Since winning the RIAS competition in May 2007, nearly 30 architectural practices and design teams including ourselves at HLM Architects, have been working immensely hard with the Highland Housing Alliance to make the vision of Scotland’s Housing Expo a reality.
Somewhat against the tide of the recent financial climate and the freezing winter weather, work commenced on site a few weeks ago with a consortium of five local Highland contractors (O’Brien Properties, Robertson Highland, Morrison Construction, William Gray and Tulloch Express) and James McQueen Builders of Skye. Over the next few months, we will be posting regular blogs on the construction progress of the expo project as it advances towards its official opening just five months away in August this year.
The construction of our own three units began on site with O’Brien Properties amid the latest snow blizzards to hit the Inverness area. Whilst the site has been levelled and set out, the holes in the ground have seen more snow than concrete due to the sub-zero temperatures, but then the weather gave us some welcome relief and in turn some more substantial progress.
When complete later this year, our three units will become only the second certified PassivHaus scheme in Scotland and still one of the first few in the UK. Our homes aim to use at least 80% less energy for space heating than the average UK house and will aim to demonstrate the benefits and appropriateness of the PassivHaus concept in the Scottish and UK climate.
Our scheme is one of over 50 homes on the site set within an innovative masterplan by Caddell2, which collectively hopes to truly raise the bar for Scottish and UK housing. We hope that over the next few months we can illustrate the progress of some of these schemes moving towards the public event in August 2010 and more importantly towards the legacy of the expo community beyond.
From Passivhaus blog
HLM Architects are building some of the first UK homes to meet the German Passivhaus standard for Scotland’s Housing Expo this summer. Here the firm will update on progress.
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment