Florence Buchan Court, Sutton Road
Florence Buchan Court is the second of four social housing projects in Newham where we have used our specialist housing and Passivhaus skills to assist Kind & Co as contractor. Nine maisonettes and 20 flats will give energy efficient homes with low running costs for council tenants.
This long thin block tested our Passivhaus skills because we had to follow a planning approval obtained by a different architect. We overcame the following challenges:
- We chose specialist connectors to reduce the additional heat losses from long access walkways serving the flats.
- Our in-house thermal bridge modelling skills and software accurately assessed the heat losses between different heated and unheated spaces in the centre of the building.
- We chose specialist glazing on the west facing main elevation and added thermal mass and additional shading to the top floor to reduce the risks of overheating.
- Our accurate construction detailing enabled a high quality building with a comfortable homes for tenants.
- Tooley Foster’s 12 years of Passivhaus Designer experience enabled close collaboration with the Passivhaus Certifier to ensure Passivhaus Certification.
We can now apply this experience to design out potential issues before planning and make Passivhaus social housing more economical.