Studio Partington used Dutch standard Energiesprong to retrofit 63 houses in Sneinton, in a scalable response to the climate crisis that has won it 2024 RIBA East Midlands Sustainability Award
Of the thousands of local authority houses built in the 1970s and 1980s, many were constructed using non-standard methods. Now, 50 years on, many are in need of being upgraded if we are to meet the challenges of the climate crisis and remove tenants from fuel poverty. This has left their landlords with a conundrum: since replacement is too complex and costly, do they demolish, refurbish, or leave alone? In Nottingham, multiple phases of a project to refurbish popular city centre houses may present an answer.
The scheme consists of apartments, bungalows, and terraced houses. Being close to the city centre and larger than average, the homes were popular with residents. The client bravely chose to retain the houses and implement a tenant focused solution. Through client engagement, the architect carefully brought about change that goes beyond upgrading the thermal envelope. These interventions range from simple alterations such as new rooflights providing daylight to staircases, to fundamental modifications to the way the houses face onto streets, with new front doors replacing garages.
The partnership between the architect and Melius Homes demonstrates a can-do attitude, with the contractor creating a new factory to manufacture the prefabricated panels. The close relationship enabled the team to learn and improve on each phase of the project, Phases 2 and 3 evolving with simplified detailing and bespoke approaches to heating.
The jury applauds the team for the initiative to address fuel poverty prevalent in affordable housing, and for electrifying the development to future-proof it for grid decarbonisation. All phases have moved to electricity-based heating and hot water. The initial phase has a new communal ground-source heat pump, with boreholes installed below the drives of the houses. Later phases have air-source or ground-source heat pumps depending on the number of houses in the phase. This is a potential solution to a huge problem and one where the architect, contractor and client worked closely to make meaningful changes to tackle some of the most difficult housing upgrades. It offers a model of how better places and homes might be delivered to meet the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge.
See the rest of the RIBA East Midlands winners here. And all the RIBA Regional Awards here
To see the whole RIBA Awards process visit architecture.com
RIBA Regional Awards 2024 sponsored by EH Smith and Autodesk
Credits
Contractor Melius Home
Renewable energy installer Sasie
Helping hand/guardian Energiesprong UK