With ambitious sustainability and energy efficiency targets, including the aim of achieving a BREEAM Excellent rating, the client, Morro, behind a co-living development project in Walthamstow, London recently sought the expertise of Whitecode Consulting.
The comprehensive development on the site of an old public house at No 1 Blackhorse Lane, will see 272 co-living apartments constructed, plus a variety of shared residential amenity spaces, and ground floor retail units, and a purpose-built music venue.
Ellen Huelin, Sustainability Director at Whitecode Consulting, revealed the unique nature of the building meant interesting design requirements and challenges. She said: “It is exciting to work on this co-living building to meet BREEAM Excellent, as well as knowing it contributes to innovative housing solutions and meets the evolving needs of urban dwellers.
“As a multi-residential dwelling, there is a high density of occupancy and more waste-producing activities, particularly cooking – meaning the sustainable design is more challenging than something like an office building. With that in mind, we have had to ensure there are more facilities for food composting incorporated in the design of the building and also composting guidance leaflets provided to residents.”
Whitecode Consulting also played a major role in the project from the energy compliance side, providing main contractor JJ Rhatigan, with comprehensive overheating and energy efficiency consultancy – helping them comply with Part O and Part L of the building regulations respectively. As the building is designed to be mixed use, simplified building energy model (SBEM) assessments were also undertaken to identify energy performance and check for overheating risk.
With sustainability at the core of the project, Whitecode Consulting’s BREEAM assessors took an active role in the project in order to provide informative and useful advice on how to ensure the BREEAM Excellent target was achieved. Additionally, regular BREEAM workshops were held with the client team, which secured early design stage certification for the co-living part of the development.
Comprehensive MEP design and the implementation of energy efficient materials and design principles, such as low carbon heating and solar PV panels, ensured the client’s sustainability demands and goals were met.
While the client had very high aspirations for the attainment of BREEAM ratings, it was also very mindful of the need to meet, if not exceed, other building standards and regulations, too. Consequently, Whitecode Consulting worked closely with the main contractor, JJ Rhatigan, to ensure close adherence to Part L and Part O of the Building Regulations through the installation of energy-efficient cooling and heating technologies, such as a communal air source heat pump and cooling system.
The client appointed Whitecode Consulting because of previous working relationships, in which the client’s BREEAM In Use assessments for all its Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) buildings in the UK were completed.
With the building heavily focusing on sustainability and energy efficient practices, the client is aiming for the attainment of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) upon completion of the project in February 2026.
