron, Head of Sustainability at ECD commented upon the success of Wilmcote House: “We are delighted that Wilmcote House has won the SHIFT Awards ‘Best Large Scale Retrofit Project’ category. This has been an incredibly challenging yet incredibly rewarding project for all involved. The design solution of retrofitting the homes to the Passivhaus EnerPhit standard is already improving the wellbeing of residents and reducing home energy usage. This transformation envisaged within our original design has been achieved through the hard work and determination of all involved but especially Portsmouth City Council. Regeneration with residents insitu can be a complicated process but the results at Wilmcote House demonstrate the outstanding benefits that can be achieved. This has been a truly collaborative project involving the Council, the multi-disciplinary team – Keegans (Quantity Surveyors, principal designers and project managers), structural engineers Wilde Carter Clack and the contractor Keepmoat as well as outside research bodies including Southampton University and the LSE.”

Click for the Wilmcote House project page.