Afflets Court – Passivhaus

As part of the intent to consolidate the Sheltered Housing stock within the Borough, Basildon Council appointed ECD to provide infill development in place of a redundant office, to provide seven new dwellings, including a wheelchair accessible dwelling.

Inset balconies ensure residents have private amenity space overlooking the communal garden and wider context promoting passive surveillance, but also enhancing winter solar gains, preventing overheating in summer and complying with Part O, Building Regulations. Improved facilities at ground floor include a dedicated ‘hub’ for key workers and a new hall kitchen to serve the Sheltered Housing scheme. This aspect of the brief sits parallel with refurbishment works proposed to the existing facility to ensure the new proposal sits empathetically within its community.

Limiting the height impact on surrounding properties, the new flat roof arrangement also provides opportunity for PV panels, ensuring renewable energy sources that can contribute to communal area within the building.

The Client’s brief dictated the use of modern methods of construction, using cross-laminated timber panels to maximise airtightness, limit construction defects and reduce the delivery programme by using factory-made elements.

Demand of heat, ventilation and domestic hot water is supplied by Exhaust Air Heat Pumps, with minimal addition of electric radiators, simplifying service layouts to allow for easy operation in consideration of the resident demographic. This was designed to set precedent for future planned maintenance works relating to the removal of gas boilers on site, and a ‘fabric first’ retrofit stratgey based on the specification of high levels of insulation, triple-glazed windows, and minimising thermal bridges in the existing building envelope to prioritise resident comfort.