UK First Eco Town | Elmsbrook Zero Carbon Community | #ecohome #ecocummunity #sustainablebuilding

welcome to alter vigo and today we are exploring the uk's first eco town elmsbrook in north west vista elmsbrook is a 393 home development that is in the first phase of north west vista's eco town that will eventually provide 6 000 homes homes will be fitted with solar panels rain water harvesting systems to save water for use in the gardens and a combined heat and power unit any excess power generated will be sold back to the national grid saving on energy and reducing costs for residents environmentally friendly transport schemes will be paramount cycling will be encouraged with a dedicated cycle lanes and paths public transport networks that are easily accessible with fast links to oxford and an electric car club which will provide charging ports residents will be able to pick fruit and veg from communal herb boxes or a garden fruit tree and are able to grow their own produce in the community allotments and orchards forty percent of the village will be green space and wildlife will be encouraged to thrive with a nature reserve meadows ponds and a country park bird boxes bee hives and bug hotels as well as meadow turf roofs plus new tree and shrub planting will sustain and attract a diverse range of species a part of the final development will be devoted to green allotments play areas sports and recreational facilities and acres of interconnecting cycle and walking paths this entire project will hopefully inspire people to learn from the site and see the future every home has been designed with the future in mind minimizing waste and improving efficiency by keeping homes naturally cool during the summer and warm during the winter with triple glazed windows highly energy efficient doors and higher than standard cavity and roof insulation to restrict heat loss all of this is potential to reduce household bills homes at elmsbrook will use less electricity than the average bista home heating and hot water comes from the district's heat and power system so no more worries about boilers while each house has rooftop solar panels to generate electricity they are also aiming for one new job per new home created and that job will be easily reached through cycling walking or public transport we interviewed louis knight from bioregional who told us a little more about the project so bioregional are an environmental and sustainability consultancy charity and social enterprise we work with a wide range of partners across the world to help develop sustainability solutions we're here today uh north west vista uh the uk's largest eco town it's 6 000 homes elmsburg is the first phase of that which is just under 400 homes firstly the homes adopt a fabric first of all so you have really good levels of insulation you have triple glazing on the windows but there are also very large photovoltaic panels on the roof and actually reportedly when the scheme is finally finished it will be the largest residential pv array in the uk one of the big things is that as you build better and better homes and the operational energy used decreases actually the embodied carbon so the carbon locked up in the materials increases as a percentage so this development elmsbrook really tried to look at how we can reduce the embodied carbon content of new homes so there's a number of interesting materials such as timber frames used to construct the buildings but also recycled aggregate and concrete used within the construction of the buildings so for example the bricks look like a lovely cotswold brick but actually they are a crushed recycled aggregate made to look like that type of brick so schemes like this are really really important i think it firstly it's important to say that you don't get everything right all of the time so developments like this really show the art of the possible and really try and push the boundaries within the built environment sector we know that we are facing a climate and a ecological emergency and that we have to change the way that we build new developments and so this scheme here really tries to show what can be done there's some amazing initiatives and design interventions used here ranging from the way that their homes are heated and powered all the way through to how you create a more cohesive and equitable community the perch co-working building is probably one of the greenest commercial buildings in the uk it was the uk's first passivhaus plus non-residential building developed by the local authority here cherwell district council it's currently operated by town square who are a fantastic b corp and really it plays a crucial role in the transport strategy and the community strategy here at elmsbrook it provides a local place for local residents not only of elmsburg but also wider vista to walk and cycle here or get here by bus to work to meet to network it also provides small serviceable offices for companies such as bioregional ourselves that work here but also provides a key community function by providing a place for a small eco cafe for recycling facilities etc i think the public realm here and the green infrastructure is really high quality you've got some amazing green open spaces here the sort of green corridors that um connect the different uh residential areas provide a real um haven for people to interact with nature but also sort of get away from roads and uh and and the sort of modern life in that way but i think also it provides a really convenient and attractive way for people to move around not only this development but also to connect to wider vista which is only sort of five ten minutes that way and they can do that easily and safely and conveniently by walking and cycling we at alter vigo thought this development was fascinating walking around and filming the area was a treat certainly somewhere i would personally enjoy living this approach to housing is the future a focus on sustainability is important when building homes and we think this deserves to be celebrated there are plenty more examples like this if you wish to see more please like or share this video and consider subscribing we have plenty of more great content planned please feel free to let us know what you'd like to see in the comments

Channel: alter vego

Views: 15,516

Keywords: ecohome, sustainable living, sustainable development, sustainable architecture, sustainable house, sustainable energy, sustainable living homes

Id: 6vGpMiFBP_s

Length: 6min 57sec (417 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2022