Place-making and design

Countryside Properties is an industry leader in design quality and place making, and holds more CABE Building for Life Standards than any other private developer. Indeed we were the first housing developer to receive the most highly acclaimed architectural accolade of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 for Accordia, Cambridge.

Good design is good business

We believe that investment in good design is good business. It can generate economic, social and environmental value and is critically important in achieving sustainable development. We have a proven track record in producing high quality places to live and work. Places that people will enjoy and that will stand the test of time. Our individual design solutions work within their context to create places of character.

Our team has the commitment and experience to see quality design and place making delivered at our developments. Every home, commercial building, open space, community facility and street is carefully planned and designed with attention to detail. We work with leading architects and consultants, as well as our experienced in-house planning and design teams, to deliver imaginative design solutions for every development.

We consider the sustainability impact of design on the buildings we develop, on the places in which they are located and on all the stakeholders involved through the application of BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes, and previously EcoHomes. The lifecycle impact of the homes and buildings are also considered to ensure the respective impacts are lessened.

We recognise that good design substantially improves people’s quality of life. It increases a sense of civic pride, improves safety and security, and generates a feeling of belonging and social cohesion that helps to enable the development of community groups. In addition, access to green infrastructure such as open space and parkland can help to improve our physical and mental health by encouraging us to walk more, to play sport or simply to enjoy a green and natural environment.

Accordia, Cambridge

Added value through green infrastructure

High quality parks and public spaces create economic, social and environmental value. In research carried out for CABE, 85 per cent of people surveyed felt that the quality of public space and the built environment has a direct impact on their lives and on the way they feel. This is supported by a recent survey that we have undertaken which highlighted that the key factor that homeowners preferred, over a raft of other sustainable measures, was close proximity to parkland and green open spaces. Accordia in Cambridge is themed around the concept of 'living in a garden' and the existing mature landscape, which includes 700 trees, has been enhanced with new and diverse green spaces between the mews courts, greens and squares. The judges of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 said, “Beautifully thought-through houses are linked by a series of public, semi-public and private, but visible open spaces, making the whole development a joy to walk through.”

“Countryside Properties understands the importance of green space to people’s well being and quality of life.” Sir Terry Farrell CBE, Principal, Terry Farrell & Partners

By creating better places to live and work the Group is also demonstrating that well located and designed homes and workplaces are good for employees, businesses and the wider environment. We believe that affordable homes should be seamlessly integrated within a sustainable community and should not be recognisable by their built form or appearance.

Climate change adaptation

We are beginning to develop climate change adaptation strategies through the masterplanning of our sites and ‘future proofing’ the built forms. For example, our masterplans include low lying, green spaces to absorb flooding with minimal damage, as well as providing amenity space and improved habitats to enhance bio-diversity areas.

We recognise that the principles of good design, solar orientation and the provision of comfortable microclimates for residents, requires careful consideration and will become increasingly more important as climate change modelling demonstrates greater variation in seasonal weather patterns.

Recognition

Our approach to design quality is widely recognised by our stakeholders. Since 2001 we have received more than 110 awards for design quality. During this reporting period awards received include:

• RIBA Stirling Prize 2008 for Accordia, Cambridge – the first ever housing scheme to win this mostly highly coveted architectural award.
• Building for Life Gold Standard for Cliveden Village, Taplow and Building for Life Silver Standard for Coopers Road Estate, Southwark. These are our eighth and ninth Building for Life Standards for design and place making excellence which is more than any other private developer.
• RIBA National Award which ‘represents the best architecture in the United Kingdom’ for Accordia, Cambridge.
• RIBA Client of the Year – we were one of only three shortlisted organisations for the award which ‘honours the key role that a good client plays in the creation of fine architecture’.
• Joint Silver in ‘Best Large Housebuilder’ category of the What House? Awards 2008.
• In the Daily Telegraph 'Your New Home' Awards, Cliveden Village, Taplow was highly commended in the Best Retirement Home category and Priors Green, Takeley was commended in the Best Family Development category.
• In the Evening Standard New Homes Awards, Cliveden Village, Taplow received the Best New Apartment.

BREEAM & Code for Sustainable Homes

BREEAM, which includes EcoHomes, has been the recognised industry tool for assessing the environmental performance of new homes and commercial buildings for some years. We have had a long-term commitment to BREEAM/EcoHomes which has been unsurpassed in our sector. In this reporting period some 72% (2007 - 63%) of the homes we built achieved at least a 'Good' or better EcoHomes rating. This is greatly assisting us in developing solutions to met different levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes (the Code) and BREEAM.

We are in constant dialogue with Government and are sharing our experiences of delivering homes in accordance with BREEAM and the Code. More recently we have responded to the Code for Sustainable Buildings consultation document and will shortly be feeding back our observations on the Zero Carbon definition for homes and non-dwellings.

At this time, we believe along with our peer group that Code ambitions should be aligned with the target for all non-domestic buildings to be zero carbon by 2019. This would allow sufficient time for research, development and testing to ensure the reliability of new homes in future. Best practice has yet to be established. Indeed, the requisite innovations and practices carry high levels of risk which needs to be fully understood and mitigated, as far as is possible, in a timely manner. We believe that we must get to zero carbon responsibly. Looking ahead, we must continue to ensure that our industry delivers homes and buildings that improve people’s quality of life, minimises impact on the environment and are financially viable.

The Codes are useful in signalling future regulatory requirements. However, we are concerned that the majority of their criteria are repeated in Planning and/or Building Regulations, which results in repetition and unnecessary regulatory burden. This is adding significant additional costs, which is of course having a negative impact on the delivery of much needed new homes.

Setting demanding targets cannot be achieved solely through the use of new construction products. New and improved skills, project and construction management processes are also needed. This will involve us setting up an integrated project process, involving all members of the project team including key suppliers and sub-contractors in the planning, design and construction stages.

Cost savings

We are continuously evaluating where added value is being delivered most effectively and in 2008 we saved £2.434million through sustainability and supply chain improvements and a further £3.819million in 2007. An example of the Group supporting sustainable enterprises includes the procurement of 100% of paper and 78% of stationery products from sustainable sources.

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Richard Simmons, Chief Executive, CABE

Waterstone Park, Greenhithe, Kent

Cliveden Village, Taplow, Bucks

Sedgwick Street, Hackney, London

Accordia, Cambridge