When Joseph Rowntree Foundation embarked on its initiative to provide affordable rented homes for singles, it researched the market by asking Leeds’ twentysomethings and thirtysomethings what kind of home they wanted. Older, renovated homes got the popular vote, while new build got a clear thumbs down.
Some two years later, JRF is back in town, with 45 two-bed apartments for rent in a block that is new build and proud of it. But Leeds young, single renters are not complaining; they are being turned on to new build by the design of the new landmark beside the city’s inner ring road.
JRF always intended to innovate in design and construction with its City-centre Apartments for Single People at Affordable Rents initiative. “Developers play safe,” JRF director Richard Best said when he set out CASPAR’s aims. CASPAR’s architects were chosen for imagination and given a brief to use it. The debut CASPAR scheme in Birmingham, designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, had apartments on either side of a glazed internal street, connected by criss-cross bridges that brought a West Side Story setting to the West Midlands.
At Leeds, architect Levitt Bernstein’s design breaks free from the city’s Victorian traditions, with its curving plan, grey and red timber cladding, industrial-style steel for balconies, walkways and Lee Strip roofing. Innovation continues with the construction, as the rear section of each apartment - kitchen, bathroom, hall and second bedroom - was made as a single module in the Bedfordshire factory of manufacturer Volumetric. Apartments are also highly insulated and fitted with a mechanical ventilation, heat recovery and heating system.
The crescent design was inspired by the curving, sloping site, which is beside a slip road to the inner ring road. Kitchens, bathrooms and second bedrooms are on the noisy, outer side of the crescent, while lounges and main bedrooms are on the inner side. Access walkways to apartments are also situated on the outer edge of the crescent.
Apartments are accessed by lift, stair and walkways, with most residents having to pass no more than one apartment on a walkway to reach their home. “The budget didn’t allow us to have a flat on either side of the stair,” says Mark Lewis, project architect with Levitt Bernstein. “Cost consultant Robert Lombardelli Partnership showed us we could afford three lifts.” So there are three circulation cores, each with a Schindler lift.
The budget didn’t run to trendy Western Red Cedar cladding either, so red engineering brick and render at lower levels are teamed with pressure-treated softwood finished in Sadolin stain.
Behind the timber cladding is more timber - timber frame and timber modules, a build combination classed as semi-volumetric. “We laid out the apartment so all the moving parts were contained in the module,” says Lewis.
Internally, the 51m2 apartments are simply finished, with white Symphony kitchen units and Armitage Shanks sanitaryware. Innovation has gone into keeping out traffic noise and cutting down energy bills, with features like Swedish Windows’ triple-glazed windows.
“The homes are so well insulated most of the heat loss is through ventilation, so a heat recovery ventilation system made sense,” says Lewis.
The system, customised by services engineer Max Fordham and Partners, meets most heating needs, but in mid-winter, a gas boiler heats a hot water coil to provide extra heat via ventilation ducts.
For the project team, Leeds CASPAR has literally been a learning curve. “Erection of timber frame only took three weeks, but finishing of the lounge and main bedroom was like a traditional contract. We couldn’t fit out till the roof was on,” says Lewis.
Project cost came out at £52 500 per unit, “the same as traditional build,” says Lewis, “but that has bought improved U values and a better quality building”.
Contractor Kajima UK Engineering set a target build time of 30 weeks, but required an extra six. “We were aware from the start that this was not a typical way of building,” says Roy Marshall, marketing director of Kajima.
Kajima and Levitt Bernstein are looking to apply and develop the experience gained on CASPAR, in partnership with local authorities and housing associations. “We carried out follow-up research into a generic model, and have taken it beyond concept stage,” says Marshall. It seems the young singles of Leeds aren’t the only ones to have opened their eyes to new-build rented housing.
Source
Building Homes
