INTEGER Intelligent and Green

The INTEGER Millennium House, Watford

“From Dream to Reality” – one of the mottos of INTEGER, and one which is embodied in the Millennium House. The house went from design to construction to completion to occupation within a period of eighteen weeks. There were no contracts involved. There was no budget as suppliers donated materials, expertise and time free of charge. This was a real team effort with the task of building one of the most innovative houses in the world. The process was captured for posterity by the BBC in the six-part, prime-time “DreamHouse” programme, hosted by Carol Vorderman.

INTEGER Millennium House, Watford

In the four years since it opened, the INTEGER Millennium House has functioned as a demonstration house, showcasing the origins of the INTEGER concept. To date over 5,000 people have visited it, with many comments in the visitors book such as “I love it! Where can I buy one?”. It is a house which has reached iconic status in Britain and around the world. Here’s how it happened……

Design and Construction Innovation

•Materials for the building fabric were selected for sustainability, low embodied energy, long life and low maintenance

•A turf roof provides good insulation, is low maintenance, is visually attractive and provides a natural alternative to conventional roof materials

•Off-site fabrication of components including pre-cast concrete floor slabs, timber panel for the superstructure insulated with 150mm blocks of cellulose recycled newsprint

•Integrated design and procurement. CAD drawings were issued by e-mail from designers to manufacturers and pre-fabricated components were designed and agreed in a matter of days

•Wet trades were eliminated where possible to minimise on-site time

•Standard components from the commercial glasshouse industry were used to construct the conservatory

•Bathroom modules originally designed for the off-shore oil industry were craned into the site as fully completed timber-framed rooms

•A central service core was used to distribute all of the pipework and cabling services vertically through the house. Structured cabling hidden behind removable skirting, and service voids behind the internal plasterboard walls allow for easy access for maintenance and upgrade

Environmental Technologies

•A heat pump pushes cold water down 50m into the Earth where it is heated by the ground and returns to the surface at a warm temperature. Although the heat pump runs on electricity, it is very efficient and uses only one unit of electricity for every three units of heat provided

•Heating is delivered through floor mounted trench heaters where water is pumped at 50°c to bring temperature up to that set by the individual room thermostat

•Solar water heaters mounted on the roof can provide free hot water at up to 95°c which is then pumped to a highly insulated hot water tank maintained at 77°c. This hot water is then supplied at mains pressure around the house as required

•A grey water system treats and recycles water used for washing and bathing and re-uses it for flushing the toilet, reducing water usage by around 30%

•Rainwater is collected, treated and stored in an underground tank for garden irrigation and car washing

Intelligent Technologies

•A sophisticated, yet simple to use, building management system ensures that the performance of the heating system is optimised, only operating it when heat is required

•Soil humidity is monitored to ensure that the automatic garden irrigation system only waters those plants which need it.

•An intelligent security system not only picks up intruders but also interacts with the lighting, heating and door control systems to ensure that no energy is wasted while the house is unoccupied, and also that on returning home, all of the systems within the house “wake-up” automatically to provide safety and comfort as soon as you step in the front door

•Lighting can be set to four pre-defined moods at the touch of a button or by infra-red remote control

•Door keys equipped with a microchip allow the key to be programmed to open any door in the house – or can be restricted to only give access to certain areas. For example, a parent might not want their child to have access to the study, and the key could be programmed to achieve this. This means that occupants need only one key for everything

•Telephony is distributed around the house via a local building exchange. The ISDN line carrying this allows multiple numbers to be allocated, so each person in the house can have their own personal phone number

•Digital satellite and terrestrial television is distributed to every room around the house providing freedom of choice for both programme and location

•WebTV is available on the Philips wall-hung, flat-screen television in the lounge, allowing people to browse the internet together and in comfort

•CCTV cameras at the front and rear of the house are broadcast on a spare analogue television channel around the house so that they can be viewed on every TV screen

Performance Measurement

The construction of the INTEGER Millennium House was monitored by the BRE Calibre programme and some valuable lessons were learnt. As the INTEGER Millennium House was so unique, it is difficult to make comparisons with a conventional house building programme, but high measures of productivity, good teamwork, a non-confrontational approach, joint ownership of problems and good levels of interdependence between team members was noted.

The project was not only a success in process terms. Many of the 5,000 visitors to the house have wanted to know where they can buy an 1NTEGER house, and want to know why house builders are not offering this kind of product to the buying public.

In this way, the INTEGER Millennium House has succeeded in not only creating an example of what is possible, but as a result has permitted people to raise their expectations of what housing quality can be. Not merely three bedrooms under a roof, but a tool through which lives can be improved.

Project Team

Architects: Cole Thompson Anders, Bree Day Partnership, Paul Hodgkins Associates

Intelligent Systems: i&i limited

Services Engineer: Oscar Faber

Quantity Surveyor: The Andrews Partnership

Structural Engineer: Anthony Ward Partnership

Performance Measurement: Centre for Performance Improvement in Construction, BRE