Blog: SECBE Awards 2022 finalist - Zero-Carbon Social Housing Scheme by ZED PODS and Bromley Council

06 April 2022

Modern Methods of Construction

Zero-Carbon Social Housing Scheme by ZED PODS and Bromley Council

Modern Methods of Construction Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2022 Finalist

ZED PODS is an award-winning, environmentally led modular housing developer with a passion for creating 100% affordable, zero-carbon housing solutions in difficult-to-develop constrained sites like infills, flood zones, garages and hardstanding.

In partnership with London Borough of Bromley, we have designed and built an innovative, zero-carbon, social homes, using offsite construction and built above a public car park in Burnt Ash Lane. The self-contained, beautifully designed homes have been erected on steel podium to retain 85% of original public car parking spaces for local community. It is the first development-of-its-kind in the borough and the first one in the city of London.

This award-winning sustainable development will house 25 vulnerable households presently staying in temporary accommodations (like B&Bs) outside the borough. ZED PODS’ unique solution is helping the council to rethink the use of underutilised car park, provide an innovative zero-carbon housing solution & solve affordable housing crisis.

This social housing scheme comprises of 10 x 1 bed and 15 x 2 bed apartments (all space standard compliant) over two & three storeys across two blocks. This includes 6 wheelchair accessible units with dedicated lift arrangement. There are 15 dedicated residential parking spaces, including disabled bays. The public car park has been upgraded with facilities like additional 5 CCTVs, 3 Electric Vehicle Chargers and 40 cycle storage to make residents safer and encourage them to adopt sustainable and greener lifestyles.

The project is also a pioneering, environmental and socially focused development, with latest enhanced energy-efficient measures like heat pumps, solar panels, triple glazing. The units are designed and detailed to be both highly energy efficient & zero-operational-carbon in operation, to secure residents the lowest possible running costs. Offsite fabrication increased building performance to meet zero carbon standards and a negative dwelling emissions rates through our “fabric first” approach and minimal wastage. Over 904 Tonnes of Carbon emissions over 30 years will be saved as compared to standard new build using traditional construction.

The uniqueness of the scheme started from the design stage. Being a turn-key modular provider with inhouse architectural design and project management expertise, we operate a strict and robust sustainable policy which encapsulates all activities from material choices to renewable energy generation and energy efficiency. We eliminated many high embodied energy and carbon products from our build system. Our master plan design, specifications, choice of material, construction & installation process – all catered towards achieving zero carbon development.

Using precision manufacturing technology, these apartments were built up to 90% in the factory. These modules were built to a stringent specification with zero-waste in manufacturing process, low carbon footprint for delivery and in operation. Our build system is an exemplar innovation which substantially reduced the onsite work and minimised construction risks on site. In addition, the light foundation work didn’t involve a huge workforce at the site. The steel podium & modules were installed in 5 weeks with minimal disruption to local community.

Key achievements:

• Unique: The modular scheme offers rapid, high-quality, zero-carbon housing on constrained sites, not possible with conventional new build. This retains and regenerates existing car parking spaces whilst providing 100% affordable housing.

• Pioneering zero-carbon development: The scheme has been designed to achieve SAP ratings of over 100. Each house uses solar panels to generate renewable electricity, quiet running heat pumps, controlled ventilation to recover usable heat, triple glazing and LED lighting.

• Ful Turnkey Delivery: The team has conceptualised, designed and obtained planning permission. “Hearts and mind” were won by using full sized demo unit at Bromley Civic Centre. Early process innovations helped to obtain go-ahead for council’s first modular project after 40 years.

Client: London Borough of Bromley

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Find out who wins at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2022 Ceremony on Thurs 30th June 2022.

About the Modern Methods of Construction :

This Award Category considers a number of factors that are convening to make offsite construction a more attractive solution than ever before and help address systemic failures including low productivity, low predictability, low margins, adversarial pricing, lack of culture for collaboration, limited R&D and investment in innovation and poor image.  More info.

>> Find out more about the other Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards finalists here