- Architecture
- Masterplanning
- Urban Design
- Landscape Architecture
- Interior Design
- Town Planning
- Project Management
- Environmental Services
Summit House
Date: 2005
A prototype utilising MMC
Client: English Partnerships
The ‘Summit House’, designed and fabricated in 14 weeks, was constructed in nine hours at the Creating Sustainable Communities Summit at GMEX, Manchester in January 2005.
PRP was asked by English Partnerships to develop a three-storey, demonstration townhouse utilising Fusion Building System’s light gauge steel frame technology. Not only did the house have to include best practices in terms of an ecohomes ‘excellent’ environmental rating but it also had to be designed for flexible living and changing lifestyles, with high levels of security, to provide an attractive, modern and above all, marketable home with broad appeal to builders and house buyers alike.
The three-storey townhouse has traditionally been one of the most demanding house types to get right. Our house has been designed to allow use of a clear-spanning floor structure, which allied to fire sprinklers, allows for full freedom to remove or introduce internal partitions in order to change room sizes and shapes. Additionally, the ground floor enables simple conversion into an office, hobby room or independent access as a separate flat.
In terms of environmental sustainability, the house has also been designed to incorporate a variety of systems that offer a high level of ‘upgradeability’. It is designed to allow the easy retro-fitting of items such as solar panels and new, more energy-efficient systems through the incorporation of an optimum roof pitch and easily accessible service ducts. Additional features such as winter gardens, use of passive warming and cooling, water saving or grey water technologies can all be easily incorporated.
As a prototype for future housing projects, we are able to demonstrate how off-site manufactured houses can successfully fulfil the many requirements of modern housing cost effectively without compromising on design, build or quality. Many elements of our prototype are now being considered for housing schemes in Allerton Bywater, one of English Partnership’s Millennium Communities.