Breaking Ground in Abbots Leigh in the New Year
An overview of the houses in their garden, image credit Rob Brimley and Sarah Price Landscapes
In the previous blog post we celebrated the milestone of gaining planning approval for the our cohousing project in Abbots Leigh. The next huge milestone and cause for celebration on this project will be breaking ground which is going to happen at the beginning of 2024. What better way to celebrate the new year than to dig some big holes!
A detailed Plan of one of the new houses
Since the project was granted planning approval in the spring we have been working hard to develop the technical design of this ambitious and complex project to allow the construction to begin. We've gone through a two stage tender process to select a main contractor, for which Greenheart Sustainable Construction were successful. A two stage tender allows for the contractor to be brought onto the team early in the technical design process to best make use of their experience and expertise. It also allows for the technical design phase and the contractors lead in time to overlap, ensuring the earliest start date possible.
A detailed Section of one of the new houses
Having Greenheart on the team throughout this process has been invaluable, they have many years of experience in building low carbon, high performance houses and have been instrumental in developing the specification of the construction systems and build-ups. They have also ensured that we have accurate pricing throughout the design, so that we can not only deliver the clients ambitions, but also stay within the budget.
A materials map showing the distance some of the materials will travel to get to site
It’s been a particularly interesting and exciting technical design process to try and achieve the clients aims of building low embodied carbon, high thermal performance houses using natural, local and reclaimed materials. The building are going to be timber framed, and insulated with recycled newspaper and hempcrete, the floors are insulated with recycled glass. They will be clad in reclaimed stone and tiles (see our post Wapan Walls – Creative Re-Use and the Circular Economy for more info on this), and UK grown cedar. The clients have also milled some trees which were felled on site and this timer is going to be used for some internal joinery and linings. If that’s not a cause for celebration then I dont know what is!