Levitt Bernstein has secured planning permission for a pilot net zero carbon housing scheme for the London Borough of Islington, designed to deliver exemplar homes and address the climate emergency.
Located on Vorley Road, the scheme comprises three buildings with a total of 72 homes, 51% of which will be for social rent, and all will be designed to Passivhaus standards.
All the homes are dual or triple aspect with views towards Girdlestone Park or the city. The full-width balconies serve multiple purposes, such as providing private amenity space and solar shading, which allows for larger areas of glazing than might otherwise be recommended for a Passivhaus scheme.
An innovative heating system, along with the ‘fabric first’ approach, will help deliver cheaper heating costs for residents and improve energy efficiency. Other devices, such as brise soleil, have been implemented differently on each building depending on the angle of the sun.
Much needed improvements will also be made to the local park, play areas and streetscape thanks to additional planting to enhance biodiversity alongside sustainable urban drainage systems.
The car-free scheme, which is on a narrow site, will also include new community facilities in a civic podium, consisting of a new home for Archway Library and a new medical centre. The three buildings above carefully mediate between the 1960s massing of the town centre ‘island’ and the surrounding Girdlestone Estate.
Lotta Nyman, Associate Director at Levitt Bernstein, said:
“The scheme on Vorley Road is sustainable from first principles and promotes low carbon living. This approach will minimise future energy costs for residents and help Islington become a low carbon borough and meet its declaration of a climate emergency, whilst also reducing the long-life maintenance and management costs.”
Cllr Diarmaid Ward, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Housing and Development, said:
“As we build a more equal Islington, we want everyone to have a place to call home that is secure, decent and genuinely affordable.”
“These 37 new council homes in Vorley Road will provide fantastic housing for families in desperate need, in the face of London’s housing crisis.”
“This pioneering net-zero scheme will also help meet the demands of the climate emergency, as it minimises heat loss and energy bills at a time of soaring cost of living.”
Construction on the scheme is set to start in 2023.