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Victorian terraced house will be green prototype

Posted: 12/05/2010

A Victorian terraced house in Leicester is to receive a green refurbishment, after which the building will act as a prototype - if the renovation proves a success, the process will be repeated across the East Midlands. The challenge of Project Cottesmore is to devise practical internal solutions to increase energy efficiency and significantly cut the building’s carbon emissions.

Monitoring will be carried out and successful measures will be applied to more similar homes belonging to East Midlands Housing Group.

The work will be carried out by a team at East Midlands Housing Association, a member of the group. The housing association has won a £144,000 government-backed contract, as part the government sponsored UK-wide project to carry out environmentally friendly refits on social housing.

Project Cottesmore, named after Cottesmore Road – the location of the house, has won funding in the second round of the Technology Strategy Board’s £17million Retrofit for the Future competition.

The work, which includes insulation, draughtproofing, new windows and more efficient heating will enable the ageing and inefficient property to meet target reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. It will be carried out during a five week period this summer and follows an initial design phase which EMHA completed last year.
David Shaw, Head of Asset Management at EMHA, said: “We put a lot of hard work into the first phase so we are really chuffed to have secured this development contract.

“The property in question is a small two-up, two-down, back of pavement Victorian mid-terrace which is very common throughout the UK. Because neither of the neighboring properties are owned by EMHA, and many similar properties are within conservation zones, we took on the challenge of coming up with an internal solution which would protect the existing street scene.”

EMHA is working on the project with technical advisors from De Montfort University, and other partners including a number of local suppliers.
Green Building Press  
 

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