Cambridge properties to open doors for eco homes event
The under-construction Cambridge Mosque and an award-nominated new-build home known as 'The Treehouse' on St Barnabas Road will be among the sites welcoming visitors on October 8 and 14.
The open day is part of the annual Cambridge event, Open Eco Homes, and this year’s event features 13 innovative homes across Cambridge, Girton and Impington.
Visitors will have the chance to learn how to cut their energy use and create cosy dwellings by talking to ordinary householders who have already done it themselves.
The retrofits at each location are all very different. “What people get from an Open Eco Home tour is inspiration and good advice from people who have already done it,” explained organiser Allan Shepherd.
“As well as the tour, we make a guide for each home so people get the details of relevant contractors, technologies and techniques for creating the home they want.
“This year there will be an award-nominated home from German eco-constructors, Baufritz, impressive DIY and contractor-led renovations, a co-housing development and Pease House High Street in Girton, a beautiful family self-build with a rammed earth wall at the heart of a heat management system, regulating solar thermal gain.”
K1 Cambridge – now known as Marmalade Lane – will also be taking part. A community-inspired cohousing project currently under construction on Orchard Park in Cambridge – expected to be completed by June of next year – the scheme is backed by Cambridge City Council and offers a range of low-energy Swedish Trivselhus homes built around a shared space and large communal garden.
Notable for its environmental and energy efficient credentials, Marmalade Lane will open its doors, so to speak, on Saturday, October 14 for a talk and tour. The first scheduled tour – for 30 people at 3.30pm – booked up extremely quickly, so another has been arranged for 12pm.
Jan Chadwick, one of the directors of Cambridge Cohousing Ltd and a future resident of the development, told the Cambridge Independent: “We were asked by Allan about whether we would like to participate, and of course it’s a classic fit really for Marmalade Lane because the environmental credentials that we will have – the closed frame, the air-force heat pump, mechanical ventilation heat recovery, the fact that we will only have electricity on site, not gas – seemed very much linked to how we approach things, and also the fact that being cohousing we’ve got a shared economy.
“So it’s not just the eco nature of the homes we’re building that is of interest, but the fact that we’re going to be using collectively fewer resources as a group. We participated last year but didn’t have anything to show, other than a field!”
Jan continued: “This time we’re really excited because not only will we be doing the presentation, but we’ll have a bit of the frame to show people – our developer is sending a big chunk of frame down so people can look at the construction of a Trivselhus closed frame system.
“Also we’ll be able to take people around the site so they can actually see work in progress, and see how the whole thing is coming together.”
Billed as ‘Europe’s first eco-mosque’, Cambridge Mosque will boast a wide range of environmental features, from heat pumps to rainwater harvesting – as well as being an important and beautiful piece of architecture.
Award-nominated The Treehouse is built by Baufritz and features one of the most insulated factory constructed wall systems in Europe, as well as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and an array of other environmental features.
Technologies on display include Retrovive, an innovative underfloor insulation system by Devana Insulation.
Allan said: “Most of us are living in older houses that need improving. Our householders use a mixture of DIY and bought-in solutions like Retrovive underfloor insulation to make their homes more cosy and energy efficient.
“From simple and cheaper draught-proofing solutions to renewable energy, the range of ideas is quite impressive. Householders tend to combine the eco-retrofit work with other work that needs doing, building an extension, adding a dormer, replacing the roof. This makes economic and cosy sense.”
Along with the 3.30pm showing at Marmalade Lane, the tour at St Barnabas Road – the Baufritz-designed Treehouse with numerous ecological features – is also fully booked.
Visitors to Open Eco Homes can book tours via openecohomes.org or by calling 01223 301842. Homes are open on October 8 and 14 and offer four tours per day, with a maximum of eight people on each tour (except K1, which can take up to 30 people).
All tours are free.