Construction Awards 2017

14 BUILD / Construction Awards , CE170016 Residential Architects of the Year 2017 - North West England JDA Architects are a Liverpool andManchester based teamof architects, master planners, interior designers and technicians providing architectural design services to private and public clients across the UK. We profiled the practice to find out what makes it so successful and attractive to clients. JDA offers clients a full range of services from sketch schemes to full planning applications, Building Control drawings, detailed design work and site inspections. Other in-house services include master planning, interior design and 3D visualisations. Clients range from high net-worth individuals and sports celebrities wanting one-off houses in the countryside, to private housing developers with 8 to 800-unit housing sites and social care clients offering rental and shared ownership homes and retirement apartments across the UK. Their private one-off houses provide support for unique houses in the greenbelt. New house building in the greenbelt is usually frowned upon, however planning policy does allow new homes to be built in the countryside, including greenbelt. JDA are also working with specialist consultants on larger masterplan schemes for housing in the greenbelt and have two large sites in the North West for circa 4-500 homes and a school. They are also working on the detailed design of an approved masterplan for circa 800 homes at “Harry Stoke” near Bristol, which includes a community centre with retail facilities, recycling areas and children’s nursery. Outstanding Design & Modular Design To evidence the outstanding designs, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) review process supplements the planning application. JDA have obtained numerous approvals in the greenbelt, with two projects currently under construction. Whilst the practice offers traditionally constructed designs, one of their specialisms is true volumetric modular housing for the social housing sector. Along with Developer Bowsall, the practice has designed and built three modular sites across the North West; Liverpool, Tameside and Stockport with homes constructed in factory conditions, complete with bathrooms, kitchens, wall and floor finishes installed and erected on-site in a matter of days. The Government are pushing for more houses to be built quickly and JDA see modular off-site construction as a way to meet these aims. The company are also providing designs for retirement living across the UK from over 55s extra care apartments to specialist dementia care homes. HAPPI Carehomes They recently completed a Housing the Aged Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) care home for St Vincent’s Housing Association at Danesmoor Drive, Bury. HAPPI research found that the time may come to build homes that meet the needs and aspirations of older people and that housing for older people should become an exemplar for mainstream housing meeting higher design standards for space and quality. Due to the success of Danesmoor Drive, JDA Architects have been re-commissioned to provide a similar 19-unit care home at Elker Lane, Billington. Sustainable Design Leaning towards sustainable building designs, the practice is committed to encouraging clients towards the use of environmentally friendly building practices and the use of sustainable materials. The practice has designed homes to meet code for sustainable homes standards, including nine categories of sustainable design, including energy and CO2 emissions, water, materials, surface water runoff, waste and pollution. Alongside all these categories, the practice has met standards in health and wellbeing, management and ecology. Currently, the practice are working on a Passivhaus principle barn conversion. The approach is to design a home that has an excellent thermal performance, exceptional air-tightness with mechanical ventilation. This robust approach to the design to minimise heating demand and in some circumstances only specify a heated towel rail as a means of heating the home. With Staveleigh being a barn conversion, it is not possible to meet all the Passivhaus principles, for example, orientation of the building for the best solar heating results, the EnerPHit standards were used. This is certified as Quality Approved Energy retrofit with Passivhaus Component. The EnerPHit standard requires an annual space heating standard demand of 24kwh/m2 and air