Preferred Developers
Preferred Developer
Lead Member:
Persimmon Homes
Architect:
Broadway Malyan
Registered Social Landlord:
Sovereign Housing Group
Main Supply Chain Partners:
Space4 Ltd (advanced panellised timber frame manufacturer)
Stewart Milne as a back-up pre-fabricated supplier
Other Key Partners:
Westbury Partnerships
Trench Farrow (project managers)
Entec UK Ltd (environmental & engineering consultants)
Salford Centre for Research and Innovation (project measurement)
Features
Proposed Construction Method:
Persimmon Homes propose to use Space4 advanced timber-frame panel system and traditional masonry which enable both cost efficiencies and flexibility to create innovative house-type designs. Space4 is a wholly owned subsidiary of Persimmon Homes. Space4 is based in the West Midlands which is at the heart of the traditional UK automotive industry and therefore well located to a ready supply of labour for its factory. It provides structural timber frame components for the building industry including external walls, cassette floors and internal/party walls, both load-bearing and non-load-bearing. The Space4 system is considered to be a superior timber-framing solution and one of the best examples to be seen manufactured in the UK. The Space4 product is highly engineered and independently tested by the Building Research Establishment, British Board of Agrément and has been awarded the TRADA Q-Mark as well as having been approved for housing warranty schemes by both the National Housebuilding Council and Zurich. Major high-street lenders say that they are happy to offer mortgages where the Space4 system is used.
The system is able to adapt to include further cladding options, photovoltaic cells and modular wiring systems. Stewart Milne's panellised housing system is nominated as a back up supplier of timber frame panels to support the main supply from the Space4 factory.
Persimmon propose that 100% of the homes at Park Prewett will be built using the Space4 system. Persimmon propose that there is scope to integrate a second-generation Space4 product at Park Prewett which will include pre-installed windows, doors and cassette floors. Such an evolution of their approach will achieve further cost and delivery time improvements. The company is also working on plans to include bathroom pods and integrated plumbing systems as the project develops. The evaluation of this bid by the competition team was particularly impressed by how Persimmon has used its advanced construction methods to produce and evolve new modern housing designs.
House Type Design Features:
Persimmon has proposed a very competent and well-conceived internal layout, with strong Lifetime Homes and accessibility features such as straight staircases that can be adapted to accept stair lifts. Persimmon hasproduced three £60k housing types. Although most homes will meet the minimum competition space requirement of 76.5 sq m, Persimmon has included a few very large 85 sq m "Type E" five-person house-types within the target cost. This larger home is particularly innovative in the way that it uses the full volume of the home, with the potential for gallery room in the roof and minimal dead circulation space.
As with other homes in the competition, the Persimmon homes allow occupiers to adapt them as they grow from two-person households to five-person households and then back down to two-person homes as families grow and contract. This reduces the need for people to move home simply to seek more suitable space and maximises the demographic sustainability of UK housing.
Urban Design Approach:
Persimmon proposes a strong sense of place on this portion of the former Park Prewett hospital site in Basingstoke (part of a wider development at Park Prewett forming part of English Partnerships' Hospital Sites Programme). Persimmon has provided layouts which include safe roads and pavements using the principles of Home Zones to reduce traffic speed and give priority to the pedestrian. The housing layouts are based around mews courts, squares, avenues and green spaces.
The built form combines with high quality landscaping to create a sense of enclosure and neighbourhood. Good vistas and key focal points run throughout the site. All the roads and streets are fully overlooked by the houses, avoiding hidden corners and all entrances are overlooked by several other homes to provide a sense of security around Secured by Design principles approved by the police. Affordable housing is pepper-potted throughout to create a fully integrated and mixed community.
