Multi-award winning development
Agar Grove is a multi-award winning development created for Camden Council as part of its Community Investment Programme. Its impressive list of accolades includes The Mayor’s Award for Sustainable and Environmental Planning and The Mayor’s Award for Good Growth at the London Planning Awards 2019 and the Sustainability Award at the New London Awards 2019.
Once complete, the development will be the largest Passivhaus development in the UK. Passivhaus is an innovative and internationally recognised building standard which results in high levels of energy efficiency and internal comfort including temperature, humidity and air quality.
To achieve a Passivhaus standard, the new homes at Agar Grove required an airtightness measurement of 0.6 Air Changes per House, or least at a pressure of 50 Pascals. The new homes we have delivered achieved an improved result of 0.5 air changes per hour. The new homes include high levels of insulation and triple-glazed windows which, in addition to reducing energy consumption, reduces outgoings for residents, minimising fuel poverty. The homes also include a MVHR system which ensures clean and filtered air is circulated and keeps the properties at an ambient temperature year-round.
We adopted the following rigorous quality control procedures to achieve our gold standard:
- Passivhaus principles and the protection of the airtightness line formed part of the site induction for every person on site.
- We appointed a quality inspector and ‘airtightness champion’ whose sole job is to assist with design and constantly check workmanship of the various trades and monitor culture on site to achieve the demanding targets.
- A Passivhaus consultant, Enhabit, was appointed to tailor Passivhaus training specifically for the project team on site, which was delivered by specialist consultants.
- Training was also accompanied with clear visual construction sequence drawings and prototypes of airtightness taping.
- We provided sample panels for the brickwork, blockwork and prototypes of airtightness taping. This ensured that the design was achievable, and the team found these really helpful during training.
- We advised all our subcontractor partners to maintain staff for this project to ensure continuity. This was a critical success factor in ensuring effective knowledge transfer throughout the project team.
- Four people carried out most of the airtightness taping on the building, and during interim airtightness testing, all the trades were present, to highlight any errors or necessary rectification, and the importance and impact of workmanship.
Agar Phase 1b Tenants Survey September 2023
Following the completion of the Phase 1b homes in 2021, during 2022 / 2023 a post-occupation survey of 33 tenants and technical evaluation of their homes’ heating system was undertaken by Camden Council and engineers Max Fordham to better understand:
- How the tenants were finding their new homes including what they liked or didn’t like about the design of their home, the block, and communal areas
- How they had found living in a Passivhaus home over the course of both summer and winter
- How utility bills compared to their expectations
- How the experience of their new home, block and the estate compared to that of their previous home on the Agar Grove estate.
The survey evaluation results indicate high residents’ satisfaction across the design of the public realms, homes and communal areas, noise attenuation between homes and neighbours, privacy, security, natural daylighting, air quality and comfort. Passivhaus homes can be warm in the winter and comfortable in the summer, and also more comfortable than other homes during a heatwave.
The data demonstrated that the homes are performing how they were designed to perform, and the district heating network represents good practice. Most residents believed running costs were as expected or less. There is an improved sense of pride and community amongst the residents, compared to their previous homes.
