Fen Road, Ditton Walk

We were aware that planning was hard-fought therefore did not want to substantially redesign the elevations, however the full height windows caused overheating problems in the summer and excessive heat loss in the winter. We sought to keep the proportions of the opening, but reduce the windows in height. Deep reveals with an aluminium surround give the homes a sense of quality, but also add shading. Eaves lines were raised slightly to alleviate the thermal bridge, with care taken not to increase the resultant ridge line.

The buildings were constructed using an off-site manufactured timber frame. The selected frame provider was innovative in that they provided closed panels with insulation, windows and doors pre-installed. The same company also provided the airtightness layer with a spray-on specialist paint. In principle this was beneficial, however the company was scaling up from a domestic to a commercial product. We therefore needed to review and check the system to make sure it was deliverable on a large scale. The first units took some time to deliver, but once a system had been developed, the subsequent sites were far more efficient.