Swansea retrofit project shortlisted in the Constructing Excellence in Wales Awards

The Whole House Decarbonisation Retrofit Scheme, a partnership project between Swansea Council & Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University has been shortlisted in the Innovation category of the Constructing Excellence in Wales Awards 2020.

The project has transformed six 50-year-old two-bed bungalows with appropriate low carbon solutions including solar panels integrated into the roof to generate electricity which is stored in a Tesla battery, double glazed windows, insulated walls and roof and low energy lights. Ground source heat pumps provides heat for the homes and hot water. A ventilation system circulates filtered air throughout the homes via ceiling vents, which helps retain heat.

The residents will be paying minimal energy bills from now on.

A number of academic staff from the Welsh School of Architecture including:  Dr Jo Patterson, Esther Tallent, Manos Perisoglou, Dr Xiaojun Li, Dr Ester Coma-Bassas, Dr Shan Shan Hou and Miltos Ionas bring different skills to the team to ensure that the project is designed, planned, installed and monitored successfully to provide evidence to the housing sector on how very low homes can be delivered.

The LCBE project is part of SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre, which is led by Swansea University and part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government, and EPSRC.

Dr Jo Patterson, project lead said: “Innovation is not only about technologies – it is about innovating the whole construction process including collaboration, communication and procurement to deliver a zero-carbon future. By carrying whole house retrofit projects such as this one at Ffordd Ellen everyone involved has taken a step forward towards making the changes that are essential for progress.”

Also nominated for the same award is the ‘Rightsizing: Slim Down and start up, 2 new housing schemes in Monmouthshire’; a partnership project between Monmouthshire Housing Association, Professor Wayne Forster from the Welsh School of Architecture, Aecom, LRM Planning, Lodestone Consulting Engineers. This project consists of two separate infill housing projects developed and designed to respond to, and meet, the needs of an older generation of people in Monmouthshire who wanted to ‘down-size’ from larger properties and a much younger generation who were looking for their first property.

Constructing Excellence in Wales is the united voice of the Welsh built environment sector, representing each part of its supply chain. They work with all different elements of construction with both large and small organisations in the public and private sectors to help the industry to improve its performance to deliver better quality and value for money to its clients and end users. The awards are recognised across the Welsh built environment as the biggest and brightest celebration of best practice.