Transforming two derelict houses into six energy efficient, future proofed flats for use as emergency accommodation
On 24th January 2025 7-9 Albion Street was awarded the LABC Best Small Social Housing Development at the Grand Finals in London.
We thought it made a good opportunity to revisit the scheme.
The Cityzen team was appointed post planning for technical design through to tender and overseeing the works through the construction stage. There were several challenges presented by this project, not least an existing building being held to new build planning conditions.
Existing Building Challenges
One of the first challenges with this project was that due to the presence of asbestos no measured survey had been undertaken prior to the planning permission being obtained. As soon as COVID-19 restrictions allowed, asbestos was removed and a 3D survey was obtained.
The survey established that achieving the council goals for occupancy was not possible within the existing planning approval. It established that the footprint of the planning approval was sufficiently different to create some spatial challenges and at the same time, it was noted that the planning design showed most of the internal structure being removed in order to best make use of the footprint. The Council communicated they had a commitment to reusing as much original structure as possible, while also needing to meet National Housing Standards for funding requirements.
Thus, a redesign was undertaken to achieve the council goals. The original scheme had included 2 loft dormers to the sides. However, these had been negotiated out before the planning was determined. With the updated survey we discovered the council could not achieve the 6 flats intended without additions at the roof level. Knowing that the planners had objected to the dormers in the original planning we instead extended the existing rear building line to 2nd floor creating a full infill, while to the front, in between the 2 valley roofs, we added a small infill dormer. This was sufficient to meet the m2 required to enable the council to achieve their targets.
Adur and Worthing planning were pragmatic, understood the challenges and approved the revised scheme as an amendment to the existing planning permission. This however meant, as the existing planning approval was also for the block of new build flats, that the refurbishment was subject to the same planning conditions as the new build.
This was a stretching requirement in terms of performance (acoustic and overheating) but one the council did not wish to shy away from.
Due to pressing project timescales, while the amendment was under consideration, we continued the technical design of the revised scheme at risk.
We were able to issue the architectural construction package for tender just 12 weeks after the survey was received.
Achieving Design Goals
Due to the site being on a busy coast road with the railway line behind it, the acoustic specifications that were part of the approved planning conditions, were not able to be easily met within a social housing refurbishment budget, or through the use of refurbishment products on the market.
To satisfy the Environmental Health planning conditions the project had to therefore show that all practicable mitigations had been undertaken and demonstrate the improvements. Cityzen worked with specialist consultants across the project to provide additional expertise in order to achieve the best possible thermal and acoustic results.
The existing overheating risk arising from existing south-facing large format bay windows was increased by the acoustic planning condition. Environmental nighttime noise required windows to remain closed. The structure of the buildings and the budget did not allow for the favourable solution of a ducted ventilation system.
To ensure the specification was optimised, the design was interrogated as it was developed by iterative SAP energy assessments by SEA Compliance, and iterative overheating TM59 assessments by XDA Consulting. This enabled the design team to develop a suitable way forward that addressed the need for high thermal performance and reduction of overheating risk.
Anderson Acoustics then interrogated the preferred design specification and were able to confirm that it should address the acoustic needs they had identified, subject to on-construction re-assessment.
The council policy goal of no gas, the budget, and ongoing maintenance requirements, led to an employer’s requirement for electric storage heating. As this was to be temporary accommodation a key design team goal was therefore to ensure the future occupants of the properties had relatively low running costs. This was achieved through developing a design specification with low heating demand, again going beyond the performance required for a refurbishment, this had to be balanced with the overheating risk.
The final specification of solar control glazing, blinds, system 3 ventilation and purge fans in heat sensitive rooms removed the overheating risk in 25% of the bedrooms and, in the most-at-risk bedrooms, the total overheating hours were reduced by 74%.
Throughout the project, the design and constructive teams worked closely together to ensure the project was delivered in the most cost-effective way possible. With the main contractor, Cheesmur, being proactive in not only addressing problems on site, but also drawing on their learnings from experience on previous council projects in terms of products and subcontractors.
When there was a change to the council fire strategy post tender, Cityzen liaised with the council fire team, understanding their requirements and liaising with fire door manufacturers, door latch manufacturers, and testing organisations to ensure the fire team were supplied with sufficient information to enable them to agree a way forward.
The cost plan by MGAC (RLF at the time) was firmed up prior to tender thanks to a period of strip out, and further existing condition investigation by ourselves and QED Structures which helped firm up the amount of timber remediation and structural repair required.
Above and Beyond Results
The acoustic assessment demonstrated that the nighttime noise risk had been completely removed due to the detailing and specification. A fantastic result given the planning assessment indicated high-risk of noise nuisance due to both the main coast road to the front and the railway to the rear.
The air permeability assessments across the 6 flats averaged 7.6m3hr/m2, another excellent result since 15 would have been acceptable for an existing building, further demonstrating the contractor’s skill and care on site.
After the build, we produced ‘how to’ videos for use within the council welcome package to assist occupants with learning how to use the heating, hot water and ventilation fans. As well as covering health and safety aspects such as hob safety and how to ensure the fire and smoke alarms are working.
The council successfully applied for funding through Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) and Rough Sleepers Accommodation Programme (RSAP) and residents from the emergency housing list are now living in the properties. A fantastic result from all of the hard work put in by everyone involved.
