Hastings Zero Bills Home Development

Projects / Residential

Hasting Zero Bills Home Development

Project information

Client: Neil Brown

Project Date: 2014

Site Location: Castle Hill Road, Hastings

Project Status: Construcion Finished

Introduction

Site Location

This development of 5 zero carbon homes is located on one of the best plots in Hastings - just a stones throw from Hastings castle, with panoramic views to both the East, the West and the Castle. Perched high up between Hastings Old Town and the Town Centre, it sits in a residential setting within the Old Town Conservation Area.

The ambition of the client is to create a high quality and highly efficient terrace of homes for the 21st century, and to demonstrate that zero carbon dwellings can be commercially viable. ZEDfactory have worked up a design which both delivers in design quality and environmental performance, providing an opportunity to transform this derelict site into a historically important project for the city to coincide with the 950th-anniversary celebrations of 1066.

The project is currently on site and anticipated to be finished by the summer of 2016.

Design

The design is of a staggered terrace of 5, running perpendicular to Castle Hill Rd, optimising the panoramic views from each home.
A shared ramped access from Castle Hill Rd leads to a sheltered entrance on the East of the properties. A vehicle access at the SW of the site leads to a garage undercroft for each home, with gardens located above.

The internal layout is arranged with the living, dining and kitchens on the ground floor - as one open plan space that can spill out to the terrace and garden through a folding/sliding screen.
Upstairs are 3 bedrooms and the main bathroom, with the master bedroom benefiting from fantastic views through large windows and a juliette balcony.

The top floor of each home is a flexible open plan space intended for a range of activities depending on the occupants lifestyles. This could be a studio, office, living room, games room or workshop for example. This floor also benefits from a glass screen opening onto balcony with arguably the best views in town.

West Elevation

East Elevation

South Elevation

North Elevation

No. 93 Floor plan

Groud Floor

First Floor

Second Floor

Specification

The construction is a heavyweight timber frame, allowing for abundant insulation and a good level of thermal mass in the form of screeded floors to each story. The external walls are externally insulated with a highly sustainable natural Wood Fibre product, to achieve an overall Uvalue of 0.14.

Windows are all extremely high-performance timber frame aluminium clad triple glazed units manufactured by Velfac, and the folding sliding doors on the ground floor by Sunflex.

The South roof is entirely made up of the ZEDroof solar panel roofing system, and the North is a standing seam Zinc.
Gutters are all metal, and timber cladding from locally grown sweet chestnut.

The performance of the building should comfortably achieve a zero carbon benchmark, with excess electricity from the PV panels being fed back into the national grid.

Heating and ventilation are provided by a highly efficient combined system, incorporating an air source heat pump and MVHR unit. Heating is distributed by underfloor heating coils embedded in the floor screed.