The Barking Phase 2 development consists of some 450 apartments for market and affordable sale in the centre of Barking. We acted as consultants to Redrow Homes working with architects AHMM to deliver the three principal building blocks, low and medium rise, and the Energy Centre on a fast track programme.
The London Borough of Barking was an early adaptor of the so-called “Merton Rule” and was looking for 20% renewable energy contribution for all of the apartments. The environmental response was to improve building fabric standards significantly over those required for Part L compliance, to improve airtightness in construction down to 3m³/w/m² and to use a central biomass boiler plant to provide heating and hot water to all of the apartments. A small wind turbine was also incorporated on the small commercial building above the Energy Centre at the specific behest of the Borough. Each apartment had an integrated multi-service unit to control and meter the connection to the central plant infrastructure and provide heating and hot water. These were arranged to be accessible to landlords and owners. We also demonstrated that the output of a wind turbine in an urban area with towers in the vicinity is intermittent and poor.
