Forum House wins Best Waste Initiative

Created on 18.12.2009

PRP, one of the UK’s leading architectural practices, in collaboration with Quintain, has won the prestigious Best Waste Initiative Award at this year’s Sustainable Housing Awards, which took place in London’s Hilton Hotel on Friday 23rd October.

The Award was presented to PRP and Quintain for their work in designing and developing Forum House, the first completed block in the Wembley City development. Forum House is the first completed mixed use block in Wembley City. It covers 21,000m² of residential space for 286 high quality residential apartments, 47% of which are mixed tenure affordable housing. The block also provides 1,350m² of retail and 750m² of community space, with a basement car park for 132 cars and 286 secure bicycle storage spaces (a 1/1 ratio of bike storage to units).

Forum House embodies a feeling of inclusion and community for residents and commercial tenants. The block’s massing wraps around a communal landscaped courtyard with activities for families. A break in its continuity to the south enables sunlight to flood the central space and apartments. Simultaneously, the design acts as an effective sound barrier against the noise from the streets and stadium.

The roof is formed from a flat metallic plane, which ‘folds down’ at the northwest corner, a landmark feature that seamlessly connects to the service yard of neighbouring Wembley Arena.

Forum House is also the first UK residential development to adopt the ENVAC system for waste disposal, eliminating the need for residents to use noisy and smelly rubbish chutes. Residents collect waste in their built-in kitchen bins to ensure the quantity fits easily into the system when they come to dispose of their waste at collection points positioned on each floor and in the courtyard at exit points. Each collection point has three separate chutes which look similar to a post box. Valves in the chutes are opened twice a day and the rubbish automatically transported through a fully enclosed vacuum system, at 50 mph, to a single collection station. Each holding point features a remote controlled valve which means only one pipe is needed for the three waste streams. Waste can be sucked from up to 2km away from the central collection point. The waste is sucked into a compactor before being deposited into a lorry sized container. These are collected by the council’s waste contractor.

Recycling figures for the first six months are 41.5%, which is actually double what LB Brent achieve elsewhere in the borough (they achieved 20.98% in 2008) and waste collection costs are reduced by 80%, along with vehicle movements and CO2 omissions in the process.

Of the accolade Andy von Bradsky Chairman of PRP, comments: “Forum House has been an important scheme for PRP. The waste recycling figures demonstrate the important role design and education can play in affecting how a building is used and positively affecting its carbon footprint. We’re delighted that the work of PRP and Quintain has been recognised and we are proud to have won the Waste Initiative Award.”

The Sustainable Housing Awards celebrate the projects and organisations at the vanguard of housing sustainability best practice. This year’s awards at the Hilton hotel were attended by a cross section of senior industry figures including representatives of government departments, chief executives of leading social housing providers and representatives of the main trade and professional bodies.