Knoll House

Knoll House

Energy and Sustainability Services

Brighton and Hove

Knoll House will provide long-term and affordable accommodation with support for people with physical disabilities and brain injuries. The scheme will deliver 28 apartments for independent living, together with associated communal space, and accommodation for staff who will provide 24-hour on-site management.

Some units will be specifically for people aged 18 to 25 and two of the new flats will be designed for bariatric residents. All apartments have been designed to be wheelchair accessible as a response to strong local demand for such accommodation.

Our Energy & Sustainability teams collaborated to deliver design modelling and consultancy that guided the successful design of this award-winning development, comprising 28 independent living flats, communal spaces, and staff accommodation.

Our scope included Energy Modelling, Overheating Risk Analysis, Internal Daylight, Daylight Impact Assessment and Whole Life Carbon assessment.

Brighton and Hove City Council are committed to providing new low carbon homes to help meet the UK’s climate change targets. The Knoll House strategy has followed the energy hierarchy to ensure that this new development reduces carbon emissions and delivers on sustainability. The use of technologies in combination with thoughtful passive design, improved levels of insulation and improved air permeability will allow the building to achieve a reduction in carbon emissions.

The proposed development is expected to reduce on-site regulated carbon emissions by 78%. The strategies that have been adopted include:

• The re-development of a previously inefficient building into a building sustainable in design and location
• Maximisation of energy and carbon dioxide emission reduction following the energy hierarchy through enhanced building fabric, low air permeability, use of MVHR and energy efficient lighting
• Integration of a communal heat pump strategy to supply heating and hot water together with a photovoltaic array for additional carbon reduction
• Enhance ecology and biodiversity on site, achieving Biodiversity Net Gain with associated landscaping in communal amenity spaces
• Accessible allotments for growing garden opportunities are provided in the roof terrace gardens reflecting the community growing garden on site
• Use of responsibly sourced materials with low embodied carbon including a green roof with integrated PV panels on the uppermost level
• The potential risk of overheating will be mitigated by passive design responses including inset balconies and open deck walkway to provide shading of the apartment windows. While good daylight and sunlight levels are maintained
• SuDS strategies include a below ground gravity drainage and soakaways In summary, the proposed development at Knoll House exceeds the targets set out by BHCC Policy. The sustainability measures incorporated reflect the client and design team’s aspirations in integrating sustainability measures at the heart of the design.