Passivhaus Planning Success in Harpurhey

At Parkmount & Princedom, we are working with MSV to deliver 46 affordable homes across two sites in Harpurhey. The new developments form part of Manchester City Council’s low carbon affordable homes programme ‘Project 500’ and have been designed to Passivhaus classic standard.

In 2019, Manchester City Council announced its Project 500 programme. This involves disposing of underused brownfield land in its ownership to local housing associations to deliver a range of low carbon, affordable housing to meet the increasing demand in all areas, tenures and property types. MSV acquired two of these sites, Parkmount and Princedom in Harpurhey.

MSV appointed AEW to design a new affordable housing development on each of the sites. In light of the low carbon brief, we employed the expertise of our inhouse Certified Passivhaus Designer Dan Sutton to lead the project. Together with MSV, the wider Design Team and local stakeholders, Dan worked hard to develop and refine proposals. Dan said of the process:

“We encouraged the client to step away from maintenance-reliant, sustainability technology and adopt a fabric-first approach. This will ensure that MSV are delivering future-proofed homes for their residents who in turn will benefit from lower bills and comfortable, warmer and healthier homes which offer better air quality.”

Sustainable design features and considerations range from the use of insulated MMC off-site manufactured timber panellised systems and fixed solar shading to natural ventilation and sustainable urban drainage systems.

To learn more about Passivhaus Design, or to speak someone about your project, contact our Sustainability Team.