BedZed

This mixed-tenure, mixed-use development (16,544 sq.m) with approximately 50 dwellings per hectare) on a former sewage works site provides 82 new homes (1,2, 3 & 4 bed houses and flats), commercial work space (1,695 sq.m), and 18 live/work units. Other on-site facilities include medical centre, nursery, café/bar, sports pitch (4,336 sq.m) with clubhouse and village green (538 sq.m).

Three storey red brick buildings are arranged on a grid of shared surface streets. The scheme's 'pedestrian first' policy includes lighting, a road layout constraining vehicle speed and 986 sq.m of parking spaces, and provides an electric car pool for residents' use. Workspace roofs form gardens for neighbouring housing accessible by bridges over streets, giving every home a private garden. Offices are shaded by housing to reduce solar gain.

Homes are designed to maximise passive solar energy and are fitted with specially designed photovoltaic (PV) panels, which, along with super-insulation, wind-driven ventilation systems, the CHP plant and water conservation systems, reduce energy demand to 25% of a conventional home of similar size. PV panels are used for solar shading, electricity generation and as the building's skin, and a heat exchange system, fed by the highly visible coloured wind-driven ventilation cowls on the building rooftops (planted with sedums), recovers around 70% of the warmth from the outgoing air. All buildings are low allergen construction, avoiding substances such as formaldehyde associated with sick building syndrome.

Car parking is porous block paving over gravel, and runoff from sky gardens, roads and pavements is drained to a ditch designed as a water feature to attract wildlife, while a system of planted beds in a greenhouse treats the scheme's sewage.