Build Sustainable Awards 2016

Build 2016 Sustainable Building Awards 42 Company: Bird Brick Houses Ltd Address: The Old Parlour, Wilbees Farm, Arlington Nr Polegate, East Sussex BN26 6RU Phone:01323 488732 Email: [email protected] Website: www.birdbrickhouses.co.uk n 2001, Duncan McCutchan, who co-founded the firm with his wife Jenny, was rebuilding his parents’ home and had the idea of incorporating nest holes in the flint work walls. The nest holes were an immediate success, with birds proving keen to take up residence. The following years saw sporadic development, then in 2013 Bird Brick Houses was formed and the first bird boxes produced. A stand was taken at the Ecobuild 2014 exhibition at the Excel Centre, London. Bird Brick Houses carried off two significant show awards and numerous other awards have followed. Common to all the firm’s bird and bat boxes is a unique design which offers brick matched nesting and roosting sites that blend with the host wall. The company’s clients are primarily developers and architects; with whom it works to meet biodiversity planning requirements. In addition, the firm also have dealings with ecologists, town planners and wildlife organisations such as the RSPB and Action for Swifts. Notable developers the firm have worked with include BAM, Barratt Homes, Berkeley Construction, Kier Group, Redrow, Telford Homes and Wates Construction. Alongside its product range Duncan and Jenny are always happy to offer advice to potential buyers; generally involving guidance on selecting and siting the best box types to use for the structure in question, also strategies for attracting the target species. One of the firm’s biggest challenges is to persuade planning authorities that the inevitable loss of habitat when housing developments are constructed should be countered as a matter of council policy. Some areas, Devon for example, already have a policy of including a bird box in every new property. Where such policies exist, Duncan and Jenny would like to see more evidence that this is followed through and enforced by planning officers. Recently The Bird Brick House undertook a highly successful project supplying a Hastoe Group development in East Sussex. The company’s Design Manager had seen the stand at Ecobuild 2014 and sent through the architect’s specification for the site. Boxes were incorporated in selected properties during early 2015, and were already being used in April, just 3 months later. Duncan and Jenny attended the site opening, along with the very supportive local MP Nus Ghani and Wealden council officials, and have received uniformly positive feedback from tenants with bird boxes in their homes, as well as requests to have boxes fitted from others living in homes without any. The new Regional Head of Development of Hastoe Group was also in attendance and now hopes to specify Bird Brick Houses in their future construction. Best for Wildlife Conservation Products 2016 & Award for Innovation in Bat Nesting & Roosting Products 2016 The Bird Brick House is an innovative product that provides permanent nesting sites and wildlife enclosures as an integral part of buildings across the UK. I AR160041