INTEGER Intelligent and Green

Primrose Field, Harlow

Swan Housing Association had seen the intelligent and green benefits that the INTEGER Millennium House at Watford could bring to housing, and wanted to examine the extent to which it was possible to integrate INTEGER features into a scheme of houses constructed within the constraints of a social housing budget.

Primrose Field, Harlow
The aims of this project were to:

•Reduce the costs in use for tenants

•Reduce maintenance costs for the Housing Association

•Improve the quality of life and social opportunities for tenants

•Reduce the impact of the construction process and the building on the environment

•Achieve the development within Housing Corporation Total Cost Indicators (TCI’s)

•Use best practice procurement strategy

Design and Construction Innovation

• Reduction of on-site waste by 30-35%

•Limited wet trades, allowing other trades to progress more quickly

•Off-site prefabrication allowing construction time to be reduced by around 20%

• Use of low embodied energy components, reducing CO₂ emissions

•Use of recyclable Western Red Cedar cladding provides a durable material which requires no maintenance and which weathers to an attractive silver-grey finish

ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES

•High levels of thermal insulation

•Gas powered community heating system contributing to not only a reduction in heating costs, but also to a reduction of CO2 emissions

•Grey-water recycling system reducing water consumption by an estimated 30% per annum

•Consequently a reduced outflow to the foul drainage system, with less impact on the drainage system and less treatment of waste being required

Intelligent Technologies

•Whole house cabling infrastructure allowing communications, entertainment and data to be received in every room

•Removable cornices allowing easy access to main cabling routes for maintenance and upgrade

•Door entry system linked to phones and TV sets giving functionality and increased security to tenants

Assessment

Although some aspects of this project were difficult, the client was still impressed with the benefits that can be gained through applying the INTEGER philosophy. Angela Wood, project manager at Swan Housing Association said “We were lucky to achieve our aim of keeping total costs within Housing Corporation targets. We might not be so fortunate next time if land values continue to increase, but INTEGER has demonstrated at Primrose Field how we can do much better on sustainability in construction.”

Project Team

Client: Swan Housing Association

Architect: Cole Thompson Associates

Intelligent Systems: i&i limited

Services Engineer: Oscar Faber

Structural Engineer: Anthony Ward Partnership

Employer's Agent: The Andrews Partnership

Design & Build Contractor: Wates Construction